{"id":"01KG8AM56F6P4NDCNNBT1BZS74","cid":"bafkreic3jujxvyfrdmg2nm5moz7aotno2bcvykphe2hasncx2ikm22ebri","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7520,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":7471,"text":"CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR\r\n\r\nIDEAS SUGGESTED BY THE FEAST OF CALABASHES--INACCURACY OF CERTAIN\r\nPUBLISHED ACCOUNTS OF THE ISLANDS--A REASON--NEGLECTED STATE OF\r\nHEATHENISM IN THE VALLEY--EFFIGY OF A DEAD WARRIOR--A SINGULAR\r\nSUPERSTITION--THE PRIEST KOLORY AND THE GOD MOA ARTUA--AMAZING RELIGIOUS\r\nOBSERVANCE--A DILAPIDATED SHRINE--KORY-KORY AND THE IDOL--AN INFERENCE\r\n\r\n\r\nAlthough I had been baffled in my attempts to learn the origin of\r\nthe Feast of Calabashes, yet it seemed very plain to me that it was\r\nprincipally, if not wholly, of a religious character. As a religious\r\nsolemnity, however, it had not at all corresponded with the horrible\r\ndescriptions of Polynesian worship which we have received in some\r\npublished narratives, and especially in those accounts of the\r\nevangelized islands with which the missionaries have favoured us. Did\r\nnot the sacred character of these persons render the purity of their\r\nintentions unquestionable, I should certainly be led to suppose that\r\nthey had exaggerated the evils of Paganism, in order to enhance the\r\nmerit of their own disinterested labours.\r\n\r\nIn a certain work incidentally treating of the ‘Washington, or Northern\r\nMarquesas Islands,’ I have seen the frequent immolation of human victims\r\nupon the altars of their gods, positively and repeatedly charged upon\r\nthe inhabitants. The same work gives also a rather minute account of\r\ntheir religion--enumerates a great many of their superstitions--and\r\nmakes known the particular designations of numerous orders of the\r\npriesthood. One would almost imagine from the long list that is given\r\nof cannibal primates, bishops, arch-deacons, prebendaries, and other\r\ninferior ecclesiastics, that the sacerdotal order far outnumbered the\r\nrest of the population, and that the poor natives were more severely\r\npriest-ridden than even the inhabitants of the papal states. These\r\naccounts are likewise calculated to leave upon the reader’s mind an\r\nimpression that human victims are daily cooked and served up upon the\r\naltars; that heathenish cruelties of every description are continually\r\npractised; and that these ignorant Pagans are in a state of the\r\nextremest wretchedness in consequence of the grossness of their\r\nsuperstitions. Be it observed, however, that all this information is\r\ngiven by a man who, according to his own statement, was only at one of\r\nthe islands, and remained there but two weeks, sleeping every night on\r\nboard his ship, and taking little kid-glove excursions ashore in the\r\ndaytime, attended by an armed party.\r\n\r\nNow, all I can say is, that in all my excursions through the valley of\r\nTypee, I never saw any of these alleged enormities. If any of them are\r\npractised upon the Marquesas Islands they must certainly have come to\r\nmy knowledge while living for months with a tribe of savages, wholly\r\nunchanged from their original primitive condition, and reputed the most\r\nferocious in the South Seas.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR250Y3B8PH384FGZ4CM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56F01SVQ7MPBRFQ2M8B","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.855Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.281Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}