There was a never-ending spring, and flowers unsown were kissed by the warm western breeze. Then the unploughed land gave forth corn, and the ground, year after year, was white with full ears of grain. Rivers of milk, rivers of nectar ran, and the yellow honey continued to pour from the ever-green oak.
OVIDIUS.
On landing, having overcome the animosity of the natives and ascertained the boundless resources of the island, they could not escape the conviction that they in their wanderings over the limitless sea, had at last found "a heaven on earth" (Milton).
What wonderful stories those men must have brought to Europe on their return after the long and hazardous voyage, when they related what they had seen in Tahiti, then in its primitive native state! Captain Cook made a longer stay in the island on his first visit and had therefore a better opportunity to study the island, its resources and its interesting inhabitants. It is on his descriptions we will rely in giving an account of some of the traits, customs and habits of the people as they existed at that time.
RELIGION OF THE NATIVES
Every one is, in a small degree, the image of God.
MANLIUS.
The most primitive of all races have some conception of a divinity and a life hereafter, for
A god has his abode within our breast; when he rouses us, the glow of inspiration warms us; this holy rapture springs from the seeds of the divine mind sown in man.
OVIDIUS.
Let us listen to Captain Cook concerning the religion of the Tahitians before they knew the name of God and the story of the Saviour while on earth:
The common people have only a very vague idea of the religious sentiments of the race, but the priests, who are quite numerous, have established quite an extensive and somewhat complicated system. They do not worship one God, as possessing preeminence; but believe in a plurality of divinities, who are all supposed to be very powerful, and, as different parts of the island, and the other islands in the neighborhood, have different ones, the inhabitants of such, no doubt, think that they have chosen the most potent and considerate one. Their devotion in serving their gods is remarkably conspicuous. Not only the whattas or offering-places of the morals are commonly loaded with fruits and animals, but there are few houses lacking a small place of the same sort. Many of them are so impressed with their obligations to their divinity that they will not begin a meal without first laying aside a morsel for their Eatooa (their god).
Their prayers are also very frequent, which they chant, much after the manner of songs, in their festive entertainments. They also believe in an evil spirit, they call Etee, who sometimes does them mischief, and to whom, as well as to their god, they make offerings.
But the mischiefs they fear from any superior invisible beings are confined only to temporal things. They believe the soul to be both immaterial and immortal. They say that it keeps fluttering about the lips during the pangs of death, and that then it ascends and mixes with, or, as they express it, is eaten by the deity. In this state it remains for some time; after which it departs to a certain place destined for the reception of the souls of men, where it exists in eternal night, or, as they sometimes say, in twilight or dawn. They have no idea of any permanent punishment after death for crimes that they have committed on earth. They believe in the recognition of relatives and friends after death and in resuming the same relations as on earth. If the husband dies first, the soul of his wife is known to him on its arrival in the land of spirits. They resume their former acquaintance, in a spacious house, where the souls of the deceased assemble to recreate themselves with the gods. From here man and wife retire to their own habitation, where they remain forever.
The most singular part of their faith consists in claiming that not only man, but all other animals, trees, fruit and even stones are endowed with a soul, which at death, or upon being consumed or broken, ascends to the divinity, with whom they first mix, and afterward pass into the mansion allotted to each.
The temples of the Tahitians were the maraes, enclosures of stones, where the offerings were rendered, and on certain occasions human beings were sacrificed. The largest marae ever built in Tahiti is located at Papara and the ruins of it remain to-day. At the time of Captain Cook's visit there were numerous maraes all over the island, which served as places of worship, sacrifice and burial. The supreme chief of the whole island was always housed in a marae and after his death the marae was appropriated to his family and some of the principal people. Such a marae differed little from the common ones, except in extent. Its principal part is a large, oblong pile of stones, lying loosely upon each other, about twelve or fourteen feet high, contracted towards the top, with a square area on each side, loosely packed with pebble stones, under which the bones of the chiefs are buried. At a little distance from the end nearest the sea is the place where the sacrifices are offered, which, for a considerable extent, is also loosely paved. There is here a very large scaffold, or whatta, on which the offerings, and other vegetables, are laid. But the animals are deposited on a smaller one, already mentioned, and the human sacrifices are buried under different parts of the pavement. The marae is the altar of other nations. The skulls of the human sacrifices, after a few months, are exhumed and preserved in the marae.