"Soon after you left me, a second messenger came from Towha to Otoo, with a plantain-tree. It was sun-set when we embarked in a canoe and left Oparre. About nine o'clock we landed at Tettaha, at that extremity which joins to Attahooroo. Before we landed, the people called to us from the shore; probably, to tell us that Towha was there. The meeting of Otoo and this chief, I expected, would afford some incident worthy of observation. Otoo, and his attendants, went and seated themselves on the beach, close to the canoe in which Towha was. He was then asleep; but his servants having awakened him, and mentioning Otoo's name, immediately a plantain-tree and a dog were laid at Otoo's feet; and many of Towha's people came and talked with him, as I conceived, about their expedition to Eimeo. After I had, for some time, remained seated close to Otoo, Towha neither stirring from his canoe, nor holding any conversation with us, I went to him. He asked me if Toote was angry with him. I answered, No: that he was his taio; and that he had ordered me to go to Attahooroo to tell him so. Omai now had a long conversation with this chief; but I could gather no information of any kind from him. On my returning to Otoo, he seemed desirous that I should go to eat, and then to sleep. Accordingly, Omai and I left him. On questioning Omai, he said, the reason of Towha's not stirring from his canoe, was his being lame; but that, presently, Otoo and he would converse together in private. This seemed true; for in a little time, those we left with Otoo came to us; and, about ten minutes after, Otoo himself arrived, and we all went to sleep in his canoe.
"The next morning, the ava was in great plenty. One man drank so much that he lost his senses. I should have supposed him to be in a fit, from the convulsions that agitated him. Two men held him, and kept plucking off his hair by the roots. I left this spectacle to see another that was more affecting. This was the meeting of Towha and his wife, and a young girl, whom I understood to be his daughter. After the ceremony of cutting their heads, and discharging a tolerable quantity of blood and tears, they washed, embraced the chief, and seemed unconcerned. But the young girl's sufferings were not yet come to an end. Terridiri[2] arrived; and she went, with great composure, to repeat the same ceremonies to him, which she had just performed on meeting her father. Towha had brought a large war-canoe from Eimeo. I enquired if he had killed the people belonging to her; and was told, that there was no man in her when she was captured.
"We left Tettaha about ten or eleven o'clock, and landed close to the morai of Attahooroo a little after noon. There lay three canoes hauled upon the beach, opposite the morai, with three hogs exposed in each: their sheds, or awnings, had something under them which I could not discern. We expected the solemnity to be performed the same afternoon; but as neither Towha nor Potatou had joined us, nothing was done.
"A chief from Eimeo came with a small pig, and a plantain-tree, and placed them at Otoo's feet. They talked some time together; and the Eimeo chief often repeating the words, Warry, warry, 'false,' I supposed that Otoo was relating to him what he had heard, and that the other denied it.
"The next day (Wednesday) Towha and Potatou, with about eight large canoes, arrived, and landed near the morai. Many plantain-trees were brought, on the part of different chiefs to Otoo. Towha did not stir from his canoe. The ceremony began by the principal priest bringing out the maro wrapped up, and a bundle shaped like a large sugar-loaf. These were placed at the head of what I understood to be a grave. Then three priests came, and sat down opposite, that is, at the other end of the grave; bringing with them a plantain-tree, the branch of some other tree, and the sheath of the flower of the cocoa-nut tree.
"The priests, with these things in their hands, separately repeated sentences; and, at intervals, two, and sometime all three, sung a melancholy ditty, little attended to by the people. This praying and singing continued for an hour. Then, after a short prayer, the principal priest uncovered the maro; and Otoo rose up, and wrapped it about him, holding, at the same time, in his hand, a cap or bonnet, composed of the red feathers of the tail of the tropic bird, mixed with other feathers of a dark colour. He stood in the middle space, facing the three priests, who continued their prayers for about ten minutes; when a man, starting from the crowd, said something which ended with the word heiva! and the crowd echoed back to him, three times, Earee! This, as I had been told before, was the principal part of the solemnity.
"The company now moved to the opposite side of the great pile of stones, where is, what they call, the king's morai, which is not unlike a large grave. Here the same ceremony was performed over again, and ended in three cheers. The maro was now wrapped up, and increased in its splendour by the addition of a small piece of red feathers, which one of the priests gave Otoo when he had it on, and which he stuck into it.
"From this place, the people went to a large hut, close by the morai, where they seated themselves in much greater order than is usual among them. A man of Tiaraboo then made an oration, which lasted about ten minutes. He was followed by an Attahooroo man; afterward Potatou spoke with much greater fluency and grace than any of them; for, in general, they spoke in short broken sentences, with a motion of the hand that was rather awkward. Tooteo, Otoo's orator, spoke next; and, after him, a man from Eimeo. Two or three more speeches were made; but not much attended to. Omai told me, that the speeches declared, that they should not fight, but all be friends. As many of the speakers expressed themselves with warmth, possibly there were some recriminations and protestations of their good intentions. In the midst of their speaking, a man of Attahooroo got up, with a sling fastened to his waist, and a large stone placed upon his shoulder. After parading near a quarter of an hour, in the open space, repeating something in a singing tone, he threw the stone down. This stone, and a plantain-tree that lay at Otoo's feet, were, after the speeches ended, carried to the morai: and one of the priests, and Otoo with him, said something upon the occasion.
"On our return to Oparre, the sea-breeze having set in, we were obliged to land; and had a pleasant walk through almost the whole extent of Tettaha to Oparre. A tree, with two bundles of dried leaves suspended upon it, marked the boundary of the two districts. The man who had performed the ceremony of the stone and sling came with us. With him, Otoo's father had a long conversation. He seemed very angry. I understood, he was enraged at the part Towha had taken in the Eimeo business."
From what I can judge of this solemnity, as thus described by Mr King, it had not been wholly a thanksgiving, as Omai told us, but rather a confirmation of the treaty, or perhaps both. The grave, which Mr King speaks of, seems to be the very spot where the celebration of the rites began, when the human sacrifice, at which I was present, was offered, and before which the victim was laid, after being removed from the sea side. It is at this part of the morai also that they first invest their kings with the maro. Omai, who had been present when Otoo was made king, described to me the whole ceremony, when we were here; and I find it to be almost the same as this that Mr King has now described, though we understood it to be upon a very different occasion. The plantain-tree, so often mentioned, is always the first thing introduced, not only in all their religious ceremonies, but in all their debates, whether of a public or private nature. It is also used on other occasions; perhaps many more than we know of. While Towha was at Eimeo, one or more messengers came from him to Otoo every day. The messenger always came with a young plantain-tree in his hand, which he laid down at Otoo's feet, before he spoke a word; then seated himself before him, and related what he was charged with. I have seen two men in such high dispute that I expected they would proceed to blows; yet, on one laying a plantain-tree before the other, they have both become cool, and carried on the argument without farther animosity. In short, it is, upon all occasions, the olive-branch of these people.