Note 77 — XX.

In the "Lois Revisées dans l'Assemblée Législative au mois de Mars de l'année 1848, pour la conduite de tous, sous le gouvernement du Protectorat dans les terres de la Société," is the following stringent passage, "The dance, known as Upa-Upa, is interdicted in the islands under the Protectorate. On fête days and public festivals dancing is permitted, but no indecent gestures will be tolerated." The Upa-Upa dates from the period when the secret society of the Arréois, whose chief tenets were drinking feasts, polygamy, and infanticide, existed over the greater part of the islands of the Pacific. Moerenhout, in his "Voyages aux íles du grand Océan" (Paris, 1837, vol. i. p. 484), gives a very complete account of this singular society, which has since entirely disappeared before the zeal of Protestant missionaries.