slands. After the chief god had created the sun, he conveyed his
consort, the mighty Rock, from the West to the East over the sea: in
their progress, some portions of her substance separated from her, and
formed the islands.

Besides the gods of the second rank, they believed also in inferior
deities, and in a wicked genius, who killed men suddenly at the
requisition of the priests--an article of faith which this order
doubtless found very convenient. They also supposed that a genius dwelt
in every man, thinking and feeling in him, and separated himself from
the body after death, but without removing from it; often inhabiting the
wooden images which are erected in the burial-places, but sometimes
stealing at night into their habitations, and killing the sleepers,
whose hearts and entrails he devoured. This belief in ghosts is perhaps
not more universal in Tahaiti than among civilized nations.

According to another of Cook's companions, the supreme God united
departed souls with his own existence, which was signified by the
phrase, "He eats them." This was purification, after which the soul, or
the genius, reached the abode of eternal happiness. If a man, for some
months before his death, had kept himself apart from women, he did not
require this purification, but went direct to Heaven. The pride of the
Yeris prompted them to believe in a Heaven peculiar to themselves, where
they should associate only with their equals in birth.

The Tahaitians of rank had each a _Marai_ sacred to themselves, and
which served for their religious assemblies. The greatest and most
solemn of these meetings were held at the Marai of the Kings. Here the
priests harangued the people; and here was performed the rite which
stained the otherwise amiable character of these islanders--the offering
of human sacrifices! Cook was once present at one of these detestable
oblations, and describes it circumstantially. Its object was to
propitiate the assistance of the Gods, in a war about to be undertaken.

The victim was always of the lower class. He was first killed, and the
ceremonies were afterwards performed by the priests, and many prayers
recited, in presence of the King and people. One of the formalities was
the presentation of the left eye to the King, which however he did not
receive. From this, Cook infers that the Tahaitians had at some period
been eaters of human flesh, and that this morsel was offered to the King
as a delicacy. If this co