He said, they had hogs to give to the Eatua, and again
repeated Taatu eno. I next asked, If Towtows, that is,
servants or slaves, who had no hogs, dogs, or fowls, but yet were good men,
if they were sacrificed to the Eatua? His answer was No, only bad
men. I asked him several more questions, and all his answers seemed to tend
to this one point, that men for certain crimes were condemned to be
sacrificed to the gods, provided they had not wherewithal to redeem
themselves. This, I think, implies, that on some occasions, human
sacrifices are considered as necessary, particularly when they take such
men as have, by the laws of their country, forfeited their lives, and have
nothing to redeem them; and such will generally be found among the lower
class of people.
The man of whom I made these enquiries, as well as some others, took some
pains to explain the whole of this custom to us; but we were not masters
enough of their language to understand them. I have since learnt from Omai,
that they offer human sacrifices to the Supreme Being. According to his
account, what men shall be so sacrificed, depends on the caprice of the
high priest, who, when they are assembled on any solemn occasion, retires
alone into the house of God, and stays there some time. When he comes out,
he informs them, that he has seen and conversed with their great God (the
high priest alone having that privilege), and that he has asked for a human
sacrifice, and tells them that he has desired such a person, naming a man
present, whom, most probably, the priest has an antipathy against.
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