islands. He holds the net with which he catches the spirits of men as they fly
from their bodies, and a spear with which he kills them.
A rod, with snares at the end, made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, with
which the priest caught the spirit of the god. It was used in cases of pregnancy,
when the female was ambitious that her child should be a son, and become a
famous warrior. It was also employed in wartime to catch the god by his leg, to
secure his influence on the side of the party performing the ceremony.
Ruanu; a chief from Raiatea, who, ages ago, sailed in a canoe from that island,
and settled at Aitutaki. From him a genealogy is traced. He died at Aitutaki, and
was deified as Te atua taitai tere, or the conductor of fleets.
Tanu; with his fan and other appendages; the god of thunder. The natives, when
they heard a peal of thunder, were accustomed to say that this god was flying:
and produced this sound by the flapping of his wings.
The Rarotongan idols were of a singular character. From their size they might
have suited Swift’s nation of Brobdingnagians, for the smallest seems to have
been about fifteen feet high. Each was wrought out of a piece of aito, or iron
wood, about four inches in diameter, carved with a rude imitation of the human
hand at one end, and with an obscene figure at the other; round it were wrapped
numerous folds of native cloth, until it measured two or three yards in
circumference. Near the wooden image some red feathers were strewn, and a
string of small pieces of polished pearl shells was regarded as the manava, or
soul of the god.
An idol, somewhat resembling a Chinese joss, was placed in the fore-part of
every fishing-canoe; and prior to their departure on a fishing excursion, the
boatmen aways presented it with offerings, and invoked it to grant them a
successful issue.
A striking scene was that when Papeiha, a converted islander, lifted up his voice
against idolatry, for the first time, among the banana-groves of Rarotonga.
The Rarotongans had assembled in great numbers at a marae, or sacred
enclosure, for the purpose of making offerings of food to the gods. Many priests,
pretending to be inspired, were filling the air with shouts and yells; whilst
around them gathered the deluded worshippers, some with one side of their face
and body blackened with charcoal; others were painted with stripes of various
colours; others figured as warriors, wearing large caps adorned with white