ny is
over; the chiefs rise to their feet in high good humour, and my Lord
Archbishop, after chatting awhile, and regaling himself with a whiff or
two from a pipe of tobacco, tucks the canoe under his arm and marches off
with it.

The whole of these proceedings were like those of a parcel of children
playing with dolls and baby-houses.

For a youngster scarcely ten inches high, and with so few early advantages
as he doubtless had had, Moa Artua was certainly a precocious little
fellow, if he really said all that was imputed to him; but for what reason
this poor devil of a deity, thus cuffed about, cajoled, and shut up in a
box, was held in greater estimation than the full-grown and dignified
personages of the Taboo Groves, I cannot divine. And yet Mehevi, and other
chiefs of unquestionable veracity--to say nothing of the Primate
himself--assured me over and over again that Moa Artua was the tutelary
deity of Typee, and was more to be held in honour than a whole battalion
of the clumsy idols in the Hoolah Hoolah grounds. Kory-Kory--who seemed to
have devoted considerable attention to the study of theology, as he knew
the names of all the graven images in the valley, and often repeated them
over to me--likewise entertained some rather enlarged ideas with regard to
the character and pretensions of Moa Artua. He once gave me to understand,
with a gesture there was no misconceiving, that if he (Moa Artua) were so
minded, he could cause a cocoa-nut tree to sprout out of his (Kory-Kory's)
head; and that it would be the easiest thing in life for him (Moa Artua)
to take the whole island of Nukuheva in his mouth, and dive down to the
bottom of the sea with it.

But, in sober seriousness, I hardly knew what to make of the religion of
the valley. There was nothing that so much perplexed the illustrious Cook,
in his intercourse with the South Sea islanders, as their sacred rites.
Although this prince of navigators was in many instances assisted by
interpreters in the prosecution of his researches, he still frankly
acknowledges that he was at a loss to obtain anything like a clear insight
into the puzzling arcana of their faith. A similar admission has been made
by other eminent voyagers,--by Carteret, Byron, Kotzebue, and Vancouver.

For my own part, although hardly a day passed while I remained upon the
island that I did not witness some religious ceremony or other, it was
very much like seeing a parcel of "Freemasons" making se