Their subordinate deities or Eatuas, which are numerous, are of both sexes: the male are worshipped by the men, and the female by the women; and each have Morais to which the other sex is not admitted, though they have also Morais common to both. Men perform the office of priest to both sexes, but each sex has its priests, for those who officiate for one sex, do not officiate for the other.

They believe the immortality of the soul, at least its existence in a separate state, and that there are two situations of different degrees of happiness, somewhat analogous to our heaven and hell: the superior situation they call Tavirua l’erai, the other Tiahoboo. They do not, however, consider them as places of reward and punishment, but as receptacles for different classes; the first, for their Chiefs and principal people, the other for those of inferior rank, for they do not suppose that their actions here in the least influence their future state, or indeed that they come under the cognizance of their deities at all. Their religion, therefore, if it has no influence upon their morals, is at least disinterested; and their expressions of adoration and reverence, whether by words or actions, arise only from a humble sense of their own inferiority, and the ineffable excellence of divine perfection.

Voyaging Accounts