soon as the idol was converted into ashes, roasted some bananas upon them, of
which they ate, and invited the spectators to partake. None however were brave
enough to admit so dangerous a morsel into their mouths, and they waited, open-
eyed, for the expected result of the profane audacity of the two teachers. But,
like the inhabitants of Melita, “after they had looked a great while and saw no
harm come to them, they changed their minds,” and in less than ten days after
this event no fewer than fourteen idols were destroyed. Soon afterwards, the
chief Tinomana sent for the missionaries, and on their arrival at his mountain-
home, informed them that after much deliberation, he had resolved to become a
Christian, and to place himself under their direction. He therefore wished to
know what was the first step he ought to take. They informed him that he must
destroy his maraes and burn his idols; to which he immediately replied, “Come
with me and see them destroyed.” On reaching the place he desired some person
to take a firebrand and set fire to the temple, the ataraw, or altar, and the unus,
or sacred pieces of carved wood by which the marae was decorated. Four huge
idols were then deposited at the feet of the teachers, who, having read a portion
of the tenth chapter of S. Luke’s Gospel, which was peculiarly appropriate,
especially from verse 17 to 20, stripped them of their linen wrappings, which
they distributed among the people, and threw them into the flames.
Some of the spectators waxed wroth with the chief, and expressed themselves
with great violence, denouncing him as a fool and a madman for burning his
gods, and listening to worthless fellows who “were drift-wood from the sea,
washed on shore by the waves of the ocean.” The women were specially
vehement in their grief, and broke out into the loudest and dolefulest
lamentations imaginable. Many of them inflicted deep gashes on their heads with
sharp shells and shark’s teeth, and ran wildly to and fro, smeared with the blood
which streamed from their wounds, and crying in tones of the deepest
melancholy, “Alas, alas, the gods of the madman Tinomana, the gods of the
insane chief are given to the flames!” Others, blackened with charcoal, were not
less demonstrative.
In the course of a few days a clean sweep was made of the idols of the district;
never were Iconoclasts, not even our Puritan forefathers, more thorough or more
resolute. The teachers then advised Tinomana and their other converts to prepare
their food for the Sunday, and attend worship at the mission station. This they
did,—but they came armed as for battle, with war-caps, slings, and spears,
fearing lest the irate Satanus (as they called the idolaters) should attack them.
Neither in coming nor going, however, were they molested.