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

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These processions continue at certain intervals for five moons, but are
less and less frequent, by a gradual diminution, as the end of that time
approaches. When it is expired, what remains of the body is taken down
from the bier, and the bones having been scraped and washed very clean,
are buried, according to the rank of the person, either within or
without a morai: If the deceased was an earee, or chief, his skull is
not buried with the rest of the bones, but is wrapped up in fine cloth,
and put in a kind of box made for that purpose, which is also placed in
the morai. This coffer is called _ewharre no te orometua_, the house of
a teacher or master. After this the mourning ceases, except some of the
women continue to be really afflicted for the loss, and in that case
they will sometimes suddenly wound themselves with the shark's tooth
wherever they happen to be: This perhaps will account for the passion
of grief in which Terapo wounded herself at the fort; some accidental
circumstance might forcibly revive the remembrance of a friend or
relation whom she had lost, with a pungency of regret and tenderness
which forced a vent by tears, and prompted her to a repetition of the
funeral rite.

The ceremonies, however, do not cease with the mourning: Prayers are
still said by the priest, who is well paid by the surviving relations,
and offerings made at the morai. Some of the things, which from time to
time are deposited there, are emblematical: A young plantain represents
the deceased, and the bunch of feathers the deity who is invoked. The
priest places himself over against the symbol of the god, accompanied by
some of the relations, who are furnished with a small offering, and
repeats his oraison in a set form, consisting of separate sentences; at
the same time weaving the leaves of the cocoa-nut into different forms,
which he afterwards deposits upon the ground where the bones have been
interred; the deity is then addressed by a shrill screech, which is used
only upon that occasion. When the priest retires, the tuft of feathers
is removed, and the provisions left to putrify, or be devoured by the
rats.[30]

[Footnote 30: There is something very remarkable in the circumstance of
resemblance among very different and distant people, as to the practice
of mourning for the dead, when in fact there can be no such thing as
grief in existence, and when the appearance of it is merely a part of
what may be called professional duty. It is clear from the accounts of
the text and other authorities, that more are concerned in this mourning
work at Otaheite, than are really concerned in the occasion of it; and
the probability of course is, that in some way or other these additional
attendants are recompensed for their doleful services. That the use of
mercenary mourners prevailed, and still prevails, among some eastern
nations, is clear from Scripture and the relations of recent authors.
The reader will find some amusing information concerning them, and an
account of the Caoinan or funeral cry of the Irish as practised for
similar purposes, in Dr A. Clarke's edition of Mr Harmer's Observations,
before alluded to. A quotation from that work can scarcely fail to
interest the reader, who will be afterwards favoured with a very curious
description of what is said by Lawson to have been practised in North
Carolina, in which the general point of resemblance is most strikingly
displayed.--"Not only do the relations and female friends, in Egypt,
surround the corpse, while it remains unburied, with the most bitter
cries, scratching and beating their faces so violently as to make them
bloody, and black, and blue; but, to render the hubbub more complete,
and do the more honour to the dead person, whom they seem to imagine to
be very fond of noise, those of the lower class of people are wont to
call in, on these occasions, certain _women_, who play on tabors, and
whose business it is to sing mournful airs to the sound of this
instrument, which they accompany with a thousand distortions of their
limbs, as frightful as those of people possessed by the devil. These
women attend the corpse to the grave intermixed with the relations and
friends of the deceased, who commonly have their hair in the utmost
disorder, like the frantic Bacchanalian women of the ancient heathens,
their heads covered with dust, their faces daubed with indigo, or at
least rubbed with mud, and howling like mad people." Now let us hear
Lawson.--"These savages all agree in their mourning, which is to appear,
every night, at the sepulchre, and howl and weep in a very dismal
manner, having their faces daubed over with light-wood soot, (which is
the same as lamp-black) and bears-oil. This renders them as black as it
is possible to make themselves, so that their's very much resemble the
faces of executed men boiled in tar. If the dead person was a grandee,
to carry on the funeral ceremonies, they hire people to cry and lament
over the dead man. Of this sort there are several, that practise it for
a livelihood, and are very expert at shedding abundance of tears, and
howling like wolves, and so discharging their office with abundance of
hypocrisy and art." The reader will meet with a pretty full account of
the funeral ceremonies among some of the eastern nations, in Dr Scott's
introduction to his recent edition of the Arabian Nights
Entertainments.--E.]

Of the religion of these people, we were not able to acquire any clear
and consistent knowledge: We found it like the religion of most other
countries, involved in mystery, and perplexed with apparent
inconsistencies. The religious language is also here, as it is in China,
different from that which is used in common; so that Tupia, who took
great pains to instruct us, having no words to express his meaning which
we understood, gave us lectures to very little purpose: What we learnt,
however, I will relate with as much perspicuity as I can.

Nothing is more obvious to a rational being, however ignorant or stupid,
than that the universe and its various parts, as far as they fall under
his notice, were produced by some agent inconceivably more powerful than
himself; and nothing is more difficult to be conceived, even by the most
sagacious and knowing, than the production of them from nothing, which
among us is expressed by the word _Creation_. It is natural therefore,
as no Being apparently capable of producing the universe is to be seen,
that he should be supposed to reside in some distant part of it, or to
be in his nature invisible, and that he should have originally produced
all that now exists in a manner similar to that in which nature is
renovated by the succession of one generation to another; but the idea
of procreation includes in it that of two persons, and from the
conjunction of two persons these people imagine every thing in the
universe either originally or derivatively to proceed.

The Supreme Deity, one of these two first beings, they call
_Taroataihetoomoo_, and the other, whom they suppose to have been a
rock, _Tepapa_. A daughter of these was _Tettowmatatayo_, the year, or
thirteen months collectively, which they never name but upon this
occasion, and she, by the common father, produced the months, and the
months, by conjunction with each other, the days; the stars they suppose
partly to be the immediate offspring of the first pair, and partly to
have increased among themselves; and they have the same notion with
respect to the different species of plants. Among other progeny of
Taroataihetoomoo and Tepapa, they suppose an inferior race of deities
whom they call _Eatuas_. Two of these Eatuas, they say, at some remote
period of time, inhabited the earth, and were the parents of the first
man. When this man, their common ancestor, was born, they say that he
was round like a ball, but that his mother, with great care, drew out
his limbs, and having at length moulded him into his present form, she
called him _Eothe_, which signifies _finished_. That being prompted by
the universal instinct to propagate his kind, and being able to find no
female but his mother, he begot upon her a daughter, and upon the
daughter other daughters for several generations, before there was a
son; a son, however, being at length born, he, by the assistance of his
sisters, peopled the world.

Besides their daughter Tettowmatatayo, the first progenitors of nature
had a son whom they called _Tane_. Taroataihetoomoo, the Supreme Deity,
they emphatically style the causer of earthquakes; but their prayers are
more generally addressed to Tane, whom they suppose to take a greater
part in the affairs of mankind.

Their subordinate deities or Eatuas, which are numerous, are of both
sexes: The male are worshipped by the men, and the female by the women;
and each have morais to which the other sex is not admitted, though they
have also morais common to both. Men perform the office of priest to
both sexes, but each sex has its priests, for those who officiate for
one sex do not officiate for the other.[31]

[Footnote 31: In several respects the theological notions of these
islanders resemble those of the oriental philosophers, spoken of in
Mosheim's Historical Account of the Church in the First Century, to
which the curious reader is referred. The Otaheitan Eatuas and the
Gnostic [Greek] seem near a-kin; the generation scheme is common to
both. What said the philosophers? The Supreme Being, after passing many
ages in silence and inaction, did at length beget of himself, two beings
of very excellent nature like his own; these, by some similar operation,
produced others, who having the same desires and ability, soon generated
more, till the [Greek], or whole space inhabited by them, was
completely occupied. A sort of inferior beings proceeded from these, and
were considered by the worshippers as intermediate betwixt themselves
and the upper gods. But enough of this trash. Let certain infatuated
admirers of ancient philosophy blush, if they are capable of such an
indication of modesty, to find that the rude and tin-lettered
inhabitants of an island in the South-Sea, are not a whit behind their
venerated sages in the manufacture of gods and godlings. Alas, poor
Gibbon! must the popular religion of Otaheite, the licentious, the
dissolute, the child-murdering, the _unnatural_ Otaheite, be put on a
level with the elegant mythology of Homer, and the mild, serviceable
superstition of imperial Rome? Why not? Is it fitting that even Otaheite
be excluded the benefit of this very impartial historian's humane maxim,
which he puts into the mouths of the Lords of the earth; "in every
country, the form of superstition, which has received the sanction of
time and experience, is the best adapted to the climate and to its
inhabitants?" By all means, give Taroataihetoomoo, Tepapa, and
Tettowmatatayo, the _freedom of the city_--only clip their names a
little for the conveniency of the liberal-minded catholics who may
desire their acquaintance.--E.]

They believe the immortality of the soul, at least its existence in a
separate state, and that there are two situations of different degrees
of happiness, somewhat analogous to our heaven and hell: The superior
situation they call _Tavirua Perai_, the other _Tiahoboo_. They do not,
however, consider them as places of reward and punishment, but as
receptacles for different classes; the first, for their chiefs and
principal people, the other for those of inferior rank, for they do not
suppose that their actions here in the least influence their future
state, or indeed that they come under the cognizance of their deities at
all. Their religion, therefore, if it has no influence upon their
morals, is at least disinterested; and their expressions of adoration
and reverence, whether by words or actions, arise only from a humble
sense of their own inferiority, and the ineffable excellence of divine
perfection.

The character of the priest, or Tahowa, is hereditary: The class is
numerous, and consists of all ranks of people; the Chief, however, is
generally the younger brother of a good family, and is respected in a
degree next to their kings: Of the little knowledge that is possessed in
this country, the priests have the greatest share; but it consists
principally in an acquaintance with the names and ranks of the different
Eatuas or subordinate divinities, and the opinions concerning the origin
of things, which have been traditionally preserved among the order in
detached sentences, of which some will repeat an incredible number,
though but very few of the words that are used in their common dialect
occur in them.

The priests, however, are superior to the rest of the people in the
knowledge of navigation and astronomy, and indeed the name Tahowa
signifies nothing more than a man of knowledge. As there are priests of
every class, they officiate only among that class to which they belong:
The priest of the inferior class is never called upon by those of
superior rank, nor will the priest of the superior rank officiate for
any of the inferior class.

Marriage in this island, as appeared to us, is nothing more than an
agreement between the man and woman, with which the priest has no
concern. Where it is contracted it appears to be pretty well kept,
though sometimes the parties separate by mutual consent, and in that
case a divorce takes place with as little trouble as the marriage.

But though the priesthood has laid the people under no tax for a nuptial
benediction, there are two operations which it has appropriated, and
from which it derives considerable advantages. One is _tattowing_, and
the other circumcision, though neither of them have any connection with
religion. The tattowing has been described already. Circumcision has
been adopted merely from motives of cleanliness; it cannot indeed
properly be called circumcision, because the _prepuce_ is not mutilated
by a circular wound, but only slit through the upper part to prevent its
contracting over the _glans_. As neither of these can be performed by
any but a priest, and as to be without either is the greatest disgrace,
they may be considered as a claim to surplice fees like our marriages
and christenings, which are cheerfully and liberally paid, not according
to any settled stipend, but the rank and abilities of the parties or
their friends.

The morai, as has already been observed, is at once a burying-ground and
a place of worship, and in this particular our churches too much
resemble it. The Indian, however, approaches his morai with a reverence
and humility that disgraces the christian, not because he holds any
thing sacred that is there, but because he there worships an invisible
divinity, for whom, though he neither hopes for reward, nor fears
punishment, at his hand, he always expresses the profoundest homage and
most humble adoration. I have already given a very particular
description both of the morais and the altars that are placed near them.
When an Indian is about to worship at the morai, or brings his offering
to the altar, he always uncovers his body to the waist, and his looks
and attitude are such as sufficiently express a corresponding
disposition of mind.[32]

[Footnote 32: Almost all the particulars now and afterwards stated _in
favour_ of the Otaheitans, are fully allowed by recent accounts,
especially that of the Missionary Voyage already noticed.--E.]

It did not appear to us that these people are, in any instance, guilty
of idolatry; at least they do not worship any thing that is the work of
their hands, nor any visible part of the creation. This island indeed,
and the rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron, and
others a king's fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and
concerning which they have some superstitious notions with respect to
good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and robin-red-breast,
giving them the name of _Eatua_, and by no means killing or molesting
them; yet they never address a petition to them, or approach them with
any act of adoration.[33]

[Footnote 33: The account now given of the religion of the Otaheitans is
imperfect in point of information; and it must be held erroneous as to
principle, by all who chuse to derive their knowledge on the subject of
man's relation to his Maker, from the sacred Scriptures alone. The
imperfections were the consequence of the very limited acquaintance with
these islanders, which existed at the time, and may be readily filled up
on the authority of subsequent observers. As to the erroneousness of
principle, it may suffice for the enlightened reader to remind him, that
as the Supreme Being himself is the only object of worship, so every
other one that is worshipped in place of him, whether made by the hands
of men, or found made by nature, or conceived to exist, is virtually and
essentially an idol. It follows from this, that idolatry is much more
prevalent than is usually imagined, and is by no means confined to
nations in a barbarous or semi-barbarous state. The worshippers of
reason, or virtue, or taste, or fashion, or nature, or one's own
goodness and piety, or the spiritual entities of philosophers and
religionists, are as truly idolaters as the worshippers of the grand
lama in Thibet, or the economical sect in Lapland, who content
themselves with the largest stone they can find. Mr Hume, who has been
at such pains to enquire into the natural history of religion, is most
unnecessarily cautious as to the qualifying of one of his most important
assertions on the subject of the prevalence of idolaters. "The savage
tribes of America, Africa, and Asia," says he, "are all idolaters. Not a
single exception to this rule. Insomuch, that, were a traveller to
transport himself into any unknown region; if he found inhabitants
cultivated with arts and sciences, though even upon that supposition
there are odds against their being theists, yet could he not safely,
till further enquiry, pronounce any thing on that head; but if he found
them ignorant and barbarous, he might beforehand declare them idolaters;
and there is scarcely a possibility of his being mistaken." He might
have said with perfect confidence, that a traveller would scarcely find
one person in a thousand amid all the tribes of the earth, who was
entitled to be considered as a pure theist, or at least, who was
single-minded in the exercise of his religious devotion. The generality
of mankind, in short, are like a certain people of old,--they fear the
Lord, and worship their own gods. Then again as to the disinterestedness
of the Otaheitan devotees, Dr Hawkesworth egregiously blunders--as if it
were conceivable, or any way natural, that they or any other people
could possibly serve their divinities without entertaining the hope that
they should be served by them in turn. This were to exceed even Homer in
his exaggerating human nature at the expence of the gods. That poet puts
a curious speech in the mouth of Dione, the mother of Venus, when
addressing her daughter, who had been wounded by Diomede:--

My child! how hard soe'er thy sufferings seem,
Endure them patiently, since many a wrong
From human hands profane the gods endure,
And many a painful stroke mankind from ours.

But Dr H. it is probable, had embraced the fanatical and monstrous
notion of some specialists, that God and religion were to be loved for
their own sakes; not because of the benefits they confer; and he wished
to exalt the characters of these islanders by representing them as
acting on it. This, however, is as irrational in itself, as it is
impracticable by such a creature as man. Self-love, directed by wisdom,
is perhaps the best principle that can actuate him. Considering
scripture as an authority, there is a high degree of commendation
implied in what is said of Moses by an apostle, when speaking of his
faith and obedience, and accounting for it, "he had respect unto the
recompence of reward;" and of one higher than Moses it is related, that,
"for the joy set before him, (certainly not then possessed,) he endured
the cross." Were man always to act from a sense of what he has received,
and the hope of what he may receive, he would never do wrong. He, on the
other hand, that attempts to serve God out of pure benevolence, and
without expectation of advantage, will soon spurn archangels, and may
set up for a God himself, on any day he shall think he has succeeded in
accomplishing such super-eminent disinterestedness. On the whole, it may
be remarked, that the Dr seems correct enough in his notions of
religion, considered as founded on reason; but is far from being so in
those concerning its foundation in the principles of human nature. This,
however, seems the consequence of inattention to the subject as a
speculation, rather than of studied disregard to those secret surmisings
which every human heart will oftentimes experience to carry it beyond
the brink of perishable things, and to give it a birth amid the
realities of wonder, fear, and hope. Far be it from the writer to class
him amongst those whom the poet Campbell so pathetically, and yet so
indignantly describes in the beautiful lines,--

Oh! lives there, heaven! beneath thy dread expanse,
One hopeless, dark idolater of chance,
Content to feed, with pleasures unrefined,
The lukewarm passions of a lowly mind;
Who, mouldering earthward, 'reft of every trust,
In joyless union wedded to the dust,
Could all his parting energy dismiss,
And call this barren world sufficient bliss?

He may not merit the "proud applause," the "pre-eminence in ill," of
those "lights of the world," and "demi-gods of fame," who league reason
and science against the hopes of mankind, and busy themselves in
throwing the "heaviest stones of melancholy" at the poor wretch
shivering over the dregs of life, and tottering towards the grass. And
yet it is certain, that what was written on his own tombstone implied
much less the hope of another life, than the gloomy satisfaction of
having partners in the darkness and inactivity of death. The reader will
see it in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, where a short account of him is
given.--E.]

Though I dare not assert that these people, to whom the art of writing,
and consequently the recording of laws, are utterly unknown, live under
a regular form of government, yet a subordination is established among
them, that greatly resembles the early state of every nation in Europe
under the feudal system, which secured liberty in the most licentious
excess to a few, and entailed the most abject slavery upon the rest.[34]

[Footnote 34: The government of this island, it is most certain, is both
monarchical and hereditary in one family. There is not the smallest
reason to think that the Otaheitans, with all their ingenuity and love
of freedom, are, any more than other people, exempt from those
principles so vigorously depicted by Cowper in his "Task," as the origin
of kingship:--

It is the abject property of most,
That, being parcel of the common mass,
And destitute of means to raise themselves,
They sink, and settle, lower than they need.
They know not what it is to feel within
A comprehensive faculty, that grasps
Great purposes with ease, that turns and wields
Almost without an effort, plans too vast
For their conception, which they cannot move.
Conscious of impotence, they soon grow drunk
With gazing, when they see an able man
Step forth to notice; and besotted thus,
Build him a pedestal, and say, "Stand there,
And be our admiration and our praise."

But at what time this able man stepped forth to monopolise the
admiration and the allegiance of his brethren (all sound men and true!),
is not in the record. The Otaheitans, we know, are not historians.
Probably, then, they have been favoured by their priests with some good
orthodox doctrine, as to divine appointment on the subject. Indeed, the
case of these islanders is one in which the necessary effect of that
consciousness of impotence and self-abasement, is scarcely in any degree
counteracted by other principles. We see it literally exemplifying the
description of the poet,--

Thenceforth they are his cattle: drudges, born
To bear his burdens, drawing in his gears,
And sweating in his service, his caprice
Becomes the soul that animates them all.

"It is considered," says the missionary account, "as the distinctive
mark of their regal dignity, to be every where carried about on men's
shoulders. As their persons are esteemed sacred, before them all must
uncover below their breast. They may not enter into any house but their
own, because, from that moment, it would become raa, or sacred, and none
but themselves, or their train, could dwell or eat there; and the land
their feet touched would be their property." It sometimes happens in
other countries, it is true, that men can be found base enough to
emulate beasts of burden, by drawing the carriages of their sovereign
lords. This, however, is only on some peculiar occasions, where certain
clear indications of personal superiority have been manifested, to
induce the mass of the people to revert to the notion of their own
pristine lowliness. The Otaheitan princes, on the other hand, practise
less self-denial in such imposition; or, which is perhaps more likely to
be the truth, they find their continuance in an exalted situation very
requisite to discriminate their office, which could not be inferred from
any superiority of character they possess; for, says the same account,
"the king and queen were always attended by a number of men, as
carriers, domestics, or favourites, who were raa, or sacred, living
without families, and attending only on the royal pair; and a worse set
of men the whole island does not afford for thievery, plunder, and
impurity." If this opinion be correct, one might safely infer, that the
monarchy of Otaheite is of very old standing, or, in other words, that
the royal blood is run to the dregs. And what though it be? Cannot the
pageantry of state suffice for all the ends of good government in
Otaheite, as well as any where else? It is very foolish, to say no more
of it, to be exclaiming with the poet,