The meanings of all this could not be discovered, but it was found that when a victim was wanted, a chief picked him out and sent his servants to kill him.  This was done without any warning to the man who was to suffer, usually by a blow with a stone on the head, and it appeared that at the subsequent ceremony the presence of the king was absolutely indispensable.  Chiefs of an enemy’s tribe who were killed in battle were buried with some state in the Morais, the common men at the foot.

On the way back to the ship Cook called on Towha, who had supplied the victim.  He was anxious to ascertain Cook’s opinion of the affair, and was not pleased to learn that Cook thought such a proceeding was more likely to offend the Deity than to please him.  He then enquired if the English ever practised such ceremonies, and was very angry when he was informed that if the greatest chief in England killed one of his men he would be hanged; and Cook says they left him “with as great a contempt for our customs as we could possibly have for theirs.”  The servants evidently listened to Omai with great interest and a different opinion on the subject than that of their master.

They went to inspect the body of a chief who had been embalmed; they were not allowed to examine it very closely, but it was so well done that they were unable to perceive the slightest unpleasant smell, though the man had been dead some months.  All chiefs who died a natural death were preserved in this manner, and from time to time were exposed to public view, the intervals between the exposures gradually extending till at length they were hardly ever seen.  The method of preservation was not ascertained, and was probably a secret of the priests.

Equestrian exercise.

Cook and Clerke astonished the natives by riding the horses that had been brought out; their progress through the country was always watched with great interest, and Cook thought that this use of the animals impressed the people more than anything else done by the whites.  Omai tried his powers on several occasions, but as he was always thrown before he got securely into the saddle, his efforts only produced entertainment for the spectators.  It is curious to note that forty years afterwards the people had so thoroughly lost even the tradition of such use of the horse that Mr. Ellis relates how, when one was landed for the use of Pomare, the natives assisted to get it ashore, but when once landed they ran away and hid in fear of the “man-carrying pig.”  About this time Cook suffered from a bad attack of rheumatism in the legs, and was successfully treated by Otoo’s mother, three sisters, and eight other women.  The process he underwent, called Romy, consisted of squeezing and kneading from head to foot, more especially about the parts affected.  Cook says he was glad to escape from their ministrations after about a quarter of an hour, but he felt relief, and, after submitting to four operations of the kind he was completely cured.