their shoulders, or on
their hands raised above their heads. These figures were very well
executed, the proportions correctly preserved, and even the proper
action of the muscles well defined.

Among the arts in which the Sandwich Islanders excelled, was that of
preparing salt: the English obtained from them a large quantity of the
best kind. Their arms consisted of clubs, lances, and daggers, made of
hard wood. War was of frequent occurrence amongst the inhabitants of the
several islands; the battles were often very bloody, and usually at sea,
the vessels grappling. The Yeris, when they went to battle, wore the
decorated helmets already described, and the mantles covered with black,
red, and yellow feathers: those of the Yerirahis, or kings, were of
yellow only. Images of the god of war, cut in wood; dreadful caricatures
of the human figure in a threatening posture, the mouth open and armed
with dogs' teeth, were always carried before the kings into battle; and
the chief aim of the enemy was to capture them, as this achievement
usually put an end to the war. A part of the prisoners were sacrificed
to the gods; but as the shedding of blood in this rite was forbidden,
they were strangled, and laid down before the images of the gods in the
Marai, with their faces turned to the earth.

The burial of the dead was a very sacred ceremony, and accompanied with
many forms. The corpse was laid in a pit till the flesh decayed, the
bones were then cleaned, and a part of them distributed among the
relations and friends to be preserved as relics, part laid in
consecrated ground. Dying persons sometimes desired that their bones
should be thrown into the crater of the volcano at O Wahi, which was
inhabited by the revered god Pelai. It has already been mentioned, that
the women were prohibited from eating many kinds of food; they were also
forbidden, under pain of death, to enter a house where the men were
eating, and they were entirely secluded from the Marais; with these
exceptions, they enjoyed great freedom, and even had a voice in the
deliberations concerning war and peace.

The religious regulation of the Tabu, or interdict, existed here as well
as on many other of the South Sea islands. A person declared under a
Tabu was inviolable; a piece of land under a Tabu must not be trodden
by any one; nor must a species of animal so declared, be injured or shot
until the Tabu was again taken off. Thus Tameamea declared the diamond
mou