these monarchs and nobles. They have a due share, very likely, of the appropriate ambition and arbitrary temper. But there seems to be at least one good thing about them; they do not cost the people much for the gaudy decorations and equipage of state. Perhaps, however, it is in truth a sign of the deepest barbarism, that these personages can trust for their influence to the mere virtue and efficacy of their birth and personal qualities, without the appendages of an enormous pomp, to be supported by their people as an additional labour and duty to that of providing for themselves. The king of that part of the island nearest to Port Anna Maria, in which the ships anchored, and who was the first, we believe, of the natives that came on board, had no mark of distinction from the others, except that of being more completely tattooed.

The men are generally strongly built, tall, and of the finest shape. If we may depend on the united testimony of these and several other respectable navigators, the Marquesas afford a tribe of human forms, of the male sex, not to be equalled on the whole earth. The forms of the women appeared much less perfect, especially of that degraded and miserable portion of them who frequented the shore and haunted the ship. A few of those of superior rank and less abandoned habits, who were seen in a more retired state of life, at some distance from shore, were acknowledged to be as much more graceful and beautiful as they were more modest.

PROFLIGACY OF THE ISLANDERS.

Among the profligate class there were absolute children; one not more than eight years old. They were violently mirthful, noisy, and obtrusive, and would swim and sport about the ship for hours when not allowed to come on deck, though they had to swim as much as five or six miles in merely coming to the ship and returning. They are rendered doubly objects of pity by the fact which these writers confidently assert, that they are authoritatively ordered on the vicious service by their fathers and husbands, who were seen regularly to take from them, before they could even reach the shore, the trifles they had obtained in the way of reward.

The captain is not disposed to attribute any virtue to the female sex in the island, any more than to the male popula

tion, who are universally their oppressive tyrants, as in all the savage portions of the human race.

FACILITIES OF MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

It appears that there is among them a kind of marriage relation, the contract of which is celebrated with festive and most degrading ceremonies; but the measure of restraint which it imposes appears to be very small. A complete separation is said to be easily affected; let either party wish for it, and it is done; and if there are any children (which are never numerous, rarely more than two), there can be no difficulty in disposing of them,-if there is no other expedient, they may be eaten.

GOVERNMENT OF THE MARQUESAS.

As to government, a matter of such unlimited controversy, ambition, and expense of both treasure and blood, the source of so much good and evil, in the civilized and half-civilized parts of the world, our authors say that among these islanders there is nothing which can strictly be called by that name. It could not be ascertained in what form of a constitution the personage whom the two resident Europeans denominated the king would have liked to declare and enforce his prerogatives but it was evident this his actual authority was very trifling, his person being regarded with indifference, and his orders sometimes with contempt. A certain portion of influence which he did nevertheless enjoy, the voyagers attribute not to any political principle in the social economy, but simply to his being richer in the possession, probably the hereditary possession, of groves of cocoa-nut trees, and the means of keeping hogs, than any other man of the valley, and therefore able to engage and sustain a greater number of dependents. He did actually feed a considerable band of them, which Roberts himself, by stress of famine, had been reduced to join the preceding year.

THE TABOO.

The only material restraint on the passions of this lawless and savage population is the Taboo, a ceremony conspicuous in all the descriptions of the South Sea islands. We need not explain that it is a consecrating interdict, by which certain persons, places, and things may be secured, as by a

mysterious charm, against being touched or approached by other persons and things.

The taboo is as efficacious in its mischievous, as in any of its more serviceable applications: under some circumstances a man can taboo the bread-fruit and cocoa trees of another, and thus deprive him of his property and means of subsistence, and consequently drive him an outcast from the country. It is employed in numerous ways of deprivation and degradation against the women, especially in excluding them from all participation in the superior diet (human food) in which the men often indulge themselves, and for the purpose of a perfectly undisturbed enjoyment in which they very commonly have an additional house, which is tabooed to the females.

WAR FEASTS OF THE MARQUESANS.

There is often war among the different sections of these islanders, but they seem to have little of the heroic sentiment of that noble game. Notwithstanding the intensity of their rancour, they would greatly prefer eating one another to fighting one another. There is a sort of national "dancefeast," which the captain styles the "Olympic games of these savages." In order to the celebration of this, which custom requires should not be omitted too long, there must be an armistice, which, when demanded by either of the belligerents on the pretence of preparing for the festival, is instantly agreed to by the other. And though any preparations really required or intended would not need to employ more than a few days, they are willing to take advantage of the pretence to prolong the time for many months, during which time the enemies join the pretended preparations.

"Six months had elapsed since the last truce was proclaimed, and eight months longer were to pass before the feast began.' "After the termination of the feast they return home, and the war recommences in all its vigour."

The truce is announced by planting a branch of a cocoa tree on the top of the mountain, on which the war is instantly suspended. But even during this "hallowed and gracious time," should what the captain denominates a "high

priest" happen to stratagem or open sacrificed to him.

die, three persons must be taken, by force, from the opposite tribe, to be This, of course, will sometimes instantly

rekindle the general war between them.

CANNIBALISM OF THE MARQUESANS.

We have already intimated a grand feature in the moral state of these islanders,-their cannibalism. There was no possibility of a doubt as to the fact. It formed a capital part of the concurring testimony of two resident Europeans, and would have been confirmed, had that been at all necessary, by the circumstances of human bones being used as decorations of their household furniture, and skulls being repeatedly offered for sale, marked by a perforation apparently adapted to the purpose of sipping out the blood, which was mentioned by the witnesses as a circumstance of their infernal banquets.

If the people of Nukahiwa had been found in the practice of devouring their enemies only, there would have been nothing to excite any unusual sensation in those who have read the accounts given by former reporters, of the innocence and felicity of the unsophisticated tribes who inhabit the South Sea Islands. But their relish for human flesh is subject to no such irrational partiality. By a bold enlargement of taste and liberty in this particular, they are distinguished," as Krusenstern remarks, "from all other cannibals, and are a singular example among the numerous tribes of savages who inhabit the many islands on the north-west coast of this great ocean." For,

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"In times of famine the men butcher their wives and children, and their aged parents; they bake and stew their flesh, and devour it with the greatest satisfaction. Even the tenderlooking female, whose eyes beam nothing but beauty, will join, if permitted, in this horrid repast.”

WOMEN DENIED THE LUXURY OF EATING THEIR PARENTS.

Langsdorff, however, says that this luxury is tabooed to women, as too high and enviable an indulgence to comport with their subordinate rank. As corroborative of this statement of their devouring their relatives and friends, it might be mentioned, that the voyagers saw but very few old

CANNIBALISM OF THE MARQUESAS.

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'people among the natives; and it is as evidence directly in point that they notice the fact of an enormous disproportion of numbers between the males and females, with the additional circumstance that there were extremely few children anywhere to be seen. If it were true, according to the testimony of Cabri, that this surpassing perpetration is confined to seasons of very great scarcity, it is not likely to be therefore of rare occurrence, among a people too indolent for agriculture, infinitely too thoughtless and too fond of feasting to lay up stores on a calculation of distant possibilities, and whose whimsical perverseness (unless indeed it were a contrivance to create a fair occasion for domestic cannibalism) has tabooed fish just at the season that it would be of the greatest service.

But whether it be true or not that the common people are obliged to wait till a season of scarcity, or a war, to obtain this greatest luxury known to them on earth, it is asserted by Langsdorff, that the destestable Tanas, or priests, put themselves under no such restriction, and the following description exhibits, on a small scale, as pure a piece of infernality, in pretending to be moved to their abominations by superior agents, as any to be found in history.

INSPIRED CANNIBALISM.

"The Tanas often regale themselves with human flesh merely from the delight they take in it. For this purpose they make a semblance as if they were under the influence of a spirit, and, after various grimaces and contortions, appear to fall into a deep sleep. This they take care shall always be done in such places and on such occasions, as that there may be an abundance of spectators. After sleeping a short time, they wake suddenly, and relate to the people around them what the spirit has dictated to them in their dreams. The command sometimes happens to be, that a woman or man, a tattooed or an untattooed person, a fat or a lean one, an old man or a youth, out of the next valley, or from the next river, must be seized and brought to them. The people to whom this is related, immediately post themselves in some ambush near a footpath, or a river that abounds with fish, and the consequence is, that the first person that comes that way, bearing any resemblance to the description given as seen in the dream, is taken, and brought to the Tana's morai, and eaten in company with his taboo society. It depends also frequently upon the Tana to determine whether any enemies shall be taken prisoners, and how many."