It was these malignant and dangerous demons whom the sorcerer employed as his agents to execute his fell purposes. But to effect them he had to secure something connected with the body of his intended victim, it might be the parings of his nails, a lock of his hair, his spittle or other bodily secretions, or else a portion of the food which he was about to eat. Over this material substance, whatever it was, the sorcerer recited his incantations and performed his magical rites either in his own house or in his private temple (marae). The result was believed to be that the demon entered into the substance, and through it passed into the body of the man at whom the enchanter aimed his elfish darts. The wretched sufferer experienced the acutest agonies; his distortions were frightful to witness; his eyes seemed starting from his head; he foamed at the mouth; he lay writhing in anguish on the ground; in short, to adopt the native expression, he was torn by the evil spirit. Yet his case was not hopeless; the demon could be mollified by a bribe, or defeated by the intervention of a more powerful demon. Hence, when any one was believed to be suffering from the incantations of a sorcerer, if he or his friends were rich enough they engaged another sorcerer for a fee to counteract the spells of the first and so to restore the health of the invalid. It was generally supposed that the efforts of the second sorcerer would be crowned with success if only the demon whom he employed were equally powerful with that at the command of his rival, and if the presents which he received for his professional services were more valuable. In order to avoid the danger of being thus bewitched through the refuse of their persons, the Tahitians used scrupulously to burn or bury their shorn hair, lest it should fall into the hands of enchanters.[255]
It is possible that some even of the great national gods were no more than ghosts of dead men, whose human origin was forgotten. There is some reason for supposing that this was true of Hiro, the god of thieves. On the one hand, this deity was reputed to be the son of the great god Oro;[256] and when a mother desired her child to grow up a clever thief, she repaired to a temple, where the priest, on receipt of the requisite offerings, caught the spirit of the god in a snare and infused it into the infant, thus ensuring the future proficiency of the infant in the arts of theft and robbery.[257] Yet, in spite of these claims to divinity, there are some grounds for thinking that Hiro was himself originally no better than a thief and a robber. He is said to have been a native of Raiatea, from whose sacrilegious fingers not even the temples and altars of the gods were safe. His skull was shown in a large temple of his own construction in that island down to the early years of the nineteenth century. His hair, too, was stuffed into the image of his reputed father, the god Oro, and perished when that image was committed to the flames by the early converts to Christianity.[258]
Once a year the Society Islanders celebrated a festival accompanied by rites, of which one has been compared to the Roman Catholic custom of performing a mass for the benefit of souls in purgatory. The festival was called "the ripening of the year," and the time for its observance was determined by the blossoming of reeds. It was regularly observed in the island of Huahine, and vast multitudes assembled to take part in it. As a rule, only men engaged in the pagan festivals, but at this particular one women and children were also present, though they were not allowed to enter the sacred enclosure. The celebration was regarded as a kind of annual acknowledgment made to the gods. Prayers were offered at the temple, and a sumptuous banquet formed part of the festival. At the close of the festival every one returned to his home, or to his family temple (marae), there to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives, that they might be liberated from the po, or state of Night, and might either ascend to paradise ("sweet-scented Rohutu") or return to this world by entering into the body of one of its inhabitants. But "they did not suppose, according to the generally received doctrine of transmigration, that the spirits who entered the body of some dweller upon earth, would permanently remain there, but only come and inspire the person to declare future events, or execute any other commission from the supernatural beings on whom they imagined they were constantly dependent."[259]
Hence we learn that the spirits of the dead as well as the gods were believed to be capable of inspiring men and revealing to them the future. In this, as in other respects, the dead were assimilated to deities.
FOOTNOTES
[1] W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 6 sq.; A. v. H[ügel], "Tahiti," Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, xxiii. 22, 24; C. E. Meinicke, Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans, ii. 151 sqq.; F. H. H. Guillemard, Australasia, ii. 510. As to Wallis's discovery of the islands see J. Hawkesworth, Voyages, i. (London, 1773) pp. 433 sqq.; R. Kerr, General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, xii. (Edinburgh, 1814) pp. 164 sqq.
[2] W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 11 sqq.; C. E. Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 152 sq.; A. v. H[ügel], op. cit. p. 22; F. H. H. Guillemard, op. cit. p. 513.
[3] W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 14-18. Compare J. Cook, Voyages, i. 172 sqq.; G. Forster, Voyage round the World (London, 1777), i. 253 sq.; J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, pp. 321 sqq.; D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, Journal of Voyages and Travels (London, 1831), i. 58 sq., 108 sqq., 136 sqq., 206 sq., 234 sq., 316 sq., 555 sq., ii. 51-53, 59-61; F. H. H. Guillemard, op. cit. pp. 511 sqq. C. E. Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 152 sq.; A. Baessler, Neue Südsee-Bilder (Berlin, 1900), pp. 29 sqq.
[4] J. Cook, Voyages, i. 175 sq.; W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 79 sqq.; C. E. Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 171; F. H. H. Guillemard, op. cit. pp. 513 sq.
[5] J. Cook, Voyages, i. 185 sq. vi. 139 sqq.; W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 36 sqq., 70 sqq.; J. A. Moerenhout, Voyages aux Îles du Grand Ocean (Paris, 1837), ii. 93 sqq.; C. E. Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 171 sq.