Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/172

114 which they seemed much pleased. Tupia, who has always expressed much fear of the men of Bola-Bola, says that they have conquered this island, and will to-morrow come down and fight with us; we therefore lose no time in going ashore, as we are to have to-day to ourselves.

On landing Tupia repeated the ceremony of praying, as at Huahine, after which an English Jack was set up on shore, and Captain Cook took possession of this and the other three islands in sight, viz. Huahine, Otahah, and Bola-Bola, for the use of His Britannic Majesty. After this we walked together to a great marai, called Tapodeboatea, whatever that may signify. It is different from those of Otahite, consisting merely of walls of coral stones (some of an immense size) about eight feet high, filled up with smaller ones, and the whole ornamented with many planks set up on end, and carved throughout their entire length. In the neighbourhood of this we found the altar or Ewhatta, upon which lay the last sacrifice, a hog of about eighty pounds weight, which had been put up there whole, and very nicely roasted. Here were also four or five Ewharre no Eatua, or god-houses, which were made to be carried on poles; one of these I examined by putting my head into it. Within was a parcel about five feet long and one thick, wrapped up in mats. These I tore with my fingers till I came to a covering of mat made of plaited cocoanut fibres, which it was impossible to get through, so I was obliged to desist, especially as what I had already done gave much offence to our new friends. In an adjoining long house, among several other things such as rolls of cloth, etc., was standing a model of a canoe about three feet long, upon which were tied eight human lower jaw-bones. Tupia told us that it was the custom of these islanders to cut off the jaw-bones of those whom they had killed in war. These were, he said, the jaw-bones of Ulhietea people, but how they came here, or why tied thus to a canoe, we could not understand; we therefore contented ourselves with conjecturing that they were placed there as a trophy won back from the men of Bola-Bola, their mortal enemies. Night now