ROMANTIC TRADITION.

541

creatures, with various others of the urchin-family, are remarkably beautiful.

Here, also, is a huge, unshapely, black or brown slug, (here called, buhe) from six to seven inches long, and five to six broad. It is caught in vast quantities, and not only regarded as a great delicacy by the natives, but, being cured, has become a valuable article of commerce to the China market, whither it is carried from many insular coasts of the Pacific, by American ships. One of these disgusting masses of morbid matter, endued with sensation, was taken into our boat; being wounded, the dying animal protruded all its entrails at the tail end, leaving the apparent body a mere thick skin. We have seen a number of lads fill three canoes in two hours with these sea-snails.

The natives have a romantic tradition concerning this reef that it is the back-bone of the giant Honoura, who was so tall that his head glittered with the stars as they passed over it at night. When he came hither from Tahiti, his birth-place, he set one foot on the neighbouring island of Taiarabu, and with one step set the other on Raiatea. At his death his skeleton was cast into the sea, and the various bones were converted into coral rocks. From the reef we visited a beautiful little motu to the north, not more than a quarter of a mile in circumference—a fairy paradise to look upon, being wholly overrun with the raau fara, an elegant and odorous plant, now in full bloom, and bearing profuse clusters of flowers, thickly powdered with farina, which the people were wont to employ as a perfume. Flowers and scents, indeed, in their days of profligacy, were much used among them to attract favour; the latter are now regarded with aversion, and the former have lost their hieroglyphic meanings. When presented by persons of different sexes, according as they were accepted, rejected, or inter

542

CONFESSIONS OF INFANTICIDE.

changed, the parties understood each others' minds. When the blossom was torn in two by a lover and his mistress, and each retained one half, it was a pledge of reciprocal fidelity till these parts should unite again—an impossible conjunction of the petals, signifying an impossible separation of their hearts.

Dec. 19. This evening, at the prayer-meeting of a select association of females, principally the wives and daughters of chiefs, including the queen, an inquiry was made whether any of them, when under the infuriating influence of idolatry, had destroyed their children. Six of those present acknowledged that they had respectively killed from one to six of their progeny ; a seventh said that she had never strangled a babe of her own, but many for other women. Being asked how she could find in her heart to do so, she answered that it then was her business, and she was hired to do it. Among the rest, one of the mothers before us said that she had destroyed her infant because she was nursing one of the royal family; another, because she did not like the encumbrance; and several, because they wished to be at liberty to leave their husbands when they were tired of them; for married couples who kept their offspring generally remained together for life, unless some violent cause of quarrel arose, and compelled them to part. It was acknowledged, also, that women disposed to gad about, and live after their own inclinations, thought that to suckle children impaired their comeliness, and made them look old too soon. Those present (like others with whom we have conversed elsewhere) declared that they often seem to have their murdered children before their eyes; and their own wickedness appears so great that they sometimes think it cannot be pardoned. But then, again, they have heard that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, and this preserves

MARRIAGE OF AIMATA AND POMARE.

543

them from falling into despair. These, with one exception, were all young women, apparently from twenty-five to thirty years of age. They spoke with great humility, and, we had reason to believe, with sincere contrition, in respect to these sins of their heathen days; but their hearts and eyes overflowed with gratitude while they acknowledged the mercy of God in sending his faithful servants, and his word, to turn them from their evil ways, and shew them the path of life.

Dec. 20. We received a letter from Mr. Ellis, at Huahine, giving an account of the nuptials of Aimata, daughter of the late sovereign of Tahiti, and a son of Tapoa, the former conqueror of the Leeward Islands, whom, as an orphan, Pomare adopted, and gave him his own name. The youth is sixteen years old, and his bride fourteen. The parties met in the presence of their relatives, and, being mutually pleased, were forthwith betrothed to each other. The marriage was solemnized on Wednesday last (two days ago), at twelve o'clock at noon, in the large place of worship at Apootava. The spectacle, we are informed, was remarkably imposing and novel, both to Europeans and natives. The relatives of the youthful pair, the chiefs from Tahiti, and those of Huahine, with Fenuapeho, king of Tahaa, took their station within the area before the pulpit on the one hand; and the queen, at the head of her train of females of rank, stood on the other. Tamatoa, King of Raiatea, Aimata and Pomare (the bride and bridegroom), and the Missionaries, were placed between these groups, immediately in front of the communion-table. The space within which the ceremony was performed was surrounded by the bue raatiras, or yeomanry (the land-owners), who were marshalled three deep, to the number of a hundred and fifty. These, in honour of the occasion, appeared in

544

WAR-DRESSES OF THE RAATIRAS.

their native war-dresses-fine, white-fringed matting wound about the loins, with a robe of the same, thrown, broad and graceful, over the shoulders, and fastened across the breast. Each man rested on his spear of aito-wood, which he bore as a sign of the rank which he held in the state. Happily this exploded instrument of slaughter has now no other use than to adorn the triumphs of peace. The two principal raatiras were distinguished by their ancient helmets, superbly covered with red feathers, and surmounted with the tails of tropic-birds. The picturesque costume and stately carriage of these now holiday soldiers, thus supporting the dignity of their hereditary chiefs, and their royal visitors, added singular interest to the scene. The two kings, the queen, and all the members of their respective families, were clothed in the English style; the females having on white robes, with pink or scarlet shawls and scarfs, which produced a striking contrast to the quaint array of the native warriors ranged behind them. very attentive and devout during the service, and Tamatoa, the venerable king of Raiatea, grandfather to the bride, more than once dropped a tear, as he waited to give her away to her future partner; but it was the tear of joy, for young Pomare was Aimata's own choice, and there was every prospect (according to human views) of their union being a happy one. At the close of the solemnity in the chapel, the royal parties, escorted by the raatiras, amidst discharges of musketry and cannon, returned to the house of Maeore, where a plentiful feast was prepared.

us.

All present appeared

Dec. 21. Tamatoa and his family spent the evening with

Faita, one of the king's brothers, who had formerly been a reputed sorcerer, very frankly acknowledged that his arts were deceitful, for they deceived and disappointed himself whenever he put them to the proof. There was, on

CONFESSIONS OF A SORCERER.

545

one occasion, a man who had given him mortal offence, and whom, therefore, he determined to conjure to death. Accordingly he enclosed (as the practice was) his own house with a fence all round, except at one point, where he left a narrow opening. He then swept the floor, arranged the furniture, hung the walls with cloth and garments of the finest texture, and adorned the whole with shells, flowers, and every toy or gewgaw which he thought could make it gay and attractive to the tutelar divinity, whose image he placed upon a stone in the midst, and prayed to it, day and night, saying, "Go to that man's house and kill him." It was the rule for the sorcerer to remain thus praying, and fasting all the while, at least five days, when the object of his enmity was to die; if not, it was plain that one of the anti-sorcerers (of whom we have formerly spoken) had been busy counteracting his enchantments and imprecations. But Taita grew so thirsty and impatient, at the end of the third day, that he broke the spell himself, by secretly stealing out to a spring, and drinking some water. He felt that all was spoiled by this indiscreet indulgence, and abandoned the process. These conjurors, he is now convinced, were, like himself, either dupes of their own silly craft, or arrant knaves, who, if they did not murder by surer weapons than their charms, availed themselves of incidental evils, such as contagious disorders, which they pretended that they had brought upon their countrymen, or had removed at their pleasure, in order to maintain a wicked influence over a credulous people.

Dec. 22. On this Sabbath a hundred and fifty-one persons, of both sexes, and various ages, including parents and their children, in families, were baptized by the Missionaries Williams and Threlkeld. The services on this occasion were very solemn, and a deep sense of the power of Christ