[246] A. Baessler, op. cit. pp. 81 sq.
[247] J. Wilson, op. cit. p. 344.
[248] T. Wilson, op. cit. p. 343.
[249] J. Wilson, op. cit. p. 345. "The general name for deity, in all its ramifications, is eatooa" (id. p. 343).
[250] J. Wilson, p. 346.
[251] In confirmation of my conjecture that the missionaries mistook a general name (tee, otherwise spelled tii) for the name of a particular demon, I may point out that the naturalist J. R. Forster before them seems to have fallen into precisely the same mistake with regard to another general name for departed spirits (oramatuas or oromatuas). Thus he writes: "Besides these divinities of the second class, there are others of a still inferior rank, and though called Eatooas, are no more than what the Greek or Roman mythologists would have called Genii, or Dii minorum gentium: one of them, called Orometooa, is of a malignant disposition, resides chiefly near the Marais and Toopapous (places of burial) and in or near the boxes, or little chests, including the heads of their deceased friends, each of which, on that account, is called Te-wharre no te Orometooa, the house of the evil genius Orometooa, The people at Taheitee are of opinion, that if their priests invoke this evil genius, he will kill, by a sudden death, the person on whom they intend to bring down the vengeance of this divinity." See J. R. Forster, Observations made during a Voyage round the World, pp. 541 sq. In this passage we can hardly doubt that "this evil genius," Orometooa, is simply the oramatuas or oromatuas, the spirits of the dead, by means of whom sorcerers were supposed to injure or destroy any one at whom they or their employers had a grudge. See above, p. [299], and below, pp. [323 sqq.]
[252] W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches. i. 334-336.
[253] W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 337.
[254] W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 363.
[255] W. Ellis, op. cit. i. 363-370.