1838 - Polack, J. S. New Zealand [Vol.II] [Capper reprint, 1974] - Chapter VIII

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CHAPTER VIII.

The religious tenets of the New Zealanders are inculcated into their minds at a very early age; yet they worship no representation of the Great Spirit, who is believed to be implacable, and the origin of every evil.

In the course of this narration the reader will have perceived that fearful superstitions shake this people to the very soul, and make them frightened at their own shadows. These absorbing fears

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RELIGIOUS TENETS.

stay them from committing depredations during the night, or the population would have decreased more rapidly than it has already alarmingly done. The theogony of the people is continually on the increase, as every renowned chief that dies, is added to their divine biography, which, imprinted, would rival the ponderous tomes issued by the old Academie Francaise.

Much as the memories of the generality of these Atuas or gods, are respected, their acquaintance is palpably disliked, as they are supposed to cause every evil dispensation in life; even a griping of the inward man is attributed to the devouring lust of an atua, who is supposed to feed on the entrails of the sufferer, and they are represented to be as immoderate in cannibalism after their apotheosis or deification as when existing as mortal chiefs on this earth.

Every district in the country possesses different atuas, to whom are assigned unnatural tastes wholly repudiated by this primitive people, who have no idea of the disgusting extent of crimes, with which civilization alone, (it would appear,) has tainted human nature.

At Piroa, or Doubtless Bay, on one of the most prominent hills, is said to reside Niturehu, a filthy deity, whose affection for red headed young ladies and gentlemen is only comparable to

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NATIVE DIABLERIE.

the depraved tastes of Jupiter Tonans, to whom a Leda or Ganimede were equally acceptable.

It is devoutly to be wished that the time may early arrive when a knowledge of the useful arts will take the place of Lempriere's collection of brutal obscenities in our public schools. Niturehu's gout for red hair may be said to lend a colour to his actions; but those natives, whose locks bear any resemblance to a vegetable red, invariably, on mentioning this deity, deny it, admitting their crinigerous covering is not absolutely black, but like some northern nations, whose tresses are said to resemble the golden sand of the Pactolus.

The Taniwoa is the general name for the whole race of aquatic divinities.

These diavoli are found in every port, river, creek, or lake in the islands, and the sea is also said to be possessed by them. Thus the upsetting of a canoe, the breaking of a fishing line or hook, the rending of a net, or bite from any fish, are laid to the charge of the ruthless Taniwoa. His name might be, with justice, termed Million, from his innumerable appellations. He is supposed to pay little attention to white men, whose crack boats, or larger vessels, and ability in their management defy the (anti) Pacific Neptune. Mawi is accounted as father of the gods. The

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PRESIDING DIVINITIES.

performances of this divinity, and his punishment, for an unlucky connubial mistake, has been already related.

His sepulchre is on the Ikorangi mountain, near the East Cape, and as a monument for a divinity, is worthy of a Cheops.

Every bad passion, such as anger, fear, malignity, revenge, horror, remorse, sorrow, &c, is laid on the divine scape-goat. Love, pleasure, prosperity, health, are supposed to exist without divine intervention. When these latter passions prevail among the people, there is no occasion for the services of the priesthood, who are only called in to avert some calamity, or like Baalam the son of Peor employed by that interesting savage, Balak, to curse an enemy. As the flock, in such cases can manage without the aid of the pastor, who naturally lacks his tithes, the latter has sternly forbidden the gods to have any thing to do with that which smacks of comfort or content, except after the harvests; the atuas have a small portion of the crop put aside, which the priests take the trouble of masticating for them, requesting for such service, that he will oblige the people with allowing the ground to teem the ensuing year with a plenteous produce.

To Mawi is ascribed, and also to a relation named

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THEIR ATTRIBUTES.

Toaki, the manufacture of land. He is also regarded as forming the numerous volcanoes on the islands. A priest, at my fire-side, gave me some information of Toaki, who, he said, possessed a pair of tongs, poker, and shovel, pointing to those articles that garnished my hearth. The shovel, he observed was made use of, that none of the lava, (punga rea,) should be uselessly expended. Every time the fire and smoke were emitted, it was caused by an extra stir up of the divine poker. The shovel was also made use of to tumble the slave population into the crater, (mungi no te puki puhia;) but the priest was puzzled to find employment for the infernal tongs; at last he bethought himself, "no na pakeha pea!" probably for the white men!

The Ruatara or lizard, is accounted a very virulent deity. This innocuous reptile is supposed to enter the human body the best way he is able, and amuses himself by devouring the inside of the helpless sufferer. This atua pays attention only to such priests as have been long studied in the profession; one of these elders, if of a quiet mild disposition in making his incantations over the sick person, will moralize on the folly of the atua, in seeking food in so thin

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DIVINE ANIMALS.

and spare a person. If the patient should happen to be of a contrary habit, inclining to obesity, he will joke with the god; tell him to enjoy himself in some person of fitter trim, or otherwise he will stand a chance of being suffocated. Should the priest be of an irascible turn, he will roundly tax the god, and order him off immediately; telling him to beware of his catching him, or else he will astonish his weak mind for his temerity in touching one of his flock; he will also advise him to establish his quarters at some obnoxious village in the vicinity.

If the patient recovers, the old enchanter will immediately swear he saw the atua, in form of the lizard, walk out of the sick man's ear, nostrils, or mouth.

The Guana or gigantic lizard, appearing before an army of truculent warriors, would soon put them all to flight.

Mawi Rangi, is the Ceres of the country, and is said to be seen at work, when the sky exhibits a blue surface, chequered with white clouds: this divinity is then supposed to be planting the aerial edibles, and rain shortly after following, is stated to have been caused by the atua watering his productions, after a portable me-

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CERES, CHARON, AND VULCAN

thod, that any other than a New Zealand divinity, would possess too much delicacy to make use of, in horticultural pursuits.

That the atuas are at times afflicted with famine, may be reasonably supposed from the method employed when the head of a family ceases to exist: a portion of food, such as a small bird, or a small pottle of cooked vegetables, being then placed on a tapued spot for payment to the native Charon.

The elements are under the direction of the deities; the keeper of the westerly winds is regarded as the most passionate of the atuas; it is even supposed he is so easily ruffled and irritable, that he often chokes himself with passionate bile, which accounts for that wind ceasing at some periods.

Kotaki is also supposed to be a foreman to Toaki; but those atuas are saved the "hard labour for life," that Vulcan was sentenced to, viz. in forging thunderbolts, and other spiritual ammunition, as this metal, though abounding in the country, has not been brought into use.

The Pleiades are pointed out as the left eyes of the atuas, once mortal chiefs, who cannot prevent themselves from twinkling, or as a priest

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TRADITIONS ON THE

sagaciously observed, how difficult it must be to keep one eye always open, and its fellow eternally shut; another sage, upon reflection said, it was probably produced by the laughter, caused by some witticism of another atua.

The shooting of a star, was interpreted to me as the act of an irritable divinity, giving an unceremonious kick to the gravitating centre of a weaker neighbour, resembling the performance of the "thunderer," on the inexpressible parts of the tuneful Apollo, which is said to have hastened his volitary powers.

The female atuas in the native empyrean, are described as coquetish and flighty, loving to madness, and hating to detestation, indifferent and jealous, never changing and ever varying, as the dear sex are said to be on earth, (I am no subscriber to the charge), and the earthquake, (ourangi o te wenua) is said to be caused by old Toaki and his friends getting drunk with love, (not wine.)

These female spirits would seem to resemble those less etherial compositions to whom the lips of mortal men make frequent application to on earth. They appear to emanate, or are distilled from an internal cause; their effects, it would appear, are equally pungent, each pos-

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HEAVENLY BODIES.

sessing overproof strength to give a recumbency to the strongest; and it would also appear the ladies put both into hot water above and below, then with a smile, or a lump of "double refined," restore palatibility. Another commentator differed, (it is the trick of the trade), and gave his opinion, that Toaki was enjoying a nap, and the nodding of his Atlas-like head and shoulders, could alone cause the tremblement de terre.

The Sun (Ra), and Moon (Morama), have a thousand traditions. Of the latter, Rona, is the chief of the place; he formerly lived upon earth; but his lodgings are not distinctly pointed out. He subsequently made a journey to the moon, which if not formed of green cheese, something as pleasing to the atua's taste was found, for he, it is said, never descended to his native country since. His serail is numerously attended: the names of the ladies are registered in the inventive heads of the priests; and they are said, (to use a modern phrase) "to keep it up," pretty comfortably.

The Maculae, or dark spots in the sun, are said to arise from the shade, cast by battling warriors; and the helio-cometes, or luminous emanations from the sun in spiral rays, is re-

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POLEMICAL DICTUMS

garded as a large assembly of divine chiefs, taking a glance before nightfall, on the endeared scene of their mortal existence--which in life they loved so well. The clouds passing the moon, are said to be caused for reasons that Rona possesses, which may be illustrated, by the throwing of a kerchief from a sultan at Istamboul to a terrestrial houri.

The native Boreas, whose name is Ounui, has lost nothing of the flatulency ascribed to that divine personage; indecorous imitations on a minor scale, form the subject of unpleasant witticisms among his disciples, which smack strongly of their unrefined condition.

It is a matter of difficulty to persuade a native of the beneficence of an adorable and merciful Creator. That the same omnipresent being, who gives us daily the means of satisfying our wants, and rarely punishes us, however we may deserve it, made the Europeans and his countrymen, is altogether beyond his belief.

Residing wholly among the natives at various periods, I had frequent opportunities of conversing with them on these subjects; the difference of complexion, the superior abilities displayed in the building of European ships, and the instruments of iron, and steel, so superior to their own

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OF THE NATIVES.

unpretending implements, are apparently so great, that they can scarcely be persuaded of the fact.

Many tribes differ, as to the attributes of the above divinities, and as the mythology is unnotated in writing, those aerial personages are often confounded. Interpolations are added or diminished, as may suit the fancy of the relater, which depends much on the surrounding locality. They admit that the Atua no Europi, or God of the Europeans, has power over them, and add with bitterness, he has indeed come to the land in the form of disease, --such as the influenza, cholera, and another introduced at the earliest period, and still more to be deprecated.

One venerable sage assured me, that he had beheld the God of the white man, and described the several comets he had seen, within his own memory, and that of his parent. As to the introduction of diseases, I began to account for them, but my observations were speedily cut short by an old man remarking, that the natives were thus afflicted by the atua of the white men, as the latter had been permitted to remain in the land. --"Yes," he added, "you have fine ships and fine things, but your country cannot

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CONVERSATIONS.

equal New Zealand, or you would never have left your parents and relations, the village you were born in, the chief under whose command you were brought up, and the wai tapu of your ancestors. You are all slaves in this country, who have ran away from your homes."

Many pleasing questions were often discussed in these little conversazioni, which evinced the powerful intellect possessed by these rude people.

Small parties of these poor misled savages, were in the habit of congregating outside my house on the banks of the Maunga muka river; a large fire was made of wood, of the Kauri gum, whose bituminous nature threw a vivid blaze around, and the natives would encircle the fire, their outer mats spread on the ground, and the chiefs, generally elders, reclining on them with the eternal tobacco pipe. When they were engaged in political discussions, I applied myself to a book, the selection of which gave me but little trouble, my library being what might be termed perfectly unique in its way, consisting solely of the Holy Bible, the sixth volume of Cook's Voyages, an abridgement of Cocker's arithmetic, and a few of the Courier newspaper, containing the "latest bul-

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LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.

letins, of General Bonaparte at Austerlitz," a battle which (in reading) I had fought over at least twenty times.

I enquired of a chief, who sent his son the day previously to Mangugnu, to receive instruction from the Wesleyan brethren, why he did not also incline his heart to similar religious instruction, or, if contrary to his belief, why not require his son to follow his own evangelical notions. He said that heaven and hell, taught by Europeans, might be very true; if so, he had been warring too much all his life to expect any transition from a better place than was appropriated to his ancestors; he had therefore made up his mind to go to the reinga and eat kumeras, as all his ancestors had done before him; if the atua changed the heart of his son in favour of Europeans, he would not thwart him; a native parent always let his child do as he liked.

I then requested the service of another son that remained at home with the friendly universalist, but he declined, on the score that he had no one to help him to plant the uwhi, or winter potatoe.

Wata, a kind old chief, promised me one of his sons, on condition that I treated him like a gentleman, and would not let him cook in the

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238 NOTIONS OF GENTILITY.

kitchen, but allow him to blacken my shoes, clean the knives and forks, and add to the labourers in the boats. I promised to keep inviolate the respectability of his son Heriheri, whose delicacy should not be tainted with my knowledge; that the polished duties of shoe blacking should be wholly consigned to his charge, as well as the necessary abrasions of the knives and forks, if I possessed those articles in the plural number, so that no handle should be given for discontent. I added, that the cook should not carve out any culinary work for him, except peeling potatoes with a muscle shell, which, after some remonstrance, was amicably assented to.

Accordingly the old gentleman patted my legs, said I was an excellent white man, and that his son should join me early on the morrow. His anxious mind being now relieved as to the respectable functions that would devolve on his child, in the warmth of his emotion he added the offer of one of his daughters; but with a profusion of thanks, I declined this addition to my family, advising him that the Wesleyan settlement would be infinitely more serviceable to the furtherance of her education.

A native feels much gratified at a European being conversant with the language, and terms

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JEALOUSY IN A PRIEST.

him a native white man (pakeha maori). They acknowledge the native atuas are powerless over the latter.

An old man, named Gnow, often paid me a visit during my residence on the banks of the Maunga muka. This personage was an excellent specimen of the New Zealand priesthood.

He had taken unto himself a young wife in his old age, whose indiscretions before espousals, it was stated, were still practised after her entering the conjugal state.

The old gentleman called at the settlement one day, alone, and exceedingly irritated, occasioned by a galling remark on the conduct of his Messalina, made by a chief, whose fortune the priest refused to communicate. The old gentleman repeated his griefs to me, observing he felt ashamed to ask the advice of a countryman on the subject. He admitted that the rank of his wife put it out of his power to punish her, as she deserved, and in the simplicity of his heart, or obtuseness of his intellects, enquired if I could see what she might, at that moment, be engaged in, through my eyeglass, of whose powers of prescience he had heard. I demanded what her occupation had been the few preceding days. --Gnow replied, making a mat for him. I then took a

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HIS GRATITUDE.

glance through my glass, and told him, that doubtless she was then scraping flax. The old man jumped from his recumbent position and danced about the room, as early as I delivered this oracle, repeating several times: "apono ano, e mea pono ra kio!" it is a truth--a true thing really; "kourpou ano tana muka," her flax is surely expended. In the fullness of his joy, he turned round his right eye towards me, (he was blind in the left) and promised me a small pig, or kuri, raising his extended hand the height it should be from the floor, enquiring if the size would content me; but his sightless organ might as well have faced me, for I never saw the promised payment.

I often afterwards reminded him of the utu, when his lady attended him; he would then put up his hand, indicative of silence, and exclaim "taiore, ouwe porangi ekoro mia," bye and bye, be not hasty, my friend. The old man has since been gathered to his fathers, but he forgot the pig among the legacies of his will; it is therefore past "taiore."

His merry-making wife at last got in reality the blind side of him; she pretended great affection, studied his whims and oddities so much, that Gnow often told me, he ought to feel happy, as he felt certain in the event of his death, that

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AN UXORIOUS PRIEST.

his wife would immediately hang herself. I answered that such an occurrence was likely to happen before his death. He did not fathom my meaning, notwithstanding his knowledge of the occult sciences, and frequently expressed a hope that such would not be the case.

The old man was best known by the name of Matapo, (blind man) and he was much given to boast, pointing to his sole visual organ, that he could behold more with that single eye, than any other priest in the country with a vision quadrupled. He added, that the atuas had frequently appeared to him, and that he was on the most intimate terms with them.

I met Gnow at a village some time after my oral decision on the conduct of his wife, when a young man, named Waitara, was confined to his hut with illness. Matapo was dancing up and down a circle of believers, with a wreath of karaka leaves bound round his head, and a belt of green flax round his waist; with this exception, he was as bare of clothing as at the hour he was first introduced into this sublunary world. As he was chief priest of the district, which includes the professions of barber, surgeon, physician, necromancer, apothecary, and fortuneteller, he was induced to visit the young man, and at the moment was engaged making a prayer

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INCANTATIONS.

to the divinity of the village, who must have enjoyed a sound nap, or felt indifferent to the priest, if he did not hear him, for Matapo raved and danced like a bedlamite at the atua for listening to the young man's enemies, and he ever and anon shook his little spear in a menacing manner, as if he would destroy a whole family of atuas. To speak to him was unavailing: I therefore made use of the magic of a head of tobacco, which produced the effect intended, as he immediately approached me with a benignant smile beaming on his countenance and told me that the young man Waitara, was bewitched or makutued. I enquired how that event came about; he said, that an enemy of an opposing tribe had smoked out of the sick man's pipe, and he promised to show me what he could do in destroying the effects of the makutu; he accordingly approached Waitara, and began a shibboleth to the atua that no person present understood; and as the priest did not understand it himself, I shall be readily spared a translation. He then turned to the young man, and scolded him for having had anything to say to a tribe who would let their own priests starve before they would give them a basket of potatoes. "But," continued the old priest, "I forgot there is not a priest among

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SUPERSTITION.

them that deserves a pipi," (cockle). I spoke to the young man, who was very unwell, but somewhat intelligent, and told him, that if he would follow my directions, he would recover. He hesitated, and looked at Matapo, who consented that my atua should be called in, as he felt angry he said, with his own, for permitting the young man to be bewitched in the first instance. On this the priest consented to cover his nakedness by putting on a garment. The old man was himself dying of atrophy, and I verily believe a smart, pleasant, breeze would have blown him about like a shuttlecock, for his shrunk shanks would not have borne the body of a stout boy of ten years of age.

The New Zealanders admit that the new people can be priests equal in ability to their own class; --a singular coincidence gave rise to my being invested with the dignity common to the fraternity.

Being somewhat near-sighted, I was amusing myself (perhaps for want of thought) by observing through my glass the planets which encircled the milky way, and those myriads of stars whose coruscations of light, cause the glittering phenomena. An aged priest enquired if I could perceive the atua. I replied no; but that I could discern his works (pointing to himself, the stars, and the fast

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DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS.

flowing river at our feet). A few stars, whose location had a very distant resemblance to the bow of a ship, caused me to observe I could perceive a ship; the bystanders all wanted to see the aerial vessel, upon which they severally looked through the glass; but their superior length of vision was dimmed by the instrument. This gave rise to a discussion among them, whether the wearing of a pair of spectacles, or an eye glass, conferred a title on the wearer in Europe; several elders contending, that a pair of spectacles was evidently the most honourable, as a single glass only appertained to the eyeglass.

A servant of mine gave his opinion, that only priests were allowed to wear glasses, and as proof positive of what he had advanced, enquired if any one present had seen an inferior European wear glasses, adding, he had seen the Reverend Messrs. Marsden and Williams wear them constantly; the latter could not be gainsaid, whose happy, jovial countenance is as well known peering through the identical spectacles, as any European countenance in the country. One sage, after mature reflection, observed, that the white men and natives were organised alike, as (to use his expression) two kumeras resembled each other, then the eyesight must also be alike;

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LOSS OF THE "MEREDITH."

but as it was proved that none present could see through the glass, it must be for some such purpose, as the servant Tunatuna had said. Strange to say, within two hours after I had stated, I could see a ship, we heard the news from a passing native, who was paddling his canoe up the river, that a vessel had just been seen off the heads of the Hokianga river, which was the first that had entered the port for three months previously. Of course, I should never have predicted the vessel, but from a natural accidental appearance. I therefore beg leave to disclaim all knowledge of the cabalistic sciences. The vessel proved to be the ship "Meredith" of London, Fullarton, with salt from Oahu (Sandwich Islands), and was totally wrecked off the north head of the river.

The priests or tohungas, when once established, are persons of much influence, and some importance among the people. But any person may become one of the class, and few chiefs of any note take the dignity unless for political purposes.

The younger relations who possess but little in worldly goods in respectable families, generally take this profession. There are many sensible natives who laugh at this class of men; but these free-thinkers by the force of habit or exam-

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ABSENCE OF CONSCIENCE.

pie, succumb to the crafty old men, on being taken ill, but no sooner recover than they become again faithless.

The priests do not fail to notice these independents, and they are doubly mulct when taken unwell. Though while busily engaged in sacrifices, they are regarded as holy people, yet if taken in battle, their bodies do not escape being cut up, and devoured, similar to those of common slaves.

On the priest depends whether a war shall be commenced, or once entered upon, whether it shall be continued or cease. The consciences (heaven save the mark) of his flock, lie in his keeping; its consequent absence may in some measure account for the little that is shown by a native towards friend or foe. The labours of the priesthood are principally required after a victory. When the body of a principal enemy is to be cut up, partly roasted, and tasted by these people, auguries are elicited by the appearances of the intestines; and on their position and taste, depend the renewal of the contest or its cessation between the hostile powers. Priests possess the gift of prescience, and are supposed to foretell to an hour what is likely to happen, and should the contrary to the prediction take place, it is accounted for, that the atua is in an

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SACRIFICIAL CEREMONIES.

ill humour, thus venting his bile on the priest, whose flock observe "nu Tilani, man no fool," so they return the supposed anger of the atua, with double applause on the priest, and a proportionate medium of contempt on the faulty divinity, who is regarded as unable to know his own mind, which is a national feature.

Crozet, in writing on the religious feeling of the natives, observes: "Quand on leur a fait des questions a ce sujet, ils ont leve les yeux et les mains au ciel, avec des demonstrations de respect et de crainte qui indiquaient leur croyance d'un Etre supreme."

In incantations the priests are entirely denuded of dress.

When returning victors from a battle, thanks are given to Tu the native Mars, and Wiro the evil spirit, in the following manner: --each person who has distinguished himself in the fight, carries in his hand a bunch of toitoi grass, and lays it on a platform in front of the priest, who takes a similar bunch in his hand, chanting his kouwou or prayer; an inferior priest takes the various bunches from him, and carries them to the water, repeating prayers with outstretched arms to the Taniwoa of the place, to whose affability and politeness, he attributes the safe return of his relatives and friends in their

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OFFERTORIES.

canoes. Every bunch is thus taken off the scaffold by various priests, and taken to the water in the same manner as the preceding, and similar remerciments to the atua. All the other ceremonies are equally simple, in either sense of the word, except when human sacrifices of victims take place; then these cannibals show they have not degenerated from the sons of Belial, their Asiatic ancestors.

To the body of slaves no sacrificial honours are paid; they are prepared by the cooks, without delay, for these sarcophagi; and when dressed, a small portion of the body is put in a basket and placed on an elevated platform in a wai tapu, or on the branch of a tree, as a propitiatory sacrifice to Wiro, who personates the devil (and is fully as black in this country, as he is elsewhere represented).

These latter sacrifices are not performed before vulgar eyes. The head priest devoutly addresses the devil, who is here wanting in the appendage that reckless Europeans have entailed on him. The priests eat wholly of the first body slain in battle, the chiefs and people partake of all that may be slain after.

A female chief when slain, is cut up and sacrificed by priestesses, that is, if the men have sufficient subjects in hand of their own sex.

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REFINEMENTS IN BARBARITY.

These feminine incarnations of Satan are treated with much respect, are believed and trusted with the same implicit faith as the priests. There is also introduced into the incantations, an unknown tongue, that produces among these untaught savages, as much veneration, not unmixed with fear, as ever was felt within the breasts of similarly fanatical Europeans.

Among other refinements in barbarity, practiced on those occasions, the dissections take place before the captured relatives, who are thus made witnesses of the horrible fate of their friends; and when the endearing affection with which these people view each other among their families, is considered, it is impossible to conceive the agony and horror of the miserable children, and the enslaved wives and relations, whose strength as a tribe are perhaps broken for ever. Yet it is certain that after some time, when the memory no longer lingers upon the losses they have sustained, the captured people throw their affections on the tribe who conquered them, and I have seen many thus circumstanced, who in after years have been on visits to the villages where they were born, and the relatives from whom they were torn, and have always returned to the conquerors, having formed new connections and tastes.

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LEVITICAL INVENTIONS.

The anathema of a priest is regarded as a thunderbolt that an enemy cannot escape; scarce a village exists without these spiritual weapons hanging over them. Priests of either sex are continually consulted by their followers previously to undertaking anything, whether leaving for a fishing party, or any other jaunt; and those chief ladies, who love their lords, are continually harassing the village priest, as to the sex of the embryo fruits of her union. The sly old sage, to get rid of unpleasant importunities, will probably say a girl, expecting the wretched mother will not let the infant see the light; but if the priest gets a consideration for the trouble he may be put to, (for in this country, similarly to that on the western side of St. George's Channel, tithes are very difficult to collect) that alters the sex instanter; should the promised boy prove to be a girl, the rogue persuades the silly mother, that he had prayed to such an atua, but had given him up some time previously, and doubtless the atua out of revenge had changed the sex. The priest asseverates this to the lady's friends, who perhaps were very solicitous for a male child, and to the weak woman so often, that at last he becomes a convert to his own inventions.

These priests are soon beaten from their posi-

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DIVINE DUST.

tions by a very little argument; the pastor and flock have frequently before me laughed heartily, at trusting to "dry bones," which is all they possess of their atuas.