Amongst their religious ceremonies may be reckoned the prayers and offerings made by the priests before their meals. Whilst the _ava_ is chewing, of which they always drink before they begin their repast, the person of the highest rank takes the lead in a sort of hymn, in which he is presently joined by one, two, or more of the company; the rest moving their bodies, and striking their hands gently together, in concert with the singers. When the _ava_ is ready, cups of it are handed about to those who did not join in the song, which they keep in their hands till it is ended; when, uniting in one loud response, they drink off their cup. The performers of the hymn are then served with _ava_, who drink it after a repetition of the same ceremony; and if there be present one of a very superior rank, a cup is, last of all, presented to him, which, after chanting some time alone, and being answered by the rest, and pouring a little out on the ground, he drinks off. A piece of the flesh that is dressed is next cut off, without any selection of the part of the animal, which, together with some of the vegetables, being deposited at the foot of the image of the _Eatooa_, and a hymn chanted, their meal commences. A ceremony of much the same kind is also performed by the chiefs, whenever they drink _ava_ between their meals.
Human sacrifices are more frequent here, according to the account of the natives themselves, than in any other islands we visited. These horrid rites are not only had recourse to upon the commencement of war, and preceding great battles and other signal enterprises, but the death of any considerable chief calls for a sacrifice of one or more _Towtows_, according to his rank; and we were told, that ten men were destined to suffer on the death of Terreeoboo. What may, if any thing possibly can, lessen, in some small degree, the horror of this practice is, that the unhappy victims have not the most distant intimation of their fate. Those who are fixed upon to fall, are set upon with clubs wherever they happen to be, and, after being dispatched, are brought dead to the place, where the remainder of the rites are completed. The reader will here call to his remembrance the skulls of the captives that had been sacrificed at the death of some great chief, and which were fixed on the rails round the top of the _morai_ at Kakooa. We got a farther piece of intelligence upon this subject at the village of Kowrowa; where, on our enquiring into the use of a small piece of ground, inclosed with a stone-fence, we were told that it was an _Here-eere_, or burying-ground of a chief; and there, added our informer, pointing to one of the corners, lie the _tangata_ and _waheene taboo_, or the man and woman who were sacrificed at his funeral.