Chapter V: The Belief in Immortality Among the Society Islanders (2)

Perhaps a faint gleam of light may fall on the mystery of the Areois from an examination of their traditionary first members and guardian deities, the two divine brothers, Orotetefai and Urutetefai. The similarity of the names of the brothers suggests that they may have been twins; for it is a common custom to bestow either the same or a similar name on each of a pair of twins in order to indicate their close relationship to each other.[68] If they were twins, there are some grounds for thinking that they were Heavenly Twins; for their father or creator, Taaroa, seems certainly to have been a sky-god, and their mother, Hina, is by some authorities regarded as the moon; moreover, the two brothers are said to have first descended from the sky to the earth on a rainbow.[69] If the twinship of the divine brothers could be made out, it might perhaps explain some of the peculiar features of the Areoi Society. For example, their remarkable custom of not allowing any of their offspring to live; for it has been a common custom in many parts of the world to put twins to death.[70] Further, the superhuman rank accorded to the Areois becomes more intelligible on this hypothesis. For among many savage peoples twins are credited with the possession of powers superior to those of ordinary humanity; in particular, they are thought to be able to influence the weather for good or evil, as by causing rain or drought and the wind to blow or be still.[71] Among the Baronga of South-Eastern Africa the supposed relation of twins to the sky is very clearly marked. They call the mother of twins by a name which means "Heaven" (_Tilo_), and consistently they style the twins themselves "Children of Heaven" (_Bana ba Tilo_).[72] The mother is even said to have "made Heaven," to have "carried Heaven," and to have "ascended to Heaven."[73] The connexion which is believed to exist between her and the twins on the one side and the sky on the other is brought out plainly in the customs which the Baronga observe for the purpose of procuring rain in time of drought. Thus they will take a mother of twins, put her in a hole, and pour on her water which they have drawn from all the wells, till the hole is half full, and the water comes up to her breast. This is thought to make the rain fall.[74] Or again, in order to get rain, the women will strip themselves naked except for a girdle and head-dress of grass, and thus attired will go in procession, headed by a mother of twins, and pour water on the graves of twins. And if the body of a twin has been buried in dry ground, they will dig it up and bury it again near a river; for the grave of a twin, in their opinion, should always be wet. Thus they hope to draw down rain on the thirsty ground.[75] Again, when a thunderstorm is raging and lightning threatens to strike a village, the Baronga will say to a twin, "Help us! you are a Child of Heaven! You can therefore cope with Heaven; it will hear you when you speak." So the child goes out of the hut and prays to Heaven as follows: "Go away! Do not annoy us! We are afraid. Go and roar far away." When the thunderstorm is over, the child is thanked for its services. The mother of twins is also supposed to be able to help in the same way, for has she not, as the natives express it, ascended to Heaven? They say that she can speak with Heaven, and that she is at it or in it.[76] Among the Kpelle, a negro tribe of Liberia, twins are regarded as born magicians, and as such are treated with respect, and people sometimes make them presents in order to ensure their goodwill; in doing so they are careful never to make a present to the one twin without the other, and the twin who was born last gets his present first, for he is regarded as the first-born. Twins are thought by the Kpelle to do wonders; they even say that "a twin surpasses every medicine-man."[77] Among the Fan or Fang, a tribe of the Cameroons in West Africa, there is a curious superstition that a twin ought not to see a rainbow. Should he by accident have caught sight of one, he must shave his eyebrows and dye the place of the one black and the place of the other red.[78] This superstition seems to imply a special relation between twins and the sky, and it reminds us of the Tahitian tradition that the two divine brothers, the first members of the Areoi Society, descended to earth on a rainbow.[79]

[68] J. Rendel Harris, _The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends_
(London, 1903), pp. 1 _sqq._ _id._, _The Cult of the Heavenly
Twins_ (Cambridge, 1906), pp. 58 _sqq._; _id._, _Boanerges_
(Cambridge, 1913), pp. 291 _sqq._

[69] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 230, 232. Ellis does not admit that
Orotetefa and Urutetefa were, strictly speaking, the sons of
Oro. He writes: "According to the traditions of the people,
Taaroa created, and, by means of Hina, brought forth when full
grown Orotetefa and Urutetefa. They were not his sons; _oriori_
is the term employed by the people, which seems to mean
_create_" (_op. cit._ i. 230). With regard to Hina (Heena),
interpreted as the moon, or the goddess of the moon, see J. R.
Forster, _Observations_, p. 549; G. Forster, _Voyage_, ii. 152;
J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._. i. 428 _sq._, 458, 472; E.
Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 69.
_s.v._ "Hina," "Hina is by far the best known of all Polynesian
legendary personages. In the more easterly islands she is a
goddess, and is almost certainly the Moon-goddess." Similarly
Mr. E. E. V. Collocot observes that Hina "is generally regarded
as the Moon-goddess, and this view was spontaneously put forward
by a Tongan; in conversation with me" (_Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, xxx. (1921) p. 238).

[70] Abundant evidence of the custom is produced by Dr. Rendel
Harris in his learned works, _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_
and _Boanerges_.

[71] _The Golden Bough_, Part I., _The Magic Art and the
Evolution of Kings_, i. 262 _sqq._

[72] H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_ (Neuchatel, 1898), p. 412;
_id._, _Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel, 1912-1913),
ii. 394.

[73] H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 398.

[74] H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 399.

[75] H. A. Junod, _Les Ba-ronga_, pp. 417 _sq._; _id._, _Life of
a South African Tribe_, ii. 296.

[76] H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African Tribe_, ii. 399 _sq._

[77] D. Westermann, _Die Kpelle, ein Negerstamm in Liberia_
(Goettingen, 1921), pp. 68, 212, 355. The Bambara, another tribe
of West Africa, similarly regard the last-born of twins as the
elder of the two. See Jos. Henry, _Les Bambara_ (Muenster i. W.,
1910), p. 98. So, too, with the Mossi of the Sudan. See E.
Mangin, "Les Mossi," _Anthropos_, x.-xi. (1915-1916) p. 192.

[78] L. Martrou, "Les 'Eki' des Fang," _Anthropos_, i. (1906) p.
751; H. Trilles, _Le Totemisme chez les Fan_ (Muenster i. W.,
1912), p. 593. Compare H. A. Junod, _Life of a South African
Tribe_, ii. 400, note^1, who reports the same superstition among
the Fan on the testimony of his wife, who was for years a
missionary in the tribe.

[79] Above, p. 267.

Another notion about twins which may possibly help to throw light on some of the practices of the Areoi Society, is that they or their parents or both are endowed with a fertilising or prolific virtue, which enables them to multiply animals or plants and thereby to increase the food supply. Thus, for example, some tribes of Northern Rhodesia keep pigeons in their villages, and in erecting a pigeon-cote they take care that the first stakes "are driven in by a woman who has borne twins, in order, they say, that the pigeons may multiply."[80] Some Bantu tribes of this region ascribe a similar virtue to both the father and the mother of twins. They think that such parents exert a beneficial or prolific influence at laying the foundations of pigeon-cotes, chicken-houses, goat-pens, or any other building used for the purposes of breeding; a certain woman who had borne twins thrice was lately in great request at these functions.[81] The Zulus think that all goats belonging to a twin bring forth young in couples.[82]

[80] C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
Nigeria_ (London, 1911), pp. 307 _sq._

[81] D. Campbell, _In the Heart of Bantuland_ (London, 1922), p.
155.

[82] Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), p. 49.

In the Central District of Busoga, Central Africa, when a woman has given birth to twins, the people of her clan do not sow any seed until the twins have been brought to the field. A pot of cooked grain is set before the children with a cake of sesame and all the seed that is to be sown. The food is eaten by the assembled people, and afterwards the field is sown in presence of the twins; the plot is then said to be the field of the twins. The mother of twins must sow her seed before any person of the clan will sow his or hers.[83] These customs seem clearly to imply a belief that twins and their mother possess a special power of fertilising the seed. Among the Baganda of Central Africa twins were supposed to be sent by Mukasa, the great god whose blessing on the crops and on the people was ensured at an annual festival. The twins were thought to be under the protection of the god, and they bore his name, the boys being called Mukasa and the girls Namukasa. And a series of customs observed by the parents of twins among the Baganda indicates in the plainest manner a belief that they were endowed with a fertilising virtue which extended, not only to the crops and the cattle, but also to human beings. Thus the parents of twins were supposed to make people fruitful by sprinkling them with a mixture of water and clay from pots, of which each of the parents had one. Again, some time after the birth the parents used to make a round of visits to relations and friends, taking the twins with them. At every house they danced, the father wearing a crown made from a certain creeper, and the mother wearing a girdle of the same material. At these dances offerings were made to the twins. These dances were most popular "because the people believed that thereby they obtained a special blessing from the god Mukasa, who favoured the parents of twins, and through them dispensed blessing wherever they went." The persons whom the twins and their parents honoured with a visit "thought that, not only they themselves would be blessed and given children, but that their herds and crops also would be multiplied." A ceremony performed by the father and mother of twins over a flower of the plantain indicated in the plainest, if the grossest, fashion the belief of the Baganda that parents of twins could magically fertilise the plantains which form the staple food of the people. No wonder, then, that among them a mother of twins is deemed a source of blessing to the whole community, and that for some time after the birth both she and the father were sacred and wore a distinctive dress to prevent any one from touching them. The father, in particular, "could do what he liked, because he was under the protection of the god"; for example, he was free to enter anybody's garden and to take the produce at will. Special drums, too, were made for the parents, one for the father and one for the mother; and for some time after the birth these were beaten continually both by day and by night.[84]

[83] J. Roscoe, _The Northern Bantu_ (Cambridge, 1915), p. 235.

[84] J. Roscoe, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
Baganda," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii.
(1902) pp. 32-34, 80; _id._, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp.
64-72. These two accounts to some extent supplement each other.
I have drawn on both. As to the annual festival of the god
Mukasa, see _id._, _The Baganda_, pp. 298 _sq._

Among the Hos of Togo, in West Africa, in like manner, special drums are beaten for the parents of twins, and the parents dance publicly to the music in the main street of the village, after going nine times round it. Some days later the parents go the round of all the Ho towns, everywhere executing the same dance to the same music at noon; but should one of the twins have died in the meantime, the parents dance at night. It is believed that, if the customary rites were not performed at the birth of twins, the parents of the twins would be crippled. Curiously enough, the drums, to the music of which the parents dance, may not be beaten by any one without special reason; and no one else may dance to their music except such as have slain either a man or a leopard. Among these people the birth of twins is the occasion of very great rejoicing. They say that "the road which the mother of twins goes is better than the road which the rich man goes."[85] The saying suggests that the Hos, like the Baganda, regard a mother of twins as diffusing fertility wherever she goes; and, on the analogy of the dances of parents of twins among the Baganda, we may conjecture that in like manner among the Hos the parents of twins are supposed to confer the blessing of fruitfulness on all the towns where they dance.

[85] J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Staemme_ (Berlin, 1906), pp. 202-206.

Among the Barundi of East Africa the birth of twins is celebrated with rites, songs, and ritual dances, which last for days and even for weeks. As soon as the news spreads, the neighbours, friends, and relations flock to the house to sing, bringing with them presents for the parents or offerings to the spirits. The amount of provisions thus accumulated is enormous, but the parents of the twins benefit little by it; the great bulk disappears as by magic among the self-invited guests. Festivity, dancing, and singing are now the order of the day. Dancers, male and female, their faces painted red and white or yellow, dance like furies in a circle for hours together, singing ritual hymns at the top of their voices, while an old sorceress besprinkles the troop with lustral water. It is commonly believed that if these rites were omitted, the twins and their parents would die. At the birth of twins it is customary to buy two black sheep or lambs and to dedicate them to the twins, one to each. These sheep are then left at liberty to run about as they like by day and night, and to enter the fields and browse at will. If one of them dies it is replaced by another. The animals are described as the guardians of the children, the receptacle or symbol of their spirits, in short, as their fetish.[86] To some extent, they are analogous to the pig which an Areoi used to offer to the god at the ceremony of his consecration; for, though sometimes the animal was killed, at other times it was liberated, and, being regarded as sacred or belonging to the god to whom it had been offered, was allowed to range the district uncontrolled till it died.[87] Among the Baluba, a tribe of the Belgian Congo, there is great joy at the birth of twins, and special ceremonies are observed on the occasion. The twins are invariably named Kyunga and Kahya, after the spirits of two ancient kings, and to these spirits the twins are consecrated. After being washed and decorated they are placed side by side in a winnowing-basket and carried by the women of the family in procession through the village, headed by the proud father. Dancing and singing they go to the ash-heap of the village. There they all rub themselves with ashes and perform another dance. After that, still led by the father of the twins, they go to the houses of the chief people, and in front of each house the father dances, while the women beat time with their hands. Wherever the procession halts, the householder is expected to come and admire the twins, to compliment the father, and to deposit a small present in the winnowing-basket.[88] Among the Herero of South-West Africa the parents of twins are looked on as sacred, and for a time they may not speak to any one, and no one may speak to them. But after the lapse of some days the family goes the round of the village, visiting three or four huts every day. The father of the twins sits down on the right side of the hut, and the inmates make him offerings of beads, oxen, and so forth. When he has thus gone the round of the village, he repairs to the neighbouring villages, where the same ceremonies are repeated. It is often a year before he returns to his own village, and when he does so he brings back with him a great quantity of offerings. Henceforth the father of the twins enjoys all the privileges of a priestly chief; he may sacrifice at the holy fire, and he may represent and even succeed the chief in the office of priest for the village. The twins themselves are eligible for the same office. If a chief dies a natural death, he is succeeded in his priestly function by his twin son; whereas the chieftainship passes to the chief's legal heir, who is properly the son of his eldest sister, and who thenceforth assumes the name of the twin. A twin is bound by no taboo; he may eat of all flesh offered in sacrifice; he may drink of the milk of every holy cow, just like the chief and the priest themselves.[89]

[86] J. M. M. van der Burgt, _Dictionnaire Francais-Kirundi_
(Bois-le-Duc, 1903), pp. 324 _sq._; H. Meyer, _Die Barundi_
(Leipzig, 1916), pp. 110 _sq._

[87] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 242.

[88] Colle, _Les Baluba_ (Brussels, 1913), i. 253-255.

[89] J. Irle, _Die Herero_ (Guetersloh, 1906), pp. 96-99.

In these cases we are not told that twins and their parents are supposed to be endowed with a power of multiplying the herds and generally of increasing the supply of food by the prolific influence which they diffuse about them; but the analogy of the customs and beliefs of the Baganda concerning the birth of twins renders the supposition probable. At least on this hypothesis we can readily understand the round of visits which the parents, or one of them, pay to the surrounding towns or villages, and the presents which are made to them. If they indeed possess a power of imparting fertility and abundance wherever they go, it is obviously in everybody's interest to be visited by them, and clearly, on the same supposition, it is everybody's duty to make some return to them for the wonderful benefits which they have conferred.

Similarly we may perhaps suppose that the rounds which the Areois went from island to island, dancing, singing, and playing their tricks wherever they stopped, were believed to quicken the fruits of the earth, and possibly also to multiply the pigs and the fish. On that assumption, the unlimited right which these vagabonds enjoyed of appropriating and consuming the produce of the gardens was probably accorded to them as a natural and proper remuneration for the inestimable services which their mere presence was believed to render to the crops. The sexual excesses, in which they appear to have indulged, would also be intelligible, if it was imagined that, on the principle of sympathetic magic, such indulgences actually promoted the multiplication and growth of plants and animals. But this explanation of the extravagant rites observed by the Areois, and of the quaint beliefs entertained concerning them, is offered only as an hypothesis for what it is worth. It may be worth while noting that among the Kpelle, a tribe of Liberia in West Africa, there is reported to exist a Secret Society of Twins,[90] but whether it bears any resemblance to the Society of the Areois I do not know.

[90] D. Westermann, _Die Kpelle, ein Negerstamm in Liberia_
(Goettingen, 1921), p. 228.

A familiar figure of the Polynesian pantheon, who meets us in the mythology of the Society Islanders, was the famous god or hero Maui. Many stories of his exploits were told in the islands. It is said that originally the sky lay flat upon the face of the earth and ocean, being held down by the legs of a huge cuttle-fish. But Maui dived into the sea, and, grappling with the monster, utterly dismembered him; whereupon the sky flew up and expanded into the beautiful blue vault which we now see above us, with the noonday sun for the keystone of the arch.[91] Again, the natives told how, one day, sitting in his canoe, Maui let down his line with a hook at the end of it and fished up the earth, which had hitherto lain at the bottom of the sea.[92] Also he is said to have held the sun with ropes to prevent him from going too fast.[93] For it happened that Maui was hard at work, building a temple, when he perceived that the day was declining and that the night would overtake him before he had accomplished his task; so hastily twining some ropes of coco-nut fibre, he laid hold of the sun's rays and tethered them by the ropes to a tree, so that the sun could not stir till Maui had finished the task he was at.[94] Further, Maui is said to have invented the mode of kindling fire by rubbing the point of one stick in the groove of another,[95] which was the way in which the Society Islanders regularly made fire.[96] Maui was also supposed to be the cause of earthquakes.[97] In Tahiti a curious image of Maui was seen and described by Captain Cook. "It was the figure of a man, constructed of basket-work, rudely made, but not ill-designed; it was something more than seven feet high, and rather too bulky in proportion to its height. The wicker skeleton was completely covered with feathers, which were white where the skin was to appear, and black in the parts which it is their custom to paint or stain, and upon the head, where there was to be a representation of hair: upon the head also were four protuberances, three in front and one behind, which we should have called horns, but which the Indians dignified with the name of _Tate Ete_, little men. The image was called Manioe, and was said to be the only one in Otaheite. They attempted to give us an explanation of its use and design, but we had not then acquired enough of their language to understand them. We learnt, however, afterwards that it was a representation of Mauwe, one of their _Eatuas_, or gods of the second class."[98]

[91] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 526.

[92] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 449 _sq._

[93] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 167.

[94] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ ii. 40 _sq._; W.
Ellis, _op. cit._ ii. 170 _sq._

[95] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 526.

[96] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 141; J. Wilson,
_op. cit._ p. 357; J. Turnbull, _Voyage round the World_, p.
349; Wallis, in R. Kerr's _General History and Collection of
Voyages and Travels_, xii. 212; _id._, in J. Hawkesworth's
_Voyages_, i. (London, 1773) p. 483.

[97] J. R. Forster, _Observations_, p. 540; G. Forster, _Voyage
round the World_, ii. 151. These writers spell his name O-Maouwe
and O-mauwee.

[98] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 156 _sq._

Besides the high primaeval deities, born of the Night, the Society Islanders believed in a host of inferior divinities, many of whom were said to have been created by Taaroa, the supreme god. Thus, between the high gods and the deities of particular places or of particular professions, there was a class of intermediate deities, who were not supposed to have existed from the beginning or to have been born of Night. Their origin was veiled in obscurity, but they were often described as having been renowned men, who, after death, were deified by their descendants. They all received the homage of the people, and on all public occasions were acknowledged among the gods.[99] Again, there were many gods of the sea, among whom the principal seem to have been Tuaraatai and Ruahatu. These were generally called shark gods (_atua mao_), not that the shark was itself deemed a god, but that it was supposed to be employed by the marine gods as their minister of vengeance. It was only the large blue shark which was believed to act in this capacity; and it is said that these voracious creatures always spared a shipwrecked priest, even when they devoured his companions; nay, they would recognise a priest on board any canoe, come at his call, and retire at his bidding. A priest of one of these shark gods told Mr. Ellis that he or his father had been carried on the back of a shark from Raiatea to Huahine, a distance of twenty miles. Other gods were thought to preside over the fisheries, and to direct the shoals of fish to the coasts. Their aid was invoked by fishermen before they launched their canoes and while they were busy at sea. But these marine deities were not supposed by the people to be of equal antiquity with the great primordial gods, born of the Night (_atua fauau po_).[100] Again, there were gods of the air, who were sometimes worshipped under the figure of birds. The chief of these aerial deities were thought to be a brother and sister, who dwelt near the great rock, which is the foundation of the world. There they imprisoned the stormy winds, but sent them forth from time to time to punish such as neglected the worship of the gods. In tempests their compassion was besought by mariners tossed on the sea or by their friends on shore.[101] To the minds of the islanders there were also gods of hill and dale, of precipice and ravine. "By their rude mythology each lovely island was made a sort of fairy-land, and the spells of enchantment were thrown over its varied scenes.... The mountain's summit, and the fleecy mists that hang upon its brows--the rocky defile--the foaming cataract--and the lonely dell--were all regarded as the abode or resort of these invisible beings."[102]

[99] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 326 _sq._ As to the inferior gods,
see also J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 451 _sqq._

[100] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 327-329.

[101] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 329 _sq._ As to the worship of
birds, Captain Cook says: "This island [Tahiti indeed, and the
rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron and
others a king's fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and
concerning which they have some superstitious notions with
respect to good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and
robin-redbreast, giving them the name of _eatua_, and by no
means killing or molesting them; yet they never address a
petition to them, or approach them with any act of adoration."
See J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 224.

[102] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 329 _sq._, 331.

The general name for "god" in the Society Islands, as throughout Polynesia, was _atua_.[103] The word was also applied, in the expression _oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_, to the spirits of departed relatives, who were also worshipped and ranked among the deities.[104] To these we shall return presently; meantime it may not be out of place to give some notice of the worship of the other gods, since in the religion of the Society Islanders, as of other branches of the Polynesian race, it was closely interwoven with the worship of the dead.

[103] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 333 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 440 _sqq._; E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, pp. 30 _sq._, _s.v._ "atua." Captain Cook and the
first missionaries spelled the word _eatua_ or _eatooa_. See J.
Cook, _Voyages_, i. 221, vi. 149; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 343.

[104] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 324 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 454 _sq._

Sec. 4. _The Temples and Images of the Gods_

The sacred place dedicated to religious worship was called a _morai_, or, as it is also spelled, a _marai_ or _marae_, which may be translated "temple," though all such places were uncovered and open to the sky. The national temples, where the principal idols were deposited, consisted of large walled enclosures, some of which contained smaller inner courts. The form was frequently that of a square or a parallelogram, with sides forty or fifty feet long. The area was paved with flat stones, and two sides of it were enclosed by a high stone wall, while the front was protected by a low fence, and within rose in steps or terraces a solid pyramidical structure built of stone, which usually formed one of the narrow sides of the area, either at the western or at the eastern end. These pyramids, which were always truncated so as to form a narrow platform or ridge on their upper surface, were the most striking and characteristic feature of the _morais_; indeed the name _morai_ or _marae_ appears to have been sometimes confined, at least by European observers, to the pyramid. In front of the pyramid the images were kept and the altars fixed. The houses of the priests and of the keepers of the idols were erected within the enclosure.[105] Of these interesting monuments, which seemed destined to last for ages, only a few insignificant ruins survive; the rest have been destroyed, chiefly at the instigation of the missionaries.[106]

[105] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 339 _sqq._ Compare
J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 157 _sqq._, 217, 219, 220, 222, vi. 37,
_sq._, 41; J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage
round the World_, pp. 543 _sqq._; G. Forster, _Voyage round the
World_, i. 267, ii. 138 _sq._; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 207
_sq._, 211 _sq._; D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 267
_sq._, 271, 280 _sqq._, 549, ii. 13 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 466-470; A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp.
111 _sqq._; S. and K. Routledge, "Notes on some Archaeological
Remains in the Society and Austral Islands," _Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute_, li. (1921) 438 _sqq._
According to J. R. Forster (_l.c._), the _marais_ (_morais,
maraes_) "consist of a very large pile of stones, generally in
the shape of an Egyptian pyramid, with large steps; sometimes
this pyramid makes one of the sides of an area, walled in with
square stones and paved with flat stones: the pyramid is not
solid, but the inside is filled with smaller fragments of coral
stones."

[106] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, p. 135. This writer has
given us a survey and description of some of the principal
remains which existed at the end of the nineteenth century (pp.
111-148). The ruins of two _maraes_ in the island of Moorea are
described by Mr. and Mrs. Routledge (_l.c._). In one of them the
pyramid stood at the western end of the enclosure, and in the
other at the eastern end.

Some of the pyramids erected within these sacred enclosures were of great size. In Tahiti an enormous one was seen and described by Captain Cook as well as by later observers. It was of oblong shape and measured two hundred and sixty-seven feet in length by eighty-seven feet in width. It rose in a series of eleven steps or terraces, each four feet high, so that the total height of the structure was forty-four feet. Each step was formed of a single course of white coral stone, neatly squared and polished. The steps on the long sides were broader than those at the ends, so that at the top it terminated, not in an oblong of the same figure as the base, but in a ridge like the roof of a house. The interior of the pyramid was solid, being filled up with round pebbles which, from the regularity of their figure, seemed to have been wrought. Some of the coral stones were very large; one of them was three and a half feet long by two and a half feet wide. The foundation of the pyramid was built not of coral, but of what Captain Cook called rock, by which he probably meant a volcanic stone. These foundation stones were also squared; one of them measured four feet seven inches by two feet four inches. "Such a structure," says Captain Cook, "raised without the assistance of iron tools to shape the stones, or mortar to join them, struck us with astonishment: it seemed to be as compact and firm as it could have been made by any workman in Europe, except that the steps which range along its greatest length are not perfectly strait, but sink in a kind of hollow in the middle, so that the whole surface, from end to end, is not a right line, but a curve." All the stones, both rock and coral, must have been brought from a distance, for there was no quarry in the neighbourhood. The squaring of these blocks with stone tools must, as Captain Cook observes, have been a work of incredible labour; but the polishing of them could have been effected more easily by means of the sharp coral sand, which is found everywhere on the seashore in great abundance. On the top of the pyramid, and about the middle, stood the wooden image of a bird; and near it lay the image of a fish carved in stone. This great pyramid formed part of one side of a spacious area, nearly square, which measured three hundred and sixty feet by three hundred and fifty-four, and was walled in with stone as well as paved with flat stones in its whole extent. Notwithstanding the pavement, several trees were growing within the sacred enclosure. About a hundred yards to the west was another paved area or court, in which were several small stages raised on wooden pillars about seven feet high. These stages the natives called _ewattas_. Captain Cook judged them rightly to be altars, observing that they supported what appeared to be offerings in the shape of provisions of all sorts, as well as whole hogs and many skulls of hogs and dogs.[107]

[107] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 157-159. The great pyramid was
afterwards visited and described by the first missionaries.
Their measurements confirm, while slightly exceeding, those of
Captain Cook. They speak, however, of ten steps instead of
eleven, and say that the lowest step was six feet high and the
rest about five. See J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 207 _sq._, with
the plate.

The pyramids within the sacred enclosure were not usually so large or so lofty. In the island of Huahine the pyramid of the chief god Tani or Tane was a hundred and twenty-four feet long by sixteen feet broad, and it had only two steps or stories. The lower step or story was about ten feet high and faced with blocks of coral, set on their edges: some of these blocks were as high as the step itself. The upper step or story was similarly faced with coral, but was not more than three feet high. The interior of both stories was filled with earth. In the centre of the principal front stood the god's bed, a stone platform twenty-four feet long by thirteen feet wide, but only eighteen inches high. The style and masonry of this pyramid, as well as its dimensions, appear to have been very inferior to those of the great one in Tahiti. The blocks were apparently unhewn and unpolished, the angles ill formed, and the walls not straight. Venerable and magnificent trees overshadowed the sanctuary. One of them measured fifteen yards in girth above the roots. It is said that the god often wished to fly away, but that his long tail always caught in the boughs of this giant tree and dragged him down to earth again.[108]

[108] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 265 _sq._

These sacred pyramids "were erected in any place, and at any time, when the priests required, by the slavish people. On such occasions the former overlooked the latter at their work, and denounced the most terrible judgments upon those who were remiss at it. The poor wretches were thus compelled to finish their tasks (burthensome as they often were, in heaving blocks from the sea, dragging them ashore, and heaping them one upon another) without eating, which would have desecrated the intended sanctuary. To restrain the gnawings of hunger they bound girdles of bark round their bodies, tightening the ligatures from time to time, as their stomachs shrank with emptiness. And, when the drudgery was done, it was not uncommon for the remorseless priests to seize one of the miserable builders and sacrifice him to the idol of the place."[109]

[109] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 13 _sq._

Temples of this sort were found scattered over the islands in every situation--on hill-tops, on jutting headlands, and in the recesses of groves.[110] They varied greatly in size: some were small and built in the rudest manner, mere squares of ill-shapen and ill-piled stones. In the island of Borabora the missionaries found not less than two hundred and twenty of these structures crowded within an area only ten miles in circumference.[111] The trees that grew within the sacred enclosure were sacred. They comprised particularly the tall cypress-like casuarina and the broader-leaved and more exuberant callophyllum, thespesia, and cardia. Their interlacing boughs formed a thick umbrageous covert, which often excluded the rays of the sun; and the contrast between the bright glare of a tropical day outside and the sombre gloom in the depths of the grove, combined with the sight of the gnarled trunks and twisted boughs of the aged trees, and the sighing of the wind in the branches, to strike a religious horror into the mind of the beholder.[112] The ground which surrounded the temples (_morais_) was sacred and afforded a sanctuary for criminals. Thither they fled on any apprehension of danger, especially when many human sacrifices were expected, and thence they might not be torn by violence, though they were sometimes seduced from their asylum by guile.[113]

[110] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 341.

[111] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ ii. 13.

[112] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 341 _sq._

[113] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 351.

These remarkable sanctuaries were at once temples for the worship of the gods and burial-places for the human dead. On this combination of functions I have already adduced some evidence;[114] but as the point is important, I will cite further testimonies as to the custom of burying the dead in these enclosures.

[114] Above, pp. 116 _sqq._

Thus Captain Cook writes: "I must more explicitly observe that there are two places in which the dead are deposited: one a kind of shed, where the flesh is suffered to putrefy; the other an enclosure, with erections of stones, where the bones are afterwards buried. The sheds are called _tupapow_, and the enclosures _morai_. The _morais_ are also places of worship".[115] Again, after describing how a dead body used to be placed in the temporary house or shed (_tupapow_) and left there to decay for five moons, Captain Cook tells us that "what remains of the body is taken down from the bier, and the bones, having been scraped and washed very clean, are buried, according to the rank of the person, either within or without a _morai_: if the deceased was an _earee_ or chief, his skull is not buried with the rest of the bones, but is wrapped up in fine cloth, and put in a kind of box made for that purpose, which is also placed in the _morai_. This coffer is called _ewharre no te orometua_, the house of a teacher or master".[116]

[115] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 217.

[116] J. Cook, _op. cit._ i. 219.

Again, after describing the human sacrifice which he witnessed at the great _morai_ at Attahooroo, in Tahiti, Captain Cook proceeds as follows: "The _morai_ (which, undoubtedly, is a place of worship, sacrifice, and burial at the same time), where the sacrifice was now offered, is that where the supreme chief of the whole island is always buried, and is appropriated to his family, and some of the principal people. It differs little from the common ones, except in extent. Its principal part is a large oblong pile of stones, lying loosely upon each other, about twelve or fourteen feet high, contracted toward the top, with a square area on each side, loosely paved with pebble stones, under which the bones of the chiefs are buried.... The human sacrifices are buried under different parts of the pavement."[117]

[117] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 37.

Again, Captain Cook tells us that after a battle the victors used to collect all the dead that had fallen into their hands and bring them to the _morai_, where, with much ceremony, they dug a hole and buried all the bodies in it as so many offerings to the gods; but the skulls of the slain were never afterwards taken up. Their own great chiefs who fell in battle were treated in a different manner. Captain Cook was informed that the bodies of the late king and two chiefs, who were slain in battle, were brought to the _morai_ at Attahooroo. There the priests cut out the bowels of the corpses before the great altar, and the bodies were afterwards buried at three different spots in the great pile of stones which formed the most conspicuous feature of the _morai_. Common men who perished in the same battle were all buried in a single hole at the foot of the pile. The spots where the bodies of the king and chiefs reposed were pointed out to Captain Cook and his companions.[118]

[118] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 40 _sq._

Again, in the island of Tahiti, the naturalist George Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook, saw a stone building, "in form of the frustum of a pyramid," constructed in terraces or steps, and measuring about twenty yards in length at the base. "This the native said was a burying-place and place of worship, _marai_, and distinguished it by the name of _marai no-Aheatua_, the burying-place of Aheatua, the present king of Tiarroboo."[119]

[119] G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_, i. 267.

Again, in the island of Huahine, the missionaries Tyerman and Bennet saw "a pagan _marae_ hard by, where the sovereigns of Huahine were buried--and where, indeed, they lay in more than oriental state, each one resting in his bed, at the foot of the Sacred Mountain, beneath the umbrage of the magnificent _aoa_ [tree], and near the beach for ever washed by waters that roll round the world.... The great _marae_ itself was dedicated to Tani, the father of the gods here; but the whole ground adjacent was marked with the vestiges of smaller _maraes_--private places for worship and family interment--while this was the capital of the island and the headquarters of royalty and idolatry."[120] A little later, speaking of the same sacred place, the missionaries observe, "The first _marae_ that we visited was the sepulchral one of the kings of Huahine, for many generations. It was an oblong inclosure, forty-five feet long by twenty broad, fenced with a strong stone wall. Here the bodies of the deceased, according to the manner of the country, being bound up, with the arms doubled to their shoulders, the legs bent under their thighs and both forced upwards against the abdomen, were let down, without coffins, into a hole prepared for their reception, and just deep enough to allow the earth to cover their heads."[121]

[120] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 271.

[121] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 280.

One of our best authorities on these islands, William Ellis, speaks of the _maraes_ (_morais_), whether they belonged to private families, to districts, or to the kings, as being "the general depositories of the bones of the departed, whose bodies had been embalmed"; and as a motive for the practice he alleges the sanctity which attached to these places, and which might naturally be supposed to guard the graves against impious and malicious violation.[122] However, the first missionaries say of the islanders that "they bury none in the _morai_, but those offered in sacrifice, or slain in battle, or the children of chiefs which have been strangled at the birth--an act of atrocious inhumanity too common."[123] According to Moerenhout, the _marais_ (_morais_) belonging to private families were often used as cemeteries; but in the public _marais_ none but the human victims, and sometimes the priests, were interred.[124] Thus there is to some extent a conflict of testimony between our authorities on the subject of burial in the temples. But the evidence which I have adduced seems to render it probable that many at least of the _morais_ served as burial-grounds for kings and chiefs of high degree, and even for common men who had fallen fighting in the service of their country.

[122] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 405. See above, pp. 117 _sq._

[123] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 364.

[124] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 470.

In more recent years the German traveller, Arthur Baessler, who examined and described the existing ruins of these sacred edifices, denied that the _maraes_ (_morais_) were places of burial, while he allowed that they were places of worship.[125] He distinguished a _marae_ from an _ahu_, admitting at the same time that they closely resembled each other, both in their structure and in the ritual celebrated at them.[126] According to him, a _marae_ was a sort of domestic chapel, the possession of which constituted the most distinctive mark of a noble family. Every chief, high or low, had one of them and took rank according to its antiquity.[127] It was an oblong area, open to the sky and enclosed by walls on three sides and by a pyramid on the fourth: walls and pyramid alike were built of blocks of stone or coral.[128] The _ahu_, on the other hand, was a monument erected to the memory of a distinguished chief, whose mortal remains were deposited in it. But apart from the grave which it contained, the _ahu_, according to Baessler, hardly differed from a _marae_, though it was mostly larger: it was a great walled enclosure with a pyramid, altars, and houses of the priests. And the ritual celebrated in the _ahu_ resembled the ritual performed in the _marae_: there, too, the faithful assembled to pray, and there the priests recited the same liturgy.[129] Thus both the form and, to some extent at least, the function of the two types of sanctuary presented a close similarity. The islanders themselves, it appears, do not always clearly distinguish them at the present day.[130] And the single distinction on which Baessler insisted, that the dead were buried in the _ahu_ but not in the _marae_, seems not to hold good universally, even on Baessler's own showing. For he admits that, "if ever a chief was buried in his own _marae_, it must have been in most exceptional cases, but probably statements to that effect rest only on a confusion of the _marae_ with the _ahu_; such a practice would also run counter to the habits of the natives, who sought the most secret places for their dead, and certainly concealed the heads in caves difficult of access and unknown to others. On the other hand, the _maraes_ of humbler families may more frequently, if not as a rule, have served as places of burial."[131] And even in regard to the holiest _marae_, dedicated to the great god Oro, in the island of Raiatea,[132] Baessler himself cites a tradition, apparently well authenticated, that a great number of warriors slain in battle were buried in it.[133] The argument that the people buried their dead, or at all events their skulls, only in remote caves among the mountains seems untenable; for according to the evidence of earlier writers the practice of concealing the bones or the skulls of the dead in caves was generally, if not always, a precaution adopted in time of war, to prevent these sacred relics from falling into the hands of invaders; the regular custom seems to have been to bury the bones in or near the _marae_ and to keep the skulls either there or in the house.[134] On the whole, then, it is perhaps safer to follow earlier and, from the nature of the case, better-informed writers in neglecting the distinction which Baessler drew between a _marae_ (_morai_) and an _ahu_. In any case we have Baessler's testimony that an _ahu_ was at once a place of burial and a place of worship. There seems to be no evidence that any of these sacred edifices, whether _maraes_ or _ahus_, were associated with a worship of the sun. On the other hand, it is certain that some at least of them were dedicated, partly or chiefly, to a cult of the dead, which formed a very important element in the religion of the Society Islanders, whereas there is little or nothing to show that they adored either the sun, or any other of the heavenly bodies, with the possible exception of the moon.[135] This did not, however, prevent them from entertaining absurd notions concerning these great luminaries. At an eclipse they imagined that the moon or the sun was being swallowed by some god whom they had offended; and on such occasions they repaired to the temple and offered prayers and liberal presents to the deity for the purpose of inducing him to disgorge the luminary.[136]

[125] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 116 _sq._, 127
_sq._, 144 _sq._

[126] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 130, 131.

[127] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 119.

[128] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 117 _sq._

[129] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 130 _sq._

[130] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 140.

[131] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 127.

[132] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 124, 141.

[133] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 127 _sq._, 144 _sq._

[134] See below, p. 311.

[135] Ellis says, "I am not aware that they rendered divine
homage either to the sun or moon" (_Polynesian Researches_, iii.
171). Speaking of the Areois, Moerenhout says that "it seems to
me clear that though they did not adore directly the sun and the
other stars, nevertheless their worship was little else than
sabeism or the adoration of the visible and animated universe"
(_op. cit._ i. 503). He interpreted both Oro and Maui or Mahoui
(as he spells the name) as the sun-god (_op. cit._ i. 484, 502,
503, 560 _sq._); but these interpretations appear to be his own
guesses, unsupported by any statement of the natives. Maui was
the great Polynesian hero, one of whose most famous exploits was
catching the sun in a snare and compelling him to move more
slowly (E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_,
pp. 234 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Maui"; see above, p. 275); but this
story, far from favouring the identification of Maui with the
sun, seems fatal to it. According to J. R. Forster, the great
god Taroa (Taaroa) was thought to have created the sun and to
dwell in it (_Observations_, p. 540); but even if this statement
is correct, it hardly implies a worship of the sun. With regard
to the moon, the same writer tells us (_l.c._) that it was
supposed to be procreated by a goddess named O-Heena, "who
presides in the black cloud which appears in this luminary"; and
the statement is repeated by his son, George Forster, who adds:
"The women sing a short couplet, which seems to be an act of
adoration paid to that divinity [O-Heena], perhaps because they
suppose her to have some influence upon their physical
[oe]conomy.... 'The cloud within the moon, that cloud I love'"
(_Voyage round the World_, ii. 152). This so far seems to imply
a reverence for the moon; and there are some grounds for
thinking that O-Heena or Hina (as the name is usually spelt) was
in Eastern Polynesia a moon-goddess. See above, p. 267, note^2.

[136] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 331 _sq._, iii. 171. According to
another account, the sun and moon in eclipse were supposed to be
in the act of copulation. See J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 346.