A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 by Robert Kerr
page 81 of 683 (11%)
page 81 of 683 (11%)
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seemed true; for in a little time, those we left with Otoo came to us;
and, about ten minutes after, Otoo himself arrived, and we all went to sleep in his canoe. "The next morning, the _ava_ was in great plenty. One man drank so much that he lost his senses. I should have supposed him to be in a fit, from the convulsions that agitated him. Two men held him, and kept plucking off his hair by the roots. I left this spectacle to see another that was more affecting. This was the meeting of Towha and his wife, and a young girl, whom I understood to be his daughter. After the ceremony of cutting their heads, and discharging a tolerable quantity of blood and tears, they washed, embraced the chief, and seemed unconcerned. But the young girl's sufferings were not yet come to an end. Terridiri[2] arrived; and she went, with great composure, to repeat the same ceremonies to him, which she had just performed on meeting her father. Towha had brought a large war-canoe from Eimeo. I enquired if he had killed the people belonging to her; and was told, that there was no man in her when she was captured. [Footnote 2: Terridiri was Oberea's son. See an account of the royal family of Otaheite, in this Collection, vol. xii. p. 482.] "We left Tettaha about ten or eleven o'clock, and landed close to the _morai_ of Attahooroo a little after noon. There lay three canoes hauled upon the beach, opposite the _morai_, with three hogs exposed in each: their sheds, or awnings, had something under them which I could not discern. We expected the solemnity to be performed the same afternoon; but as neither Towha nor Potatou had joined us, nothing was done. |
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