E Turai eattu terara patee whannua toai
Ino o maio Pretane to whennuaia no Tute.

Of these verses our knowledge of the language is too imperfect to
attempt a translation. They frequently amuse themselves by singing such
couplets as these when they are alone, or with their families,
especially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not
without the comfort of artificial light between sunset and bed-time.
Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they
stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle
of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the second, at the
same time consuming that part of the skewer which goes through it; the
second taking fire burns in the same manner down to the third, and so of
the rest: Some of these candles will burn a considerable time, and they
give a very tolerable light. They do not often sit up above an hour
after it is dark; but when they have strangers who sleep in the house,
they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon
such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their
favours.[13]

[Footnote 13: The reader, in perusing the above account of the Otaheitan
evening-recreation, will readily recollect what Mr Park has so
affectingly told of the song of the African woman, of which he was made
the subject. Harmony, that "sovereign of the willing mind," as Mr Gray
denominates it, was both known and worshipped at this island, and that
too, by the very same rites which are so generally practised throughout
the world--regularity of measures, and the frequent recurrence of
similar sounds--