Human sacrifices were also offered on the breaking out of war. Mr. Williams
remarks that a correct idea of the extent to which this system is carried may be
obtained from a relation of the circumstances under which the last Tahitian
victim fell, immediately prior to the introduction of Christianity. Pomare, king of
Tahiti, was on the point of fighting a battle which would assure his supremacy or
deprive him of his dominions. It became to him, therefore, a matter of the
highest concern to propitiate the gods by the most valuable offerings he could
command. For this purpose, rolls of native cloth, pigs, fish, and immense
quantities of other food were presented at the maraes; but the gods (or their
priests) would not be satisfied; a human victim was demanded. Pomare,
therefore, sent two of his messengers to the house of the victim, whom he had
marked for the occasion. On reaching the place they inquired of the wife where
her husband was, and she, in her innocence, gave the required explanation.
“Well,” they continued, “we are thirsty; give us some cocoa-nut water.” She had
no nuts in the house, she replied, but they were at liberty to climb the trees, and
take as many as they desired. They then requested her to lend them the O,—a
piece of ironwood, about four feet long and an inch and a half in diameter, with
which the natives open the cocoa-nut. She cheerfully consented, little suspecting
that she was placing in their murderous hands the instrument which, in a few
moments, was to inflict a fatal blow on her husband’s head. Upon receiving the
O, the men left the house, and went in search of their victim; and the woman, her
suspicions being excited, followed them shortly afterwards, reaching the scene
just in time to see the blow inflicted, and her husband fall.
She rushed forward to take a last embrace, but was immediately seized and
bound hand and foot, while her husband’s body was placed in a long basket
made of cocoa-nut leaves, and carried from her sight. The sacrificers were
always exceedingly careful to prevent the wife, or daughter, or any female
relative from touching the corpse; for so polluting were females considered, that
a victim would have been desecrated by a woman’s touch or breath, to such a
degree as to have rendered it unfit for an offering to the gods.
While the men were bearing their victim to the marae, he recovered from the
stunning effect of the blow, and, bound as he was in the cocoa-nut leaf basket,
said to his murderers: “Friends, I know what you are about to do with me; you
are about to kill me, and offer me as a tabu to your savage gods; and I also know
that it is useless for me to beg for mercy, for you will not spare my life. You may
kill my body, but you cannot hurt my soul; for I have begun to pray to Jesus, the
knowledge of Whom the missionaries have brought to our island: you may kill