and therefore pass on to the religion which prevailed all over the
group.

At one time it was supposed that Samoa was destitute of any kind of
religion, and by some of the early visitors the people were called
"the _godless_ Samoans." On closer acquaintance with them, however,
it was discovered that they lived under the influence of a host of
imaginary deities, claiming alike belief and corresponding practice.

At his birth a Samoan was supposed to be taken under the care of some
god, or _aitu_, as it was called. The help of several of these gods
was probably invoked in succession on the occasion, and the one who
happened to be addressed just as the child was born was fixed on as
the child's god for life.

These gods were supposed to appear in some _visible incarnation_, and
the particular thing in which his god was in the habit of appearing
was to the Samoan an object of veneration. It was, in fact, his idol,
and he was careful never to injure it or treat it with contempt. One,
for instance, saw his god in the eel, another in the shark, another in
the turtle, another in the dog, another in the owl, another in the
lizard, and so on throughout all the fish of the sea, and birds, and
four-footed beasts, and creeping things. In some of the shell-fish,
even, gods were supposed to be present. A man would eat freely of what
was regarded as the incarnation of the god of another man, but the
incarnation of his own particular god he would consider it death to
injure or to eat. The god was supposed to avenge the insult by taking
up his abode in that person's body, and causing to generate there the
very thing which he had eaten, until it produced death. This class of
genii, or tutelary deities, they called _aitu fale_, or gods of the