Book-bot.com - Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study by Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895

Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study by Thomas Henry Huxley
page 34 of 80 (42%)

Just so Saul strips off his clothes, "prophesies" before Samuel,
and lies down "naked all that day and night."

Both Mariner and Moerenhout refuse to have recourse to the
hypothesis of imposture in order to account for the inspired
state of the Polynesian prophets. On the contrary, they fully
believe in their sincerity. Mariner tells the story of a young
chief, an acquaintance of his, who thought himself possessed by
the Atua of a dead woman who had fallen in love with him, and
who wished him to die that he might be near her in Bolotoo.
And he died accordingly. But the most valuable evidence on this
head is contained in what the same authority says about King
Finow's son. The previous king, Toogoo Ahoo, had been
assassinated by Finow, and his soul, become an Atua of divine
rank in Bolotoo, had been pleased to visit and inspire Finow's
son--with what particular object does not appear.

When this young chief returned to Hapai, Mr. Mariner, who was
upon a footing of great friendship with him, one day asked him
how he felt himself when the spirit of Toogoo Ahoo visited him;
he replied that he could not well describe his feelings, but the
best he could say of it was, that he felt himself all over in a
glow of heat and quite restless and uncomfortable, and did not
feel his own personal identity, as it were, but seemed to have a
mind different from his own natural mind, his thoughts wandering
upon strange and unusual subjects, though perfectly sensible of
surrounding objects. He next asked him how he knew it was the