Joseph Banks - Endeavour Journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0348
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[Page 348]
Otahite
of tools the stones are also polished & as well & truly as stones of the kind could be by the best workman in Europe in that particular they excell owing to the great plenty of a sharp coral sand which is admirably adapted to that purpose & is found everywhere upon the seashore in this neighbourhood - about 100 yards to the west of this building was another court or or pavd area in which were several ewhattas a kind of altars raisd on wooden pillars about 7 feet high on these they offer meat of all kinds to the gods we have seen large Hogs offerd & here were the Sculls of above 50 of them besides those of dogs which the preist who accompanied us assurd us were only a small part of what had been here sacrafisd. This marai & aparatus for sacrafice belongd we were told to Oborea Oamo The greatest pride of an inhabitant of Otahite is to have a grand Marai in this particular our freinds far exceed any one in the Island & in the Dolphins time the first of them exceeded every one else in riches & respect as much The reason of the difference of her present apearance from that I found by an accident which I now relate in going too & coming home from the Marai our road lay by the the sea side & every where under our feet were numberless human bones cheifly ribbs & vertebrae So singular a sight surprizd me much I enquird the reason & was told that in the month calld by them Owiráhew last which answers to our December 1768, the people of Tiarreboo made a descent here & killd a large number of people whose bones we now saw that upon this Occasion Oborea Oamo