CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
IDEAS SUGGESTED BY THE FEAST OF CALABASHES—INACCURACY OF CERTAIN PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS OF THE ISLANDS—A REASON—NEGLECTED STATE OF HEATHENISM IN THE VALLEY—EFFIGY OF A DEAD WARRIOR—A SINGULAR SUPERSTITION—THE PRIEST KOLORY AND THE GOD MOA ARTUA—AMAZING RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE—A DILAPIDATED SHRINE—KORY-KORY AND THE IDOL—AN INFERENCE
ALTHOUGH I had been baffled in my attempts to learn the origin of the Feast of Calabashes, yet it seemed very plain to me that it was principally, if not wholly, of a religious character. As a religious solemnity, however, it had not at all corresponded with the horrible descriptions of Polynesian worship which we have received in some published narratives, and especially in those accounts of the evangelized islands with which the missionaries hav
