and vegetables to their gods; but are by no means attentive to
the state of the sacred places where those solemn rites are performed;
most of their _morais_ being in a ruinous condition, and bearing
evident marks of neglect. The people of Atooi, again, inter both their
common dead and human sacrifices, as at Tongataboo; but they resemble
those of Otaheite in the slovenly state of their religious places, and
in offering vegetables and animals to their gods.

The _taboo_ also prevails in Atooi in its full extent, and seemingly
with much more rigour than even at Tongataboo. For the people here
always asked, with great eagerness and signs of fear to offend,
whether any particular thing, which they desired to see, or we were
unwilling to shew, was _taboo_, or, as they pronounced the word,
_tafoo_? The _maia_, _ruae_, or forbidden articles at the Society
Islands, though doubtless the same thing, did not seem to be so
strictly observed by them, except with respect to the dead, about whom
we thought them more superstitious than any of the others were. But
these are circumstances with which we are not as yet sufficiently
acquainted to be decisive about; and I shall only just observe, to
shew the similitude in other matters connected with religion, that the
priests, or _tahounas_, here, are as numerous as at the other islands;
if we may judge, from our being able, during our short stay, to
distinguish several saying their _poore_ or prayer.

But whatever resemblance we might discover, in the general manners of
the people of Atooi to those of Otaheite, these, of course, were less
striking than the coincidence of language, indeed, the languages of
both places may be said to be almost, word for word, the same. It is
true, that we sometimes remarked particular words to be pronounced
exactly as we had found at New Zealand and the Friendly Islands; but,
though all the four dialects are indisputably the same, these people,
in general, have neither the strong guttural pronunciation of the
former, nor a less degree of it, which also distinguishes the latter;
and they have not only adopted the soft mode of the Otaheitans, in
avoiding harsh sounds, but the whole idiom of their language; using
not only the same affixes and suffixes to their words, but the same
measure and cadence in their songs; though, in a manner, somewhat less
agreeable. There seems, indeed, at first hearing, some disagreement to
the ear of a stranger; but it ought to be