CHAP. IL flection, they could not long suppress their merriment, nor preserve the decorum which they might feel due to the presence of their visiters. In them the moral sense was not fully formed; and, less advanced than the Greeks and Romans in the first age of the gospel, their judgments as to right and wrong were not so sufficiently distinct as to convey either excuse or accusation.

Their early condition.

Of this interesting people we have not the means of attaining a more minute acquaintance than may be acquired from examining their present condition. The antiquities of an illiterate tribe must be sought, not in modern records, which are exceedingly imperfect, but in their usages and the ruins of their ancient structures. With respect to the Society Islands, it has been observed by a late traveller that no monuments are found which might serve to indicate that they were ever inhabited by a race much farther advanced in civilisation than the natives who first became known to Davis, Wallis, Cook, and Bougainville. In Easter Island, no doubt, there are the remains of those gigantic busts which excited the surprise of the Dutch navigators; but these have now suffered so much either from the hand of time or the more violent attacks of the inhabitants, that their original shape can scarcely be determined. The early narratives represent them as being dispersed generally over the whole island; though when Cook touched there, the number was considerably reduced, and he himself saw only two or three standing near the landTheir ancient ing-place. His companions, who travelled over the country, observed many more, some of them twentyseven feet in height, and about nine in breadth across the shoulders, and each figure having on its head a large cylindrical block of a red colour, wrought perfectly round. They were made of a gray stone, apparently different from any belonging to the island; and the magnitude was such as rendered it extremely difficult to account for their erection, when viewed with a reference to the very limited mechanical powers at present possessed by the natives. Cook had no hesitation in main

monuments.

taining the opinion that they must have been formed by CAP. II. an older race of men, of whom no other record now remains; and this conclusion seemed to him confirmed by the fact, that their successors have neither skill nor industry enough to prevent them from falling into hopeless ruin. Besides these colossal statues, which were acknowledged to bear the marks of a remote antiquity, many little heaps of stones were seen piled up along the coast; and some of the savages also possessed human figures, carved with considerable neatness, composed of pieces of wood about two feet long.*

character.

Confining our attention to the Society and Georgian Their Islands, we discover no evidence that they have ever been aboriginal occupied by an older or more polished people than the present inhabitants. But there are many proofs that the race which we now find scattered among the several groups, between the meridian of New Zealand and the 130th degree of west longitude, must have been in ancient times much more numerous than they were when recently discovered by Europeans. In each green valley, in the recesses of the highest mountains, on the sides of the hills, and on the brow of almost every promontory, monuments of former generations are still seen in great abundance. Stone pavements of their dwellings and court-yards, foundations of houses, and ruins of familytemples, are of frequent occurrence. But as these relics are precisely similar to the instruments and edifices found among them when our ships first touched their shores, they merely establish the fact that the Polynesians were once a more powerful people than they have been since the middle of the last century.†

cal ballads.

They have amongst them, also, certain historical and Their historimythological ballads, which are said to be well adapted to every order of society and every period of life. Such compositions, called udes, are recited by the children,

An Historical Account of the Circumnavigation of the Globe (Edinburgh Cabinet Library, No. xxi.), p. 371.

Ellis' Polynesian Researches (4 vols 12mo, Lond. 1831), vol. i. p. 102; vol. iii. p. 93.

CHAP. IL who are likewise taught to act them, for in some cases they have a pantomimic or dramatic character. At all events, they are highly figurative and impassioned; and what adds greatly to their value, while it proves their antiquity, is the fact that they contain many words Character of which are no longer in use. Ignorant of chronology and the ballads the importance of dates, the authors pretend not to convey any knowledge of the past, or to preserve the slightest order in their narrative of the incidents on which they have fixed as the groundwork of their poems. So far as we can judge from the scanty specimens which the missionary press has supplied to the European reader, the descriptions refer chiefly to the ordinary occupations of their simple life, or to those more animating scenes which were from time to time connected with the ceremonies of their idolatrous worship. They had one song for the fisherman, another for the canoe-builder, a third for cutting down the tree, and one for the launching of the little vessel. The rites of their mythology were also wrapped up in a veil of poetical fiction; but as the strains employed on such occasions were equally mystical and obscure, they were discontinued as soon as the people renounced paganism. Influence of With all their imperfections, these traditionary songs possessed a species of authority, and were often appealed to for the purpose of determining any disputed point in their annals. It is added, that the fidelity of public recitals, viewed as the standard of historical truth, was not unfrequently questioned by the orators or chroniclers of two opposite parties; and the disputes which followed were carried on with great vehemence and pertinacity. As they had no written records to which either of the antiquaries could refer, they persevered in opposing one oral tradition to another, and thereby involved themselves in debates which could only be terminated by the fatigue of the speakers or the impatience of their audience. In most cases, however, a happy allusion to some verse in a popular poem set the matter at rest; and it is supposed that many facts of great antiquity

the ballads.

have been transmitted from one generation to another CHAP. II. in the loose vehicle of national rhymes.

institutions

It might be inferred, perhaps, from the fixed and con- Political solidated form of government which prevails throughout the islands of the South Sea, that their political institutions are not of recent origin. The king is invested with supreme power, which appears to descend in his family according to the rights of primogeniture, and may be inherited by sons or daughters. There was a queen in Otaheite, when it was discovered by Wallis, and Pomare the Second was succeeded by Aimata. In all respects, the sovereign authority was wont to be closely connected with the national religion; the idols and the monarch were understood to divide between them the fealty of mankind. The prince even, on certain occasions, represented the divinity, receiving the homage and listening to the entreaties uttered by the crowds of supplicants; and, at other times, he officiated as the high-priest, offering up their prayers and thanksgiving. As in similar states of society in ancient Europe, the regal and sacerdotal functions were commonly united in the same individual; the genealogy of the reigning house was piously traced back to the very origin of the tribe; and in some of the islands, the early sovereigns were supposed to have descended from the gods themselves. Hence, it almost necessarily followed that their persons should be esteemed sacred, and their rank as well as office regarded by the people with the utmost veneration.

A singular inconvenience resulted from the feeling of Sacredness sanctity now mentioned. Every thing in the least de- of kings. gree connected with the king or queen became also in some measure sacred, and could not be applied to any ordinary purpose. Not only the houses in which they dwelt, the canoes in which they sailed, but even the ground whereon they trode, and the syllables which composed their names, became so far holy that they could not be appropriated to any common use. On account of this peculiarity, the royal personages never

CHAP. II. entered any house that was not specially dedicated to their residence, nor walked on any piece of land not included in their hereditary possessions. To prevent the evils apprehended from the contact of either sovereign, these exalted individuals at no time appeared in public except on men's shoulders. They even performed their longest journeys in the same manner, proceeding at a pace of not less than six miles an hour, and changing their bearers at regular stages. In Owhyhee, whenever such chiefs as were supposed to be of divine extraction passed along the public way, the people prostrated themHomage paid selves with their faces pressing on the ground. In Otaheite, on all occasions, when the king approached, his subjects, stripping down their upper garments, uncovered the body as low as the waist; a homage which was paid to no other except the gods, and to the places consecrated to their service. When passing these last, every individual, whether on foot or sailing in a canoe, removed whatever article of dress he wore on his shoulders and breast; and by this act he expressed the utmost respect to the deities of his country, to their altars, and to the spot where their presence was supposed to be more especially vouchsafed.

to kings.

The reverence now described was required from all ranks, including even the father and mother of his majesty; indeed, they were generally the first to uncover themselves when his approach was announced. If by any accident the king appeared before the robe could be laid aside, it was instantly torn off, rent in pieces, and ar The penalty atonement required. Had any individual hesitated to perform this ceremony, his life would have been exposed to the greatest danger; for to refuse this homage was considered not only as a proof of disaffection to the monarch, but as rebellion against the government, and impiety towards those invisible powers under whose protection both were placed.

of withhold

ing that, homage

An allusion has just been made to the reverence usually paid to the King of Otaheite by his own parents; a circumstance which can only be explained by referring to a