Wild Life in Southern Seas |
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Common terms and phrases
Aimata Alofi Apamama Apia Areois ashore atolls Avatele basket beach boat called canoe Captain Caroline chief cinnet coast coconut copra coral crab crew doctor E'eu Ellice Group English fathoms feet fish foam followed friends Funafuti Gafalua Gilbert Gilbert Islands girl gods hand head Hino Hino-riri hook huge hundred inhabitants jaws killers lagoon land lived look LOUIS BECKE Matara mats miles missionary morning natives night Niué Norfolk Island Nukulaelae ocean outrigger paddle pala palm paua Polynesia present priest Rapa reef round rush Safata sailed Samoan savage Savage Island seaward seized sharks ship shore side smoke South Pacific South Seas South Wales sperm sperm whale splash surf sweeping Sydney Tahiti tail takuo taro Tati thou trading vessel trees Vahitahi Vaitupu village whale white trader wife woman women young Zealand
Popular passages
Page 59 - ... of the industrious husbandman, while his own family was not unfrequently deprived thereby, for a time, of the means of subsistence. Such was their life of luxurious and licentious indolence and crime. And such was the character of their delusive system of superstition, that, for them, too, was reserved the Elysium which their fabulous mythology taught them to believe was provided, in a future state of existence, for those so preeminently favoured by the gods.
Page 50 - ... character. The priests, and others, were fearlessly ridiculed in these performances, in which allusion was ludicrously made to public events. In the taupiti, or oroa, they sometimes engaged in wrestling, but never in boxing ; that would have been considered too degrading for them. Dancing, however, appears to have been their favourite and most frequent performance. In this they were always led by the manager or chief. Their bodies, blackened with charcoal, and stained with mati, rendered the...
Page 51 - When one of these companies thus advanced towards the land, with their streamers floating in the wind, their drums and flutes sounding, and the Areois, attended by their chief, who acted as their prompter, appeared on a stage erected for the purpose, with their wild distortions of person, antic gestures, painted bodies, and vociferated songs, mingling with the sound of the drum and the flute, the dashing of the sea, and the rolling and breaking of the surf, on the adjacent reef; the whole must have...
Page 48 - ... leaves ; which, in appearance, resembled the feather girdles of the Peruvians, or other South American tribes. At other times they wore a vest of ripe yellow plantain leaves, and ornamented their heads with wreaths of the bright yellow and scarlet leaves of the hutu, or Barringtonia ; but, in general, their appearance was far more repulsive than when they wore these partial coverings.
Page 48 - ... tutelar deities of the society. This was merely a symbol of the presence of the gods ; and consisted principally in a stone for each, from Oro's marae, and a few red feathers from the inside of the sacred image. Into these symbols the gods were supposed to enter when the priest pronounced a short ubu, or prayer, immediately before the sailing of the fleet. The numbers connected with this fraternity, and the magnitude of some of their expeditions, will appear from the fact of Cook's witnessing,...
Page 89 - The sa't provisions, flour, and spirits they threw overboard as unpalatable ; the carriage guns they did the same with, considering them useless ; the muskets they prized very much ; and one of the savages, in his eagerness to try one, stove in the head of a...
Page 52 - ... would send his servants to the best plantations in the neighbourhood ; and these grounds, without any ceremony, they plundered of whatever was fit for use. Such lawless acts of robbery were repeated every day, so long as the Areois continued in the district; and when they departed, the gardens often exhibited a scene of desolation and ruin, that, but for the influence of the chiefs, would have brought fearful vengeance upon those who had occasioned it. A number of distinct classes prevailed among...