nd the Society Islands, have been copiously
described by Captain Cook. How similar are those which Le Gobien
mentions in the following words, as prevailing at the Ladrones!--_Ils
se divertissent a danser, courir, sautir, lutter, pour s'exercer,
et eprouver leur forces. Ils prennent grand plaisir a raconter les
avantures de leurs ancetres, et a reciter des vers de leurs poetes._
4. The principal share sustained by the women, in the entertainments
at Captain Cook's islands, appears sufficiently from a variety of
instances in this work; and we cannot read what Le Gobien says of
the practice at the Ladrones, without tracing the strongest
resemblance--_Dans leurs assemblees elles se mettent doux ou trieze
femmes en rond, debout, sans se remuer. Dans cette attitude elles
chantent les vers fabuleux de leurs poetes avec un agrement, et une
justesse qui plairoit en Europe. L'accord de leur voix est admirable,
et ne cede en rien a la musique concertee. Elles ont dans les mains
de petits coquilles, dont elles se servent avec beaucoup de precision.
Elles soutiennent leur voix, et animent leur chants avec une action
si vive, et des gestes si expressives, qu'elles charment ceux qui
les voient, et qui les entendent._ 5. We read in Captain Cook's first
voyage, that at Otaheite garlands of the fruit of the palm-tree and
cocoa-leaves, with other things particularly consecrated to funeral
solemnities, are deposited about the places where they lay their dead;
and that provisions and water are also left at a little distance. How
conformable to this is the practice at the Ladrones, as described
by Le Gobien!--_Ils font quelques repas autour du tombeau; car on
en eleve toujours un sur le lieu ou le corps est enterre, ou dans
le voisinage; on le charge de fleurs, de branches de palmiers, de
coquillages, et de tout ce qu'ils ont de plus precieux._ 6. It is the
custom at Otaheite not to bury the skulls of the chiefs with the rest
of the bones, but to put them into boxes made for that purpose. Here
again, we find the same strange custom prevailing at the Ladrones;
for Le Gobien expressly tells us, _qui'ls gardent les cranes, en leur
maisons_, that they put these skulls into little baskets (_petites
corbeilles_); and that these dead chiefs are the _Anitis_, to whom
their priests address their invocations. 7. The people at Otaheite, as
we learn from Captain Cook, in his account of Tee's embalmed corpse,
make use of cocoa-nut oil, and other ingredien