being especially important--which were consecrated and kept as
sacred objects within the idols. They were worn by great
personages on solemn occasions, and conferred upon their wearers
a sacred and almost divine character. There is no distinct
evidence that the maro aurou was supposed to have any
special efficacy in divination, but one cannot fail to see a
certain parallelism between this holy girdle, which endowed its
wearer with a particular sanctity, and the ephod.

According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the New Zealanders formerly
used the word karakia (now employed for "prayer") to
signify a "spell, charm, or incantation," and the utterance of
these karakias constituted the chief part of their cult. In the
south, the officiating priest had a small image, "about eighteen
inches long, resembling a peg with a carved head," which reminds
one of the form commonly attributed to the teraphim.


The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under
the god's chin, which was called his pahau or beard; this
bandage was made of a certain kind of sennet, which was tied on
in a peculiar way. When this was done it was taken possession of
by the Atua, whose spirit entered it. The priest then either
held it in the hand and vibrated it in the air whilst the
powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece of string
(formed of the centre of a flax leaf) round the neck of the
image and stuck it in the ground. He sat at a little distance
from it, leaning against a tuahu, a short stone pillar stuck in
the ground in a slanting position and, holding the string in his
hand, he gave the god a jerk to arrest his attention, lest he