The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 28

A familiar figure of the Polynesian pantheon, who meets us in the mythology of the Society Islanders, was the famous G.o.d 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 G.o.ds of the second cla.s.s."[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 G.o.d. Thus, between the high G.o.ds and the deities of particular places or of particular professions, there was a cla.s.s 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 G.o.ds.[99] Again, there were many G.o.ds of the sea, among whom the princ.i.p.al seem to have been Tuaraatai and Ruahatu. These were generally called shark G.o.ds (_atua mao_), not that the shark was itself deemed a G.o.d, but that it was supposed to be employed by the marine G.o.ds 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 s.h.i.+pwrecked 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds, born of the Night (_atua fauau po_).[100] Again, there were G.o.ds of the air, who were sometimes wors.h.i.+pped 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 wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds.

In tempests their compa.s.sion was besought by mariners tossed on the sea or by their friends on sh.o.r.e.[101] To the minds of the islanders there were also G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds, 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 superst.i.tious 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 pet.i.tion 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 "G.o.d" 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 wors.h.i.+pped 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 wors.h.i.+p of the other G.o.ds, since in the religion of the Society Islanders, as of other branches of the Polynesian race, it was closely interwoven with the wors.h.i.+p 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._

-- 4. _The Temples and Images of the G.o.ds_

The sacred place dedicated to religious wors.h.i.+p 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Sudsee-Bilder_, pp.

111 _sqq._; S. and K. Routledge, "Notes on some Archaeological Remains in the Society and Austral Islands," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, 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 Sudsee-Bilder_, p. 135. This writer has given us a survey and description of some of the princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sistance 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 polis.h.i.+ng of them could have been effected more easily by means of the sharp coral sand, which is found everywhere on the seash.o.r.e 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 s.p.a.cious 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 G.o.d 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 princ.i.p.al front stood the G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 ash.o.r.e, 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 circ.u.mference.[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 wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds 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 wors.h.i.+p".[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 sc.r.a.ped 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 wors.h.i.+p, 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 princ.i.p.al people. It differs little from the common ones, except in extent. Its princ.i.p.al 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.