spicions with regard to the nature
of the festival they were now celebrating; and which amounted almost to a
certainty. While in Nukuheva I had frequently been informed that the whole
tribe were never present at these cannibal banquets, but the chiefs and
priests only; and everything I now observed agreed with the account.

The sound of the drums continued without intermission the whole day, and
falling continually upon my ear, caused me a sensation of horror which I
am unable to describe. On the following day, hearing none of those noisy
indications of revelry, I concluded that the inhuman feast was terminated,
and feeling a kind of morbid curiosity to discover whether the Ti might
furnish any evidence of what had taken place there, I proposed to
Kory-Kory to walk there. To this proposition he replied by pointing with
his finger to the newly-risen sun, and then up to the zenith, intimating
that our visit must be deferred until noon. Shortly after that hour we
accordingly proceeded to the Taboo Groves, and as soon as we entered their
precincts, I looked fearfully round in quest of some memorial of the scene
which had so lately been acted there; but everything appeared as usual. On
reaching the Ti, we found Mehevi and a few chiefs reclining on the mats,
who gave me as friendly a reception as ever. No allusions of any kind were
made by them to the recent events; and I refrained, for obvious reasons,
from referring to them myself.

After staying a short time, I took my leave. In passing along the piazza,
previously to descending from the pi-pi, I observed a curiously carved
vessel of wood, of considerable size, with a cover placed over it, of the
same material, and which resembled in shape a small canoe. It was
surrounded by a low railing of bamboos, the top of which was scarcely a
foot from the ground. As the vessel had been placed in its present
position since my last visit, I at once concluded that it must have some
connexion with the recent festival; and, prompted by a curiosity I could
not repress, in passing it I raised one end of the cover; at the same
moment the chiefs, perceiving my design, loudly ejaculated, "Taboo!
taboo!" But the slight glimpse sufficed; my eyes fell upon the disordered
members of a human skeleton, the bones still fresh with moisture, and with
particles of flesh clinging to them here and there!

Kory-Kory, who had been a little in advance of me, attracted by the
exclamations of the chiefs, tur