"the skin of your father, and tie it on with the "entrails of your mother," &c. &c. &c.

As to the charm of ta nioo, it consists in spinning a cocoa-nut with the husk on, and judging by the direction of the upper part, when again at rest, of the object of enquiry, which is, chiefly, whether a sick person will recover for this purpose, the nut being placed on the ground, a relation of the sick person determines that, if the nut, when again at rest, points to such a quarter, the east for example, that the sick man will recover: he then prays aloud to the patron god of the family, that he will be pleased to direct the nut, so that it may indicate the truth: the nut being next spun, the result is attended to with confidence, at least with a full conviction that it will truly declare the intentions of the gods at the time. The other occasions in which the spinning of a cocoa-nut is used, is chiefly for amusement, and then no prayer is made, and no degree of credit is attached to the result.

CHAP. XXI.

Introductory observations on the state of the healing art in these islands-Their surgical knowledge borrowed from the Fiji islands-Medical skill of a Sandwich islander -The operation of causo, with a case described; regimen; precautions against tetanus-Two cases of tetanus cured by the operation of tocolosi-Operation of boca, or castration: a man castrates himself-Fractures and luxations--Topical bloodletting-Opening abscesses-Burning and blistering-Friction-Scarification of the tunica adnata-Gun-shot wounds-Amputation-Circumcision -Ta tatto'w at the Tonga islands; at the Fiji islandsThe diseases called cahi and palla-Gonorrhea—Observations respecting the existence of syphilis at these islands-Gonorrhoea cured by fright in three individuals -Tona, a disease similar to the yaws-An eruption on the feet called gno'wooa-Fooa, or elephantiasis-Momoco, or general wasting of the flesh-Feke-feke, a species of irregular intermittent.

HAVING, in the three preceding chapters, given an account of the state of religion and morals in these islands, we shall now proceed to develope the next most important feature in the description of human habits, and shall therefore endeavour to set forth the state of

useful knowledge to which they have arrived. In the first place, we shall treat of the healing art; not only because it stands prominent in the general history of human science, but because, in all early stages of society, it appears to have a particular connection with, and often to depend entirely upon, certain religious ceremonies; nor is this to be wondered at, for, seeing that the operations of the animal œconomy are so far involved in mystery, as frequently to escape the scrutinizing search of the most cultivated mind, how can it be otherwise but that a people, among whom the sources of knowledge are scanty, and the opportunities of experiment on the animal œconomy both rare and hazardous, should look to the gods for relief from those miseries which evidently proceed from an unseen hand: a considerable portion of the curative means of these people are, therefore, very naturally, invocation and sacrifice. Nevertheless, as the animal economy is subject to a variety of accidents, the causes and operations of which take place, and pursue their progress, more or less, under the evidence of the external senses, appropriate means of cure are frequently had recourse to, and operative surgery is therefore not in a contemptible state of cultivation.

VOL. II.

R

All the remedies practised among them may very safely be ranked under these three heads, viz. invocation, sacrifice, and external operations as to internal remedies, they sometimes, but very seldom, use infusions of a few plants. which produce, however, no sensible effect, either upon the system or upon the disease, and we may readily conceive in how little esteem such remedies are held when the king's daughter, whose life so great pains were taken to preserve, took none of them, nor did any one think of proposing them. The idea of giving these infusions was first taken from the natives of the Fiji islands, who have the repute of being skilful in the management of internal remedies and though almost all the surgical operations known and practised at the Tonga islands have avowedly been borrowed from the same source, and followed up with a considerable degree of skill and success, yet the Tonga people have generally failed in the former, and for the cure of constitutional ailments, depend upon the mercy of the gods, without any interference on their own parts, except in the way of invocation and sacrifice. In such a state of things, it would be natural to suppose that they frequently make use of charms, amulets, &c. to assist in the cure; but

this, however, is never done, for they have not the most distant idea of this sort of superstition, which prevails so much over almost all the world, even in the most civilized countries. The natives of the Sandwich islands, however, appear to have some knowledge of medicine, but whether from original discoveries of their own, or from the information of Europeans, Mr. Mariner could not obtain any information from those natives who were with him at Vavaoo. One of these Sandwich islanders (a petty chief), professed some knowledge of the healing art, and it so happened that Mr. Mariner was once the subject of his skill. Feeling himself much indisposed by a disordered state of the stomach and bowels, attended with head-ach and drowsiness, this Sandwich islander proposed to give him some internal remedies, whilst a native of Tonga, on the other hand, very much wanted him to lose some blood (by scarification with shells on the arms, legs), &c. The remedies proposed by the former were an emetic and a cathartic: the cathartic consisted chiefly of the sweet potatoe grated, and the juice of the sugar-cane; to this, however, was added the juice of some other vegetable substance, with which Mr. Mariner was not acquainted. The emetic