to the Eatua, hogs, dogs, fowls, &c.?  To all of which he answered in the affirmative.  I then asked, If they sacrificed men to the Eatua?  He answered Taata eno; that is, bad men they did, first Tipperahy, or beating them till they were dead.  I then asked him, If good men were put to death in this manner?  His answer was No, only Taata eno.  I asked him if any Earees were?  He said, they had hogs to give to the Eatua, and again repeated Taatu eno.  I next asked, If Towtows, that is, servants or slaves, who had no hogs, dogs, or fowls, but yet were good men, if they were sacrificed to the Eatua?  His answer was No, only bad men.  I asked him several more questions, and all his answers seemed to tend to this one point, that men for certain crimes were condemned to be sacrificed to the gods, provided they had not wherewithal to redeem themselves.  This, I think, implies, that on some occasions, human sacrifices are considered as necessary, particularly when they take such men as have, by the laws of their country, forfeited their lives, and have nothing to redeem them; and such will generally be found among the lower class of people.

The man of whom I made these enquiries, as well as some others, took some pains to explain the whole of this custom to us; but we were not masters enough of their language to understand them.  I have since learnt from Omai, that they offer human sacrifices to the Supreme Being.  According to his account, what men shall be so sacrificed, depends on the caprice of the high priest, who, when they are assembled on any solemn occasion, retires alone into the house of God, and stays there some time.  When he comes out, he informs them, that he has seen and conversed with their great God (the high priest alone having that privilege), and that he has asked for a human sacrifice, and tells them that he has desired such a person, naming a man present, whom, most probably, the priest has an antipathy against.  He is immediately killed, and so falls a victim to the priest’s resentment, who, no doubt (if necessary), has address enough to persuade the people that he was a bad man.  If I except their funeral ceremonies, all the knowledge that has been obtained of their religion, has been from information:  And as their language is but imperfectly understood, even by those who pretend to the greatest knowledge of it, very little on this head is yet known with certainty.

The liquor which they make from the plant called Ava ava, is expressed from the root, and not from the leaves, as mentioned in the narrative of my former voyage.  The manner of preparing this liquor is as simple as it is disgusting to an European.  It is thus:  Several people take some of the root, and chew it till it is soft and pulpy, then they spit it out into a platter or other vessel, every one into the same; when a sufficient quantity is chewed, more or less water is put to it, according as it is to