Islands_, pp. 476 _sq._

Such beliefs in the survival of the soul after death may have nerved the
warrior with fresh courage in battle; but they can have contributed but
little to the happiness and consolation of ordinary people, who could
apparently look forward to nothing better in the life hereafter than
being cooked and eaten by a hideous hag.

CHAPTER V

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE SOCIETY ISLANDERS

Sec. 1. _The Society Islands_

The Society Islands are a large and scattered archipelago in the South
Pacific, situated within 16 deg. and 18 deg. of South latitude, and between 148 deg.
and 155 deg. of West longitude. They lie some three hundred miles from the
Hervey or Cook Islands, from which they are separated by the open sea.
The islands form a chain nearly two hundred miles in length, extending
from north-west to south-east, and fall into two groups, an eastern and
a western, which, on account of the prevailing wind, are known
respectively as the Windward and Leeward Islands. The Windward or
eastern group includes Eimeo or Mooerea in the west, Maitea in the east,
and Tahiti, the principal island of the whole archipelago, in the
centre. In the Leeward or western group the chief islands are Huahine,
Raiatea, Tahaa, and Borabora. The islands appear to have been first
discovered by the Spanish navigator Fernandez de Quiros in 1606 or 1607,
but after him they were lost sight of till 1767, when they were
rediscovered by Wallis. A few years later they were repeatedly visited
by Captain Cook, who gave the first full and accurate description of the
islands and their inhabitants.[1]

[1] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 6 _sq._; A. v.
H[uegel], "Tahiti," _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition,
xxiii. 22, 24; C. E. Meinicke, _Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans_,
ii. 151 _sqq._; F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, ii. 510. As
to Wallis's discovery of the islands see J. Hawkesworth,
_Voyages_, i. (London, 1773) pp. 433 _sqq._; R. Kerr, _General
History and Collection of Voyages and Travels_, xii. (Edinburgh,
1814) pp. 164 _sqq._

The islands, with the exception of a few flat lagoon islands, are of
volcanic formation, high and mountainous, consisting for the most part
of a central peak or peaks of bold and striking outline, which descend
in steep ridges towards the sea, sometimes reaching the coast, but
oftener leaving a broad stretch of flat and very fertile land bet