ous taboo,
which interdicted the whole masculine gender from even so much as touching
it.

Frequently in walking through the groves I observed bread-fruit and
cocoa-nut trees, with a wreath of leaves twined in a peculiar fashion
about their trunks. This was the mark of the taboo. The trees themselves,
their fruit, and even the shadows they cast upon the ground, were
consecrated by its presence. In the same way a pipe, which the king had
bestowed upon me, was rendered sacred in the eyes of the natives, none of
whom could I ever prevail upon to smoke from it. The bowl was encircled by
a woven band of grass, somewhat resembling those Turks' heads occasionally
worked in the handles of our whip-stalks.

A similar badge was once braided about my wrist by the royal hand of
Mehevi himself, who, as soon as he had concluded the operation, pronounced
me "Taboo." This occurred shortly after Toby's disappearance; and were it
not that from the first moment I had entered the valley the natives had
treated me with uniform kindness, I should have supposed that their
conduct afterwards was to be ascribed to the fact that I received this
sacred investiture.

The capricious operations of the taboo are not its least remarkable
feature: to enumerate them all would be impossible. Black hogs--infants to
a certain age--women in an interesting situation--young men while the
operation of tattooing their faces is going on--and certain parts of the
valley during the continuance of a shower--are alike fenced about by the
operation of the taboo.

I witnessed a striking instance of its effects in the bay of Tior, my
visit to which place occurred a few days before leaving the ship. On that
occasion our worthy captain formed one of the party. He was a most
insatiable sportsman. Outward bound, and off the pitch of Cape Horn, he
used to sit on the taffrail, and keep the steward loading three or four
old fowling-pieces, with which he would bring down albatrosses, Cape
pigeons, jays, petrels, and divers other marine fowl, who followed
chattering in our wake. The sailors were struck aghast at his impiety, and
one and all attributed our forty days' beating about that horrid headland
to his sacrilegious slaughter of these inoffensive birds.

At Tior, he evinced the same disregard for the religious prejudices of the
islanders as he had previously shown for the superstitions of the sailors.
Having heard that there were a considerable number of fowls in the