men, who carried wands
tipt with dog's hair, and marched before us, pronouncing with a loud
voice a short sentence, in which we could only distinguish the word
_Orono_.[3] The crowd, which had been collected on the shore, retired
at our approach; and not a person was to be seen, except a few lying
prostrate on the ground, near the huts of the adjoining village.

[Footnote 3: Captain Cook generally went by this name amongst the
natives of Owhyhee, but we could never learn its precise meaning.
Sometimes they applied it to an invisible being, who, they said,
lived in the heavens. We also found that it was a title belonging to a
personage of great rank and power in the island, who resembles pretty
much the Delai Lama of the Tartars, and the ecclesiastical emperor of
Japan.]

Before I proceed to relate the adoration that was paid to Captain
Cook, and the peculiar ceremonies with which he was received on this
fatal island, it will be necessary to describe the _morai_, situated,
as I have already mentioned, at the south side of the beach at
_Kakooa_. It was a square solid pile of stones, about forty yards
long, twenty broad, and fourteen in height. The top was flat, and well
paved, and surrounded by a wooden rail, on which were fixed the sculls
of the captives, sacrificed on the death of their chiefs. In the
centre of the area, stood a ruinous old building of wood, connected
with a rail, on each side, by a stone wall, which divided the whole
space into two parts. On the side next the country were five poles,
upward of twenty feet high, supporting an irregular kind of scaffold;
on the opposite side, toward the sea, stood two small houses, with a
covered communication.

We were conducted by Koah to the top of this pile by an easy ascent,
leading from the beach to the N.W. corner of the area. At the
entrance, we saw two large wooden images, with features violently
distorted, and a long piece of carved wood, of a conical form
inverted, rising from the top of their heads, the rest was without
form, and wrapped round with red cloth. We were here met by a tall
young man, with a long beard, who presented Captain Cook to the
images, and after chanting a kind of hymn, in which he was joined by
Koah, they led us to that end of the _morai_ where the five poles were
fixed. At the foot of them were twelve images ranged in a semicircular
form, and before the middle figure stood a high stand or table,
exactly resembling the _whatta_[4] o