the heavens, reminding us again of the Mosaic ceremonies.
The chiefs all drank a portion out of the same cup, according to
rank; and after that, the food brought as an offering was
divided and eaten 'there before the Lord.'


In Tonga, when they consulted a god who had a priest, the
latter, as representative of the god, had the first cup; but if
the god, like Ta-li-y-Tooboo, had no priest, then the chief
place was left vacant, and was supposed to be occupied by the
god himself. When the first cup of kava was filled, the
mataboole who acted as master of the ceremonies said, "Give it
to your god," and it was offered, though only as a matter of
form. In Tonga and Samoa there were many sacred places or
morais, with houses of the ordinary construction, but
which served as temples in consequence of being dedicated to
various gods; and there were altars on which the sacrifices were
offered; nevertheless there were few or no images. Mariner
mentions none in Tonga, and the Samoans seem to have been
regarded as no better than atheists by other Polynesians because
they had none. It does not appear that either of these peoples
had images even of their family or ancestral gods.

In Tahiti and the adjacent islands, Moerenhout (t. i. p. 471)
makes the very interesting observation, not only that idols were
often absent, but that, where they existed, the images of the
gods served merely as depositories for the proper
representatives of the divinity. Each of these was called a
maro aurou, and was a kind of girdle artistically adorned
with red, yellow, blue, and black feathers--the red feathers