inferior to that of their inspired priests and priestesses, whose predictions they implicitly believe, and are determined by them in all undertakings of consequence.  The priestess who persuaded Opoony to invade Ulietea, is much respected by him; and he never goes to war without consulting her.  They also, in some degree, maintain our old doctrine of planetary influence; at least, they are sometimes regulated in their public counsels by certain appearances of the moon; particularly when lying horizontally, or much inclined on the convex part, on its first appearance after the change, they are encouraged to engage in war with confidence of success.

They have traditions concerning the creation, which, as might be expected, are complex and clouded with obscurity.  They say, that a goddess, having a lump or mass of earth suspended in a cord, gave it a swing, and scattered about pieces of land, thus constituting Otaheite and the neighbouring islands, which were all peopled by a man and woman, originally fixed at Otaheite.  This, however, only respects their own immediate creation; for they have notions of an universal one before this; and of lands, of which they have now no other knowledge than what is mentioned in the tradition.  Their most remote account reaches to Tatooma and Tapuppa, male and female stones or rocks, who support the congeries of land and water, or our globe underneath.  These produced Totorro, who was killed, and divided into land; and after him Otaia and Oroo were begotten, who were afterward married, and produced, first, land, and then a race of gods.  Otaia is killed, and Oroo marries a god, her son, called Teorrhaha, whom she orders to create more land, the animals, and all sorts of food found upon the earth; as also the sky, which is supported by men called Teeferei.  The spots observed in the moon, are supposed to be groves of a sort of trees which once grew in Otaheite, and being destroyed by some accident, their seeds were carried up thither by doves, where they now flourish.

They have also many legends, both religious and historical; one of which latter, relative to the practice of eating human flesh, I shall give the substance of, as a specimen of their method.  A long time since there lived in Otaheite two men, called Taheeai, the only name they yet have for cannibals; none knew from whence they came, or in what manner they arrived at the island.  Their habitation was in the mountains, from whence they used to issue, and kill many of the natives, whom they afterward devoured, and by that means prevented the progress of population.  Two brothers, determined to rid their country of such a formidable enemy, used a stratagem for their destruction, with success.  These still lived farther upward than the Taheeai, and in such a situation that they could speak with them without greatly hazarding their own safety; they invited them to accept of an entertainment that should be provided for them, to which these readily consented.