60

AN EMBALMED BODY.

worship such an idol! It was a great sin to do so, because they might have known, from the sight of the sun, moon, and stars, the sea, the trees, and all God's creatures, that God himself could not be in a bundle of cloth. On account of this great sin, God had given them up to do other wicked things, such as to lie, steal, and commit murder.*

William stopped, on his way back to the chief's house, to see another very curious sight. It was the dead body of Pomare's brother, the husband of that Ina Madua, of whom you have already heard. The man had been dead several months, but his body had been preserved by pressing it, drying it in the sun, rubbing it daily with cocoa nut oil, and filling it with cloths dipped in the same. It was now lying on a sort of wooden bed, under a roof thatched with leaves.

A man who took care of it lived close by. It was his business to rub it with oil, and to feed it, that is, to put food to its mouth, which the man ate himself. There were little baskets of fruit hanging on the trees near, for the use of the dead man.

* Because that which may be known of God is manifest to them, for God hath showed it unto them; so that they are without excuse. As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Rom. i. 19, 20, 28.

The man who took care of it asked William whether he would like to see the dead body, for, as it lay, nothing could be seen but its feet.

He then pulled it out, and placing it upon a wooden table that was near, he began (laughing all the while) to take off its wrappers of cloth. The skin looked hard and dry like parchment, and the whole body seemed nothing but bones, for the flesh was dried up. It was a very unpleasant sight. chiefs were thus

None but

62

THE NUMBER OF INHABITANTS.

embalmed after death; common men were put into the ground with their chin resting upon their knees, and their hands tied together under their legs.

William said to the think his soul is gone?"

man,

Where do you

He replied, "Gone to the night.”

The travellers returned to the chief's house to dinner, and then went on in their canoe. They arrived that night at a little house belonging to Peter, and there they left the canoe, because the wind was too high to enable them to row easily. They continued their way on foot, and arrived that evening at the missionaries' house, having been absent about ten days.

William had inquired very diligently, as he went along, how many people lived in each part; he had particularly asked how many tiis (or upright boards) were in each marae, for by this means he knew how many families lived near. The number of inhabitants was much smaller than had been supposed; only sixteen thousand. A middle-sized town in England contains as many people, and yet Tahiti was (as you have heard) about forty miles long, and very fruitful; but as the natives killed many babies, and often engaged in war, it was not to be expected there could be many people in the island.

CHAPTER VIII.

1797.

A FEW INCIDENTS THAT OCCURRED BEFORE THE DUFF RETURNED TO ENGLAND.

WHILE William Wilson had been travelling round the island, the captain had been with his ship, helping the four missionaries appointed to divide the goods. I will mention a few circumstances that happened during William's absence.

One day the captain heard that the king was going to leave Matavai, because the missionaries, hearing he had sacrificed a man, had reproved him for his wickedness. The captain immediately left his ship, and went in a boat to find him.

When he landed, he saw the king and queen running very fast along the beach. The captain asked Otu where he was going in such haste. The king replied, that the missionaries were angry with him, and that he supposed the captain was angry too, and therefore he was going away. The captain told him it would be very wicked to sacrifice a man. said that the report was not true. The cap

Otu

64

THE CAPTAIN'S PRESENT.

tain then entreated him never to do such things again, and promised to give him a canoe that he had brought from the Friendly Islands.

Otu seemed much pleased with this promise, and continued to live near the ship. The next day Otu and his wife were seen early paddling round the ship. The promised canoe was given to the king. He spent two hours in examining it, (as it was not quite like those of Tahiti,) and then got into it, and went to the shore. It was on the afternoon of the same day that William Wilson, as he was travelling round the island, met Otu and his wife; so it is probable that they went a long distance by the shore in the new canoe that day.*

You remember that Otu did not much like the fine clothes the captain had given him. Another day the captain gave him a handsome scarlet coat, but though Otu accepted it, he could not be persuaded to put it on.

About this time Idia sent to the ship to know whether the captain was angry with her. He sent back a plantain leaf to show that he was not, for such was the Tahitian manner of making peace. Idia then came on board with two hogs, and two bundles of cloth, as presents from her and Pomare to the captain. She said that Pomare not being able to visit the captain himself on account of the feast, had sent her to see that he wanted nothing; but the * See page 50.