of it, a semicircular board, from which hung fifteen human
jaw-bones, apparently fresh; not one of them wanted a tooth. He
was told that they "had been carried away as trophies, the
people here carrying away the jaw-bones of their enemies, as the
Indians of North America do the scalps." See J. Cook, _Voyages_,
i. 152, 160.

[31] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 549.

Oro was said to have instituted the notorious Society of the Areois, a
licentious fraternity of strolling players and mountebanks, who roamed
about in troupes from island to island, everywhere entertaining the
populace by their shows, which comprised recitations, songs, dramatic
performances, wrestling matches, and especially dances, which were often
of a lascivious character.[32] These exhibitions, which were witnessed
by crowds and appear to have been the most popular amusement of the
islanders, were given in large, substantial, sometimes highly
ornamented, houses, which were erected chiefly for the purpose of
lodging these itinerant performers, and providing them with suitable
places for their performances.[33] The first missionaries describe how,
in a long native house where they lodged for the night, they saw the
Areois men and women dancing and singing till near midnight: so great
were their numbers that they made the house appear like a village.[34]
Sometimes, apparently, the performances took place in front of the
house, the musicians, singers, and reciters occupying a sort of stage,
while the actors or dancers performed on a place marked out for them on
the ground or on the floor.[35] The subject of their songs or
recitations was often a legend of the gods, or of some distinguished
member of the Society, which was chanted or recited by the performers in
chorus seated in a circle on the ground, while the leader stood in the
centre and introduced the recitation with a sort of prologue,
accompanied by antic gestures and attitudes.[36] In these recitals the
tales often turned on romantic and diverting episodes in the lives of
ancestors or of deities. "Many of these were very long, and regularly
composed, so as to be repeated verbatim, or with such illustrations only
as the wit or fancy of the narrator might have the skill to introduce.
Their captain on public occasions, was placed cross-legged on a stool
seven feet high, with a fan in his hand, in the midst of the circle of
laughing or admiring auditors, whom he delighte