ted each other, are ejected from the community, and forfeit all
claim to the privileges and pleasures of Arreoy for the future; the
woman from that time being distinguished by the term _whannow-now_,
'bearer of children,' which is here a term of reproach."[54] The
pretext alleged by the Areois for this cruel practice was that, on
the institution of the Society by the god Oro, the first two members,
Orotetefa and Urutetefa, brothers of the god, had been celibate and
childless, and that therefore the members of the Society were bound to
imitate them by being also without offspring.[55]

[53] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 194; J. R. Forster, _Observations_,
pp. 413 _sq._; G. Forster, _Voyage_, ii. 129 _sq._; J. Wilson,
_op. cit._ pp. 154 _sq._, 174, 194 _sq._; W. Ellis, _op. cit._
i. 230 _sq._, 233, 240. Moerenhout says that when a chief was an
Areoi, his first-born son was spared, but all the rest were
sacrificed; but immediately afterwards he adds, with apparent
inconsistency, that "the first (by which he seems to mean the
principal) Areois only killed their first sons and all their
daughters; the other male infants were spared." See Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 495, 496. These statements, so far as I have
observed, are not confirmed by other writers.

[54] J. Cook, i. 194.

[55] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 230 _sq._, 232 _sq._

In the constant repetition of their often obscene exhibitions the Areois
passed their lives, sailing from island to island or strolling from one
chief's house to that of another, where they renewed the same round of
dances, wrestlings, and pantomimic performances.[56] But the labour and
drudgery of dancing and performing for the amusement of the spectators
devolved chiefly on the lowest members of the Society, who were the
principal actors in all their shows, while the higher orders, though
they plastered themselves with charcoal and stained themselves scarlet
like their humbler brethren, were generally careful not to contribute to
the public hilarity by any exhausting efforts of their own. Thus they
led a life of dissipation and luxurious indolence.[57]

[56] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 236, 237.

[57] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 238, 241.

They seem to have moved about in great troupes. As many as seventy
canoes, with more than seven hundred of these vagabonds on board, have
been seen steering from island to island.[58] The approach of such a
fleet