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not supposed, however, to be so likely to have a bad effect upon great chiefs, as they approach so near in rank and character to the gods themselves.

Such are their principal notions respecting the origin of things. As to the first formation of the solid sky (as they deem it), or the island of Bolotoo, or the gods themselves, they pretend to form no idea, and never think of agitating the question, whether they are eternal, or whether they had a beginning, deeming all such speculations as vain and fruitless; for who, say they, can remember, or who has been there to see? They have no legends or tales that seem to resemble those of the Society islands, as related by Captain Cook.

Respecting the earth, their notion is, that it has a flat surface, ending abruptly, which the sky overarches. If you ask them why the sea does not run over, the answer will be, "How "can I tell? I have never been there to see; "there are rocks, or something to border it, "probably." With regard to the sun and moon, they pass through the sky, and come back some way, they know not how. As to the spots in the moon, they are compared to the figure of a woman sitting down and beating

gnatoo: when the moon is eclipsed, they attribute the phenomenon to a thick cloud passing over it: the same with the sun.

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Respecting the human soul, in particular, they imagine it to be the finer or more æriform part of the body, and which leaves it suddenly at the moment of death; and it may be conceived to stand much in the same relation to the body as the perfume and more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substance which constitutes the vegetable fibre. They have no proper word to express this fine ætherial part of man: as to the word loto, though it may be sometimes used for this pose, yet it rather means a man's disposition, inclination, passion, or sentiment. The soul is rather supposed to exist throughout the whole extension of the body, but particularly in the heart, the pulsation of which is the strength and power of the soul or mind. They have no clear distinction between the life and the soul, but they will tell you that the fotomanava (the right auricle of the heart) is the seat of life. They form no idea respecting the use of the brain, unless it be, perhaps, the seat of memory; (they have a distinct word for memory, manatoo): they derive this notion from the natural action of putting the hand to the

forehead, or striking the head gently when trying to remember any thing. The liver they consider to be the seat of courage, and they pretend to have remarked (on opening dead bodies), that the largest livers (not diseased), belong to the bravest men. They also say they have made another observation respecting this viscus, viz. that, in left-handed people, it is situated more on the left than on the right side; and, in persons that are ambi-dexter, it is placed as much on one side as on the other. They are very well acquainted with the situation of all the principal viscera.

They acknowledge that the tooas, or lower order of people, have minds or souls; but they firmly believe that their souls die with their bodies, and, consequently, have no future existence. The generality of the tooas, themselves, are of this opinion, but there are some that have the vanity to think they have immortal souls as well as matabooles and chiefs, and which will live hereafter in Bolotoo. There seems to be a wide difference between the opinions of the natives in the different clusters of the South Sea islands respecting the future existence of the soul. Whilst the Tonga doctrine limits immortality to chiefs, matabooles, and, at most, to mooas, the Fiji doctrine, with

abundant liberality, extends it to all mankind, to all brute animals, to all vegetables, and even to stones and mineral substances. If an animal or a plant die, its soul immediately goes to Bolotoo; if a stone or any other substance is broken, immortality is equally its reward; nay, artificial bodies have equal good luck with men, and hogs, and yams. If an axe or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies its soul for the service of the gods. If a house is taken down, or any way destroyed, its immortal part will find a situation on the plains of Bolotoo: and, to confirm this doctrine, the Fiji people can shew you a sort of natural well, or deep hole in the ground, at one of their islands, across the bottom of which runs a stream of water, in which you may clearly perceive the souls of men and women, beasts and plants, of stocks and stones, canoes and houses, and of all the broken utensils of this frail world, swimming, or rather tumbling along one over the other pell-mell into the regions of immortality. Such is the Fiji philosophy, but the Tonga people deny it, unwilling to think that the residence of the gods should be encumbered with so much useless rubbish. The natives of Otaheite entertain similar notions respecting these things, viz. that brutes,

plants, and stones, exist hereafter (see Captain Cook's Voyage), but it is not mentioned that they extend the idea to objects of human invention. Mr. Mariner is not acquainted with the notions of the Sandwich islanders upon these subjects: what we have related respecting those of the Fiji people he obtained from Fiji natives resident at Vavaoo, from Tonga people who had visited the Fiji islands, and from the natives of Pau, when he was there.

The human soul, after its separation from the body, is termed a hotooa (a god or spirit), and is believed to exist in the shape of the body; to have the same propensities as during life, but to be corrected by a more enlightened understanding, by which it readily distinguishes good from evil, truth from falsehood, right from wrong; having the same attributes as the original gods, but in a minor degree, and having its dwelling for ever in the happy regions of Bolotoo, holding the same rank in regard to other souls as during this life: it has, however, the power of returning to Tonga to inspire priests, relations, or others, or to appear in dreams to those it wishes to admonish; and sometimes to the external eye in the form of a ghost or apparition: but this power of re-appearance at Tonga only belongs

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