(1.) THE HUMAN SACRIFICE.
(See [page 1076].)
(2.) CORPSE AND CHIEF MOURNER.
(See [page 1079].)
There is a special building, called a tupapau, in which the bodies of chiefs are exhibited when lying in state. First, there is a tolerably large house, with a palisade around it, and within this house is the tupapau itself. It is made exactly like the little pent-houses that are built upon the larger canoes, and is profusely decorated with scarlet feathers, cloth, and other precious ornaments. Two men are attached to the tupapau, who watch over it night and day, attend to the proper arrangement of the cloth and feathers, receive the offerings of fruit and provisions that are constantly made, and prevent intruders from venturing within the palisades.
The [second illustration] on the 1077th page exhibits the manner in which the bodies of ordinary chiefs are laid out under the protection of a covered shed, as well as the extraordinary dress worn by the chief mourner. The dress is composed in the most ingenious manner of mother-of-pearl shell, feathers, bark cloth, and similar materials, and has a peculiarly startling appearance from the contrast between the glittering white of the pearl-shell and the dark feathers with which the shell is surrounded. Several of these extraordinary dresses have been brought to England, and may be seen in different collections.
Before leaving the Society Islands, it will be necessary to mention an extraordinary institution that in former times prevailed among them. It consisted of a society called the “Areois.” They were worshippers of the god Oro; and though they formed a single confraternity throughout all the Society group, each island furnished its own members.
Some writers have likened the society to that of Freemasonry; but no two institutions can be more utterly opposed than those of the Masonic and the Areoi societies—the one insisting on monotheism, while the other is based on idolatry; the one being an universal, and the other a local society; the one inculcating morality, and the other being formed for the express purpose of throwing aside the small relics of morality possessed by a native Polynesian.
It is not improbable, however, that on its first foundation the Areoi society possessed something of a religious nature. When Areois who had been converted to Christianity managed to shake off the dread with which they contemplated any reference to the mysteries of their society, they all agreed in the main points, though differing in details.
In the first place, the Areois believed in the immortality of the soul, and in the existence of a heaven suited to their own characters. Those who rose to high rank in the Areoi society were believed, after their death, to hold corresponding rank in their heaven, which they called by the name of Rohutu-noa-noa, or Fragrant Paradise. All those who entered were restored to the vigor and bloom of youth, no matter what might be their age; and in almost every respect the resemblance between the Polynesian Rohutu and the Mohammedan Paradise is close and almost startling.
The method by which this Paradise was to be gained was most extraordinary. Fanatics of an ordinary turn of mind believe that everlasting happiness hereafter is to be gained by self-denial and mortification of the body during the present life. The Areois, with an almost sublime audacity, held precisely the opposite view, and proclaimed both by words and deeds that a life of eternal enjoyment in the next world was to be obtained by leading a life of unbridled license in the present world.