So sacred was the idol that everything which was touched by it became tapu, and might not be touched by profane hands. There was only one man who was allowed to carry it, and he was called from his office, “Te amo attua,” i. e. the god-bearer. His task was not an easy one, and his office, though it caused him to be viewed with nearly as much reverence as the god of whom he was the special servant, must have deprived him of many comforts. The god-bearer was not even allowed to climb a cocoa-nut tree, because, if he did so, the tree would be so sacred that no one might ascend it after him; indeed, every action of his life was fenced about with some similar restriction. He could not marry, as, in the first place, no woman could be deserving of the honor, and, in the second place, he would be defiled and unfitted for his office if he were to take any woman to wife.
A celibate life does not seem to us to entail such self-denial as seems to be implied by the prominence given to the celibacy of the god-bearer, who appears to have been the only bachelor in the whole group of islands. But among most savage nations a man’s wealth and consequence are regulated by the number of his wives, who do all the work of the household, and in fact keep their husband in idleness.
The house in which the god lived was a small hut elevated on posts twenty feet high, and there were no means of access except by climbing one of these posts. The god-bearer, therefore, had no easy task in climbing up these posts with the great wooden image fastened to his back.
In the [illustration] on the 1084th page we see the chief priest of Tane—the god-bearer—ascending the pole of the sacred house, with the unwieldy idol slung on his back. A gust of wind has risen, and has wafted Tane’s long tail into the air, so that it has been entangled in a neighboring tree. One of the principal priests is running to ascend the tree and free the god’s tail, and from that time the tree will be tapu, and no one of lower rank than the priest who freed the tail will be allowed to ascend the tree.
Sometimes Tane paid a visit to a marae at some distance, and when he did so, his bearer was naturally fatigued with the weight of his burden. It was, however, thought derogatory to the character of the god to say that his bearer could by any possibility be tired of carrying him, and so, by an ingenious evasion, the god himself was thought to be fatigued with the journey, and was laid to rest for a while on a flat stone about half a mile from the sacred tree. This stone was tapu to women, and if a woman had sat upon it, or even touched it with her finger, she would have been at once killed.
The stone was not a large one, being only four feet long, one foot broad, and nine inches thick. It is a singular fact that this sacred stone, which had so often been the witness of idolatrous rites, should also have witnessed the destruction of the idol to whom it was consecrated. After Christianity had been fairly established in the island, the chief men who adhered to the worship of Tane made war upon the Christians, who repelled them, so that they were obliged to bring out their idol and lay him on the sacred stone. The two bodies of warriors met face to face close to the idol, and the struggle was about to commence when the chief of the Christians made a speech to the enemy, laying before them the distinctions between idolatry and Christianity, and recommended peace instead of war.
His voice prevailed, and those who came to fight against the Christians renounced their idols, and, as a proof of their sincerity, they built a large fire on the spot, threw Tane into it, and then held a great feast, at which the men and women ate together. They then proceeded to Tane’s house, burned it down, and dismantled his great marae.
The feathers attached to these idols and placed within their hollow bodies are mostly the two long tail-feathers of the tropic bird, white and broad toward the base, and narrow and scarlet for the remainder of their length. When the gods are newly dressed, it is considered a meritorious act for any one to present fresh feathers in lieu of those which have been deteriorated by age. After the old garments are unrolled, the feathers are placed inside the image, and a corresponding number of old feathers taken out and presented to the devotee, who values them beyond all things, as partaking of the sanctity which surrounds the original idol. These feathers are then carefully wrapped with sinnet, so as to cover them, with the exception of a little portion of both ends, and they are then laid before the idol, while the priest recites a prayer, in which he beseeches the god to transfer his sanctity to these feathers, which from that moment become minor gods.
The happy devotee has already provided himself with bamboo tubes, in each of which he places one of the feathers, and from which he never takes them except to pray to them. Sometimes he has a smaller idol made, and places the feathers within it; but in this case, he has to take the new idol to be laid before the original one, so that the transfer of sanctity may be guaranteed to them. This mode of honoring the sacred feathers is usually employed when the devotee has enjoyed some piece of good fortune after he has received them, and in most cases he not only encloses them in a new idol, but builds a small temple in which that idol lives.
Formerly, when animals were brought to be sacrificed to Tane, no blood was shed, but they were laid upon a stone and strangled by pressing their necks between two sticks. Food of all kinds was presented to him, part of which he was supposed to consume himself, part was taken by the priests, and the remainder was consumed by the worshippers. All first fruits went to Tane, a peasant being supposed to offer him two of the earliest fruits, while a raatira or gentleman offered ten, and the chiefs still more, according to their rank and wealth.