Mr. King describes this Morai as being about forty yards long by twenty broad, and about fourteen feet high, the top flat, well paved, and surrounded by a wooden railing.  An old building stood in the centre from which a stone wall ran to the fence dividing the top into two parts.  On the landward side were five poles upwards of twenty feet high, supporting an irregular kind of scaffold, and on the sea-side half were two small houses with a covered communication between.  On their arrival Cook was presented with two ugly images wrapped with red cloth, and a sort of hymn was sung.  Then they were marched to the scaffolding, where was a table on which lay fruits and vegetables surmounted by a very much decomposed pig, and in a semicircle round one end of this table were twelve images.  Placing Cook near the scaffolding, Koah, as King and others call Touahah, took up the pig and holding it towards him made a long speech.  Then, dropping the offensive porker, he made signs that the two were to climb on to the uncertain scaffolding.  This being done, a procession came forward bearing a live hog and a piece of red cloth.  This last article was handed up to Koah, who proceeded to wrap it round Cook, who was clinging to his elevated but not very safe position.  The pig was then offered to Cook and a long address chanted.  The two principal performers then descended and returned to the table, Koah snapping his fingers at the figures and making what appeared to be sarcastic remarks, till he came to the centre one, when he prostrated himself and kissed it, requesting Cook to do the same.  The party then proceeded to the other part of the Morai, and Cook was seated between two images with his arms stretched out, one upheld by Koah, the other by King.  A cooked pig and other food was then presented with much ceremony, the meat cut up and kava prepared; whilst Koah’s assistant chewed some coconut, wrapped it in cloth, and then rubbed it over Cook’s face, head, shoulders, and arms.  Koah and Parea then pulled pieces of the pig and put them into the mouths of the two officers.  King says that Parea was a particularly cleanly person, so he did not so much mind this feeding, but Cook, remembering how Koah had handled the putrid hog, was unable to swallow a mouthful, “and his reluctance, as may be supposed, was not diminished, when the old man, according to his own mode of civility, had chewed it for him.”  Cook then put an end to further proceedings by distributing some presents to the attendants and returning to the ship.

Though the meaning of this ceremony could only be a matter of conjecture, it was very evident that it was intended as a mark of high respect to the person of Captain Cook.  The title of Orono given to him, and often quoted as evidence that he had permitted himself to be looked upon as a god by the natives was also given to one, if not more, of their own chiefs; and Burney says that the marks of honour conferred on him were exactly the same as those conferred on any one of their own superior chieftains.  The grotesque description given by some of the missionary writers of the whole population crawling after him on hands and knees as a mark of adoration is utterly untrue, for Mr. King, who was ashore almost the whole time of the ship’s stay, and was continually with Cook, distinctly says: