The morai, as has already been observed, is at once a burying-ground and a place of worship, and in this particular our churches too much resemble it. The Indian, however, approaches his morai with a reverence and humility that disgraces the christian, not because he holds any thing sacred that is there, but because he there worships an invisible divinity, for whom, though he neither hopes for reward, nor fears punishment, at his hand, he always expresses the profoundest homage and most humble adoration. I have already given a very particular description both of the morais and the altars that are placed near them. When an Indian is about to worship at the morai, or brings his offering to the altar, he always uncovers his body to the waist, and his looks and attitude are such as sufficiently express a corresponding disposition of mind.[32] [Footnote 32: Almost all the particulars now and afterwards stated _in favour_ of the Otaheitans, are fully allowed by recent accounts, especially that of the Missionary Voyage already noticed.--E.] It did not appear to us that these people are, in any instance, guilty of idolatry; at least they do not worship any thing that is the work of their hands, nor any visible part of the creation. This island indeed, and the rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron, and others a king's fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and concerning which they have some superstitious notions with respect to good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and robin-red-breast, giving them the name of _Eatua_, and by no means killing or molesting them; yet they never address a petition to them, or approach them with any act of adoration.[33]