2. In another place Moso's representative was a large wooden bowl, decorated with white shells, and called Lipi, or sudden death, as described under Le Fe'e, No. 8. The priest received offerings from the injured, and, in lieu of them, prayed to Moso with loud crying and forced tears to curse with sudden death the unknown thief or other injurer. "Oh Moso! make haste, show your power, send down to the lower regions, sweep away like a flood, may they never see the light of another day." These were the usual imprecations shrieked out over the bowl.
3. One of the kings of the district of Atua was supposed to be a man and move about among mortals in the daytime; but at night he was Moso, and away among the gods.
4. Moso was also a household god in some families. In one he was incarnate as a man. He helped himself to food of any kind from the plantations of his neighbours, and, if chased, suddenly disappeared; and hence they considered he was a god, and prayed to him and laid down offerings.
5. In another family Moso was said to appear, but only one old man could discern him when he came. A visit was known by the old man shouting out, "Your excellency! Your excellency has come!" and some such chief's language. Then would follow a conversation between the old man and the god, all through the lips of the old impostor himself; and then the family would hear of some new house, or canoe, or food, or marriage, or something else that was wanted.
6. Moso also appeared in one family in the form of a pet pigeon called the Tu (Phlegoenas Stairi). When food was brought in, no water was to be spilled on the doorstep. It would make the protecting god Tu angry, and cause him to go off.
In another family he was incarnate in the domestic fowl, and if any of them ate a piece of fowl the consequence was delirium and death.
In another family Moso was incarnate in the cuttle-fish, and none of them dared to eat one.
Another family had Moso incarnate with them in a creeper bird called the Fuia (Sturnoides atrifusca). If it came about in the morning or the evening it was a sign that their prayers were accepted. If it did not come Moso was supposed to be angry. The bird did not appear at noon owing to the glare of the sun. The priest interpreted to the family the meaning of the chirps as his inclination or fancy dictated.
7. Long Moso was the name of another family god. The turtle and the mullet were sacred to him, and eaten only by the priest. The family prayed to him before the evening meal.
8. The Fai, or stinging ray fish, and also the mullet were incarnations of Moso the strong in another family. If visitors or friends caught or brought with them either of these fish, a child of the family would be taken and laid down in an unheated oven, as a peace-offering to Moso for the indignity done to him by the strangers. If any member of the family tasted of these sacred fish he was sentenced by the heads of the family to drink a cupful of rancid oil dregs as a punishment and to stay the wrath of Moso.