e circumstances, which, though much modified, prove
a connection betwixt different people, it cannot but have some
weight,--E.]

Perhaps no better use can be made of reading an account of manners
altogether new, by which the follies and absurdities of mankind are
taken out of that particular connection in which habit has reconciled
them to us, than to consider in how many instances they are essentially
the same. When an honest devotee of the church of Rome reads, that there
are Indians on the banks of the Ganges who believe that they shall
secure the happiness of a future state by dying with a cow's tail in
their hands, he laughs at their folly and superstition; and if these
Indians were to be told, that there are people upon the continent of
Europe, who imagine that they shall derive the same advantage from dying
with the slipper of St Francis upon their foot, they would laugh in
their turn. But if, when the Indian heard the account of the catholic,
and the catholic that of the Indian, each was to reflect, that there was
no difference between the absurdity of the slipper and of the tail, but
that the veil of prejudice and custom, which covered it in their own
case, was withdrawn in the other, they would turn their knowledge to a
profitable purpose.

Having observed that bread-fruit had for some days been brought in less
quantities than usual, we enquired the reason, and were told, that there
being a great shew of fruit upon the trees, they had been thinned all at
once, in order to make a kind of sour paste, which the natives call
_Mahie_, and which, in consequence of having undergone a fermentation,
will keep a considerable time, and supply them with food when no ripe
fruit is to be had.

On the 10th, the ceremony was to be performed, in honour of the old
woman whose sepulchral tabernacle has just been described, by the chief
mourner; and Mr Banks had so great a curiosity to see all the mysteries
of the solemnity, that he determined to take a part in it, being told,
that he could be present upon no other condition. In the evening,
therefore, he repaired to the place where the body lay, and was received
by the daughter of the deceased, and several other persons, among whom
was a boy about fourteen years old, who were to assist in the ceremony.
Tubourai Tamaide was to be the principal mourner; and his dress was
extremely fantastical, though not unbecoming. Mr Banks was stripped of
his European clothes, and a small pie