A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 by Robert Kerr

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Where intemperance produces no diseases, there will be no physicians by
profession; yet where there is sufferance, there will always be attempts
to relieve; and where the cause of the mischief and the remedy are alike
unknown, these will naturally be directed by superstition: Thus it
happens, that in this country, and in all others which are not further
injured by luxury, or improved by knowledge, the management of the sick
falls to the lot of the priest. The method of cure that is practised by
the priests of Otaheite, consists chiefly of prayers and ceremonies.
When he visits his patient he repeats certain sentences, which appear to
be set forms contrived for the occasion, and at the same time plaits the
leaves of the cocoa-nut into different figures very neatly; some of
these he fastens to the fingers and toes of the sick, and often leaves
behind him a few branches of the the _specia populnea_, which they call
_E'midho_: These ceremonies are repeated till the patient recovers or
dies. If he recovers, they say the remedies cured him, if he dies, they
say the disease was incurable, in which perhaps they do not much differ
from the custom of other countries.[27]

[Footnote 27: Dr Hawkesworth, we see, is at loggerheads with both
priests and physicians, and spares neither. Let the respective members
of these bodies defend their crafts as they best can. Certainly they
will have the bias of the multitude in their favour, and so need to care
little about the insinuations and sarcasms of the few. If nine-tenths of
mankind give them credit for their pretences, and of consequence yield
to their influence, they may contentedly, without a grudge, see the
remaining modicum persist in their obstinacy. The fact is, however, that
the fears and hopes of mankind are almost always superior in efficacy to
their reason, and accordingly, in the two predicaments of bodily and
spiritual health, are continually acting like tendrils which embrace
with undistinguishing affection whatever comes in their way, as the ivy
clings to the tree or wall that happens to be in its neighbourhood.
Influence, once acquired by accident or artifice, is easily prolonged by
him who knows the secret of its origin and existence--and hence in all
ages and countries of the world, the mysteries and mummeries of
designing men, leagued to practise on the infatuated propensities and
real weaknesses of their fellow creatures. It is not till many
generations have passed, that the small sparks of reason, occasionally
shooting off in various directions, have penetrated the gloomy
atmosphere around them, and ascertained the universal and unqualified
dependence of the whole human race on the same uncontroulable powers. In
proportion as these rays of light have coalesced, the presumption of the
_learned brethren_ has decreased; and should this superlative discovery
be ever consummated in the general conviction of society, then will
their characters undergo a thorough revolution--they will be loved more
and admired less--they will be considered, not as the repositories of
secrets to be dispensed with the cold hand of calculating avarice and
hypocrisy, but as the liberally minded declarers of those generally
beneficial truths which honest study has discovered, in their peculiar
departments of science. Till then the world must submit to wonder and
believe, and, above all things, to pay them fees. But, looking forward
to this era of improvement, they may join with the poet in saying

Yes! there are hearts, prophetic Hope may trust,
That slumber yet in uncreated dust,
Ordain'd to fire th' adoring sons of earth
With every charm of wisdom and of worth;
Ordain'd to light, with intellectual day,
The mazy wheels of Nature as they play.--E.]

If we had judged of their skill in surgery from the dreadful scars which
we sometimes saw, we should have supposed it to be much superior to the
art not only of their physicians, but of ours. We saw one man whose face
was almost entirely destroyed, his nose, including the bone, was
perfectly flat, and one cheek and one eye were so beaten in that the
hollow would almost receive a man's fist, yet no ulcer remained; and our
companion, Tupia, had been pierced quite through his body by a spear
headed with the bone of the sting-ray, the weapon having entered his
back, and come out just under his breast; but, except in reducing
dislocations and fractures, the best surgeon can contribute very little
to the cure of a wound; the blood itself is the best vulnerary balsam,
and when the juices of the body are pure, and the patient is temperate,
nothing more is necessary as an aid to nature in the cure of the worst
wound, than the keeping it clean.

Their commerce with the inhabitants of Europe has, however, already
entailed upon them that dreadful curse which avenged the inhumanities
committed by the Spaniards in America, the venereal disease. As it is
certain that no European vessel besides our own, except the Dolphin, and
the two that were under the command of Mons. Bougainville, ever visited
this island, it must have been brought either by one of them or by
us.[28] That it was not brought by the Dolphin, Captain Wallis has
demonstrated in the account of her voyage, and nothing is more certain
than that when we arrived, it had made most dreadful ravages in the
island. One of our people contracted it within five days after we went
on shore; and by the enquiries among the natives, which this occasioned,
we learnt, when we came to understand a little of their language, that
it had been brought by the vessels which had been there about fifteen
months before us, and had lain on the east side of the island. They
distinguished it by a name of the same import with _rottenness_, but of
a more extensive signification, and described, in the most pathetic
terms, the sufferings of the first victims to its rage, and told us that
it caused the hair and the nails to fall off, and the flesh to rot from
the bones; that it spread a universal terror and consternation among
them, so that the sick were abandoned by their nearest relations, lest
the calamity should spread by contagion, and left to perish alone in
such misery as till then had never been known among them. We had some
reason, however, to hope that they had found out a specific to cure it:
During our stay upon the island we saw none in whom it had made a great
progress, and one who went from us infected, returned after a short time
in perfect health; and by this it appeared, either that the disease had
cured itself, or that they were not unacquainted with the virtues of
simples, nor implicit dupes to the superstitious follies of their
priests. We endeavoured to learn the medical qualities which they
imputed to their plants, but our knowledge of their language was too
imperfect for us to succeed. If we could have learnt their specific for
the venereal disease, if such they have, it would have been of great
advantage to us, for when we left the island it had been contracted by
more than half the people on board the ship.

[Footnote 28: Bougainville most positively asserts, that the disease
existed in the island at his arrival; yet the statement of Wallis as to
the _soundness_ of his crew, seems deserving of all credit. After all,
perhaps, there is reason to doubt if the affection judged to be the Lues
Venerea, and at different times so exceedingly prevalent among these
people, were really so. Scientific men of the medical profession, know
the extreme difficulty there is of deciding, as to the existence of this
disease in certain cases. Common observers easily perceive and
confidently aver. But to the general reader the discussion of this topic
would be very unamusing. It is indeed quite irrelevant to the objects of
this work. But there may be some propriety in giving the following
remarks. The origin of the disease in question has never been distinctly
ascertained, and perhaps never will be. The common opinion is, that it
was brought from the western hemisphere; and the island of Hispaniola or
St Domingo is particularly mentioned by some writers as the place of its
first appearance. Hence the historian Robertson, with somewhat more of
unnecessary vehemence than of dignified moderation and good sense, tells
us in words very like part of our text: "One dreadful malady, the
severest scourge with which, in this life, offended heaven chastens the
indulgence of criminal desire, seems to have been peculiar to the
Americans. By communicating it to their conquerors, they have not only
amply avenged their own wrongs, but by adding this calamity to those
which formerly embittered human life, they have, perhaps, more than
counterbalanced all the benefits which Europe has derived from the
discovery of the New World." As if a disease which every body might have
avoided, so soon as its existence, its inveterate nature, and the mode
of communicating it, were known, and which, after all that has been said
of its malignity and rapid progress, was both mitigated by various means
soon after its appearance, and ultimately at no great distance of time
effectually arrested in its terrifying career--as if this could be
considered competent to liquidate all the advantages and the greatly
augmented comforts which have resulted to Europe and to the world at
large by the discoveries of Columbus: And as if, granting all that has
been exaggeratingly related of its spreading over Europe with the
celerity and unqualified extension of an epidemic--such visitation on
multitudes of generations no way implicated in the guilt, could by any
rules of logic for the interpreting of Providence be construed into acts
of righteous retribution in avenging these Indians! But in reality, it
is highly disputable if the facts on which is exhibited such an
_uncommonly_ zealous display of justice on the part of the historian,
are adequate to warrant his opinion, that America inflicted this
calamity. This is rather unfortunate for his apparent warmth of piety,
and the more so, as, from the information to which he alludes in his
note on the text, he must have been diffident at least of the accuracy
of its application. In that note, he makes mention of a dissertation
published in 1765, by Dr Antonio Sanchez Ribeiro, in which it is
endeavoured to be proved that the venereal disease took its rise in
Europe, and was brought on by an epidemical and malignant disorder.
Though calling in question some of the facts on which this opinion is
built, the Principal allows that it "is supported with such plausible
arguments, as render it (what? deserving of considerable regard, or very
probable? No such thing--as render it) a subject of enquiry well
deserving the attention of learned physicians!" Mr Bryan Edwards is more
moderate in his judgment of the matter, and seemingly more industrious
in ascertaining the evidence of it. In his opinion, an attentive
enquirer will hesitate to subscribe to the conclusion that this
infection was the product of the West Indies. He refers to the work of
Sanchez above mentioned, and to several other works, for reasons to
substantiate the other view; and he terminates his note with the
following paragraph, which by most readers will be considered of
superlative authority as to one important part of the case: In Stowe's
Survey of London, vol. ii. p. 7, is preserved a copy of the rules or
regulations established by parliament in the eighth year of Henry the
Second, for the government of the licensed stews in Southwark, among
which I find the following: "No stewholder to keep any woman that hath
the perilous infirmity of burning." This was 330 years before the voyage
of Columbus. If this "perilous infirmity of burning" be the disease now
denominated the Lues Venerea, the question is solved as to the concern
of America in its production. And all that Oviedo, Guicciardin,
Charlevoix, and others say, as to its first appearance in Europe, when
the king of Spain sent an army to the assistance of Ferdinand the Second
of Naples, must be reckoned as applicable only to its greater frequency,
or more common occurrence, than had before been known. But, indeed, the
description given of the disease which then prevailed so alarmingly, is
with some difficulty reconcileable to what is now ascertained of the
venereal infection. Guicciardin himself seems to hint at a diversity in
its form and mode of reception, betwixt the period he assigns for its
appearance, and "after the course of many years." "For then," says he,
(the quotation is made from Fenton's curious translation, London, 1599)
"the disease began to be less malitious, changing itself into diverse
kindes of infirmity, _differing from the first calamity_, whereof truly
the regions and people of our times might justly complain, _if it
happened to them without their proper disorder_ (that is, without their
own fault,) seeing it is well approved by all those that have diligently
studied and observed the properties of that evil, that either never or
very rarely it happeneth to any otherwayes, than by contagious whoredome
or immoderate incontinency." That a mistake exists in the early accounts
as to the nature of the disease which was found at Hispaniola by the
Spaniards, and by them on their return to Europe communicated to the
French and Neapolitans, is very probable from the circumstance mentioned
in them, that some vegetable substances, especially _guiaicum_, were
effectual for its cure;--since it is most certain, that the Lues Venerea
of modern times is not at all destructible by such means, whereas there
are several cutaneous affections which may be benefited by them. A
similar remark may be made respecting the disease observable at
Otaheite, which, as the reader will find in the text, is said to have
been cured by _simples_ known to the inhabitants. This is most unlikely,
if that disease were really the Lues Venerea, as is alleged, and had not
existed among them previous to the arrival of Europeans; though what
Lawson says in his account of the natives of North Carolina does
undoubtedly yield material evidence to such an opinion. "They cure,"
says he, "the pox, which is frequent among them, by a berry that
salivates, as mercury does; yet they use sweating and decoctions very
much with it; as they do, almost on every occasion; and when they are
thoroughly heated, they leap into the river." The natives of Madagascar
too are said to cure this disease by similar treatment. But the reader's
patience, perhaps, is exhausted, and it is full time to conclude this
long note. On the whole, it seems probable enough, that this disease is
not the product of any one particular country, and from it propagated
among others by communication, but is the result of certain
circumstances not indeed yet ascertained, but common to the human race,
and of earlier occurrence in the world than is generally imagined.--E.]

It is impossible but that, in relating incidents, many particulars with
respect to the customs, opinions, and works of these people should be
anticipated; to avoid repetition therefore, I shall only supply
deficiencies. Of the manner of disposing of their dead much has been
said already. I must more explicitly observe, that there are two places
in which the dead are deposited; one a kind of shed, where the flesh is
suffered to putrify; the other an inclosure, with erections of stone,
where the bones are afterwards buried. The sheds are called _Tupapow_
and the inclosures _Morai_. The Morais are also places of worship.[29]

[Footnote 29: "It is the heaviest stone," says Sir Thomas Brown in his
curious work Hydriotaphia, "that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell
him he is at the end of his nature; or that there is no farther state to
come, unto which this seems progressional, and otherwise made in vain."
But of such a conspiracy and assault against the best hopes of man,
these Otaheitans, we see, are by no means guilty. They look for another
existence after that one is finished, in which the body held an
inseparable companionship. By their mode of treating the dead, they seem
to study the perpetuity of friendship, and by their using their morais
as places of worship, they acknowledge a fellowship with them in
something that death cannot destroy. The philosopher of modern times may
say this is foolish, and may call for evidence that the notion of
immortality is not groundless. It is perhaps impossible to satisfy him,
because, in fact, he demands of reason what it is not the province of
reason to afford. The notion is founded on other principles of the
constitution which God has imparted to man, and these principles rebut
all the sophistry of the presumptuous sciolist. Is it true, that this
notion prevails universally among the human race? Let him answer to
this. He must admit it;--let him then explain it, if he can. Reason, he
will say, is incompetent to the task.--Admitted. But so is it to many
other tasks--it cannot, for instance, solve the question, why we believe
the sun will rise to-morrow and dispel the darkness now cloaking over
the horizon? The hope that it will do so, is nevertheless very natural.
Who shall say it is improper, or that it is founded on the mere fancy of
man? Reason indeed may strengthen the ground of this hope, and so may it
too the notion of a future existence. But they both rest on foundations
quite distinct from that faculty, and might, for any thing can be seen
to the contrary, have formed part of our moral constitution, although
that faculty had never existed in our minds. And here let it be
distinctly understood, that in stating the notion or expectation of a
future existence to be founded on some principle or principles separate
from reason, and the same in all the human race, it is not meant to be
denied that the mere opinions as to the nature and condition of that
existence may have no other foundation whatever than what Mr Hume, for
instance, has ascribed erroneously to the notion itself--men's own
conceit and imagination. This in fact is the secret of that writer's
vile sophistry on the subject, and at once confutes it, by proving the
inapplicability of his argument. All that is now contended for, is, the
universality of the notion or belief, not by any means the similarity of
the opinions connected with it. These opinions are as numerous, indeed,
as the characteristic features of different nations and governments; but
were they a thousand times more diversified than they are ascertained to
be, and a thousand times more contradictory and absurd, they still
recognise some instinctive or constitutional principle common to our
race, and which no reasoning or artifices of priests or designing men
could possibly produce. No conceit or imagination can ever originate,
though it may certainly foster, "this hope, this fond desire, this
longing after immortality;" and no reasoning, no efforts of the mind,
nay, what is still more striking, no dislike, however strong, as
proceeding from an apprehension of some evil consequences involved in
the truth of the belief, can eradicate the inclination to entertain it.
In short, it is no way paradoxical to assert, that, were man by any
means to know that there shall be no hereafter, his whole life,
supposing his constitution to remain the same, would be a direct and
continued contradiction to his knowledge. This, to be sure, would be a
strange anomaly in the government of God, and utterly irreconcileable
with every view we can form of his veracity, if we may use the
expression, though still consistent with his wisdom and goodness. But
what then shall we say of the conduct of the would-be philosophers, who,
with limited faculties and intelligences and benevolence, (this is no
disparagement, for even Voltaire himself, with all his powers, was but a
finite creature!) force reason and science to prove what their own
feelings belie, and to oppose what their consciences declare to be
irresistible? It is not profane, on such an occasion, to accommodate the
language of an apostle into a suitable rebuke to such perverse
contenders. "What if some labour not to believe, shall their attempts
frustrate the work of God? Far be it--God will maintain his truth,
though all men should conspire against it." Allowing then free scope to
a notion so natural to us, and having our opinions guided by an unerring
light, we shall see that there is something vastly more dignified than
fashion in the funeral rites of the Otaheitans--and feel that there is
something vastly more important than eloquence, in the words of an
author already quoted at the commencement of this note:--"Man is a noble
animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing
nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of
bravery, in the infancy of his nature;"--the reason for which is
explained by another author, in words still more sublime and
exhilarating:--"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens."--E.]

As soon as a native of Otaheite is known to be dead, the house is filled
with relations, who deplore their loss, some by loud lamentations, and
some by less clamorous, but more genuine expressions of grief. Those who
are in the nearest degree of kindred, and are really affected by the
event, are silent; the rest are one moment uttering passionate
exclamations in a chorus, and the next laughing and talking without the
least appearance of concern. In this manner the remainder of the day on
which they assemble is spent, and all the succeeding night. On the next
morning the body is shrouded in their cloth, and conveyed to the seaside
upon a bier, which the bearers support upon their shoulders, attended by
the priest, who having prayed over the body, repeats his sentences
during the procession: When it arrives at the water's edge, it is set
down upon the beach; the priest renews his prayers, and taking up some
of the water in his hands, sprinkles it towards the body, but not upon
it. It is then carried back forty or fifty yards, and soon after brought
again to the beach, where the prayers and sprinkling are repeated: It is
thus removed backwards and forwards several times, and while these
ceremonies have been performing, a house has been built, and a small
space of ground railed in. In the centre of this house, or Tupapow,
posts are set up to support the bier, which is at length conveyed
thither, and placed upon it, and here the body remains to putrify till
the flesh is wholly wasted from the bones.

These houses of corruption are of a size proportioned to the rank of the
person whose body they are to contain; those allotted to the lower class
are just sufficient to cover the bier, and have no railing round them.
The largest we ever saw was eleven yards long, and such as these are
ornamented according to the abilities and inclination of the surviving
kindred, who never fail to lay a profusion of good cloth about the body,
and sometimes almost cover the outside of the house. Garlands of the
fruit of the palm-nut, or _pandanus_, and cocoa leaves, twisted by the
priests in mysterious knots, with a plant called by them _Ethee no
Morai_, which is particularly consecrated to funeral solemnities, are
deposited about the place; provision and water are also left at a little
distance, of which, and of other decorations, a more particular
description has been given already.

As soon as the body is deposited in the Tupapow, the mourning is
renewed. The women assemble, and are led to the door by the nearest
relation, who strikes a shark's tooth several times into the crown of
her head: The blood copiously follows, and is carefully received upon
pieces of linen, which are thrown under the bier. The rest of the women
follow this example, and the ceremony is repeated at the interval of two
or three days, as long as the zeal and sorrow of the parties hold out.
The tears also which are shed upon these occasions, are received upon
pieces of cloth, and offered as oblations to the dead: Some of the
younger people cut off their hair, and that is thrown under the bier
with the other offerings. This custom is founded upon a notion that the
soul of the deceased, which they believe to exist in a separate state,
is hovering about the place where the body is deposited; that it
observes the actions of the survivors, and is gratified by such
testimonies of their affection and grief.

Two or three days after these ceremonies have been commenced by the
women, during which the men seem to be wholly insensible of their loss,
they also begin to perform their part. The nearest relations take it in
turn to assume the dress, and perform the office which have already been
particularly described in the account of Tubourai Tamaide's having acted
as chief mourner to an old woman, his relation, who died while we were
in the island. One part of the ceremony, however, which accounts for the
running away of the people as soon as this procession is in sight, has
not been mentioned. The chief mourner carries in his hand a long flat
stick, the edge of which is set with shark's teeth, and in a phrenzy,
which his grief is supposed to have inspired, he runs at all he sees,
and if any of them happen to be overtaken, he strikes them most
unmercifully with this indented cudgel, which cannot fail to wound them
in a dangerous manner.