to put
one finger to his mouth before he had completed the work he was about,
the atua (divinity) would certainly punish his impious contempt, by
getting into his stomach before his time, and eating him out of the
world. Of this premature destiny he seemed so apprehensive that he kept
his hands as though they were never made for touching any article of
diet; nor did he suffer them by even a single motion to show the least
sympathy for his mouth, while that organ was obliged to use double
exertions, and act for those members which superstition had paralysed.

"Sitting down by the side of this deluded being, whom credulity and
ignorance had rendered hopeless," says Nicholas, "I undertook to feed
him; and his appetite being quite voracious, I could hardly supply it as
fast as he devoured. Without ever consulting his digestive powers, of
which we cannot suppose he had any idea, he spared himself the trouble
of mastication; and, to lose no time, swallowed down every lump as I put
it into his mouth: and I speak within compass when I assert that he
consumed more food than would have served any two ploughmen in England.

"Perfectly tired of administering to his insatiable gluttony, which was
still as ravenous as when he commenced, I now wished for a little
intermission; and taking advantage of his situation, I resolved to give
him as much to do as would employ him for at least a few minutes,
while, in the meantime, it would afford me some amusement for my
trouble. I therefore thrust into his mouth the largest hot potato I
could find, and this had exactly the intended effect; for the fellow,
unwilling to drop it, and not daring to penetrate it before it should
get cool, held it slightly compressed between his teeth, to the great
enjoyment of his countrymen, who laughed heartily, as well as myself, at
the wry faces he made, and the efforts he used with his tongue to
moderate the heat of the potato, and bring it to the temperature of his
gums, which were evidently smarting from the contact. But he bore this
trick with the greatest possible good humour, and to make him amends for
it, I took care to supply him plentifully, till he cried out, 'Nuee nuee
kiki,'[AB] and could eat no more; an exclamation, however, which he did
not make till there was no more in the baskets."[AC]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote S: tapu'd.]

[Footnote T: "Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains."]

[Footnote U: "Moko" is the accepted form of spelling the word.]