Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0345
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[Page 345]
Otahite
June 1769
worth any ax we had in the ship but we had no ax at all in the boat we therefore told Omoe that if he would come to Matavie with his hog he should have a large ax & a nail into the bargain for his trouble which he after having consulted his wife readily agreed to & gave us a large peice of cloth as a pledge of his intention to perform this agreement
At this place we saw a singular curiosity a figure of a man made of Basket work roughly but not ill designd it was 7 feet high & two bulky in proportion to its hight the whole was neatly coverd with feathers white to represent skin & black to represent hair & tattow on the head were three protuberances which we should have calld horns but the Indians calld them tata ete little men the image was calld by them Maúwe they said it was the only one of the kind in Otahite & readily atempted to explain its use but their language was totaly unintelligible & seemed to referr to some customs to which we are perfect strangers - after this we got into the boat & rowd several miles before we went ashore when we did we saw nothing remarkable but a burying ground whose pavement was unusualy neat it was ornamented by a pyramid about 5 feet high coverd intirely with the fruits of Pandanus tectorius & Crataeva in the middle of all near the Pyramid was a small image of stone very roughly workd the first instance of carving in stone I have seen among these people & this they seemd to value