Curiosities of Superstition Part 19

The worship or _cultus_ observed by the islanders included prayers, offerings of pigs, fish, vegetables, canoes, native cloth, and the like, and incantations. To these must be added the dread rite of human sacrifice. Of the style of their addresses to the G.o.ds one may form an idea from the formula with which they were accustomed to conclude it.

Having presented the gift, the priest would say: "Now, if you are a G.o.d of mercy, come this way, and be propitious to our offering; but if you are a G.o.d of anger, go outside the world,--you shall have neither temples, offerings, nor worshippers here."

As in other savage countries, they sought to propitiate the G.o.ds by inflicting physical injuries upon themselves. The Sandwich Islanders, in performing some of their rites, would knock out their front teeth; the Friendly Islanders would cut off one or two of the bones of their little fingers. So common was the latter practice, that few were to be found who had not in this way mutilated their hands. One missionary relates that, on one occasion, a chief's daughter,--a fine young woman about eighteen years of age,--was standing by his side, when he observed by the condition of the wound that she had recently performed the ceremony. Taking her hand, he asked why she had cut off her finger? There was a touch of pathos in her reply. Her mother was ill, and fearing lest she should die, she had mutilated herself in the hope the G.o.ds would preserve her life. "Well, and how did you do it?" "I took a sharp sh.e.l.l, and worked it about until the joint was separated, and then I allowed the blood to stream from it. This was my offering to persuade the G.o.ds to restore my mother." One cannot doubt the genuineness of the filial affection which could make such a sacrifice, though we may wish that it had been more wisely exercised.

When a second offering was required, the votary severed the second joint of the same finger. If a third or fourth were demanded, he amputated the same bones of the other little finger; and when he had no more joints that he could conveniently spare, he would rub the stumps of his mutilated fingers with rough stones, until the blood again streamed from the wounds.

Human sacrifices, as we have said, were very numerous, especially in the Henry, the Tahitian, and the Society island groups. At the so-called Feast of Restoration (_Raumatavchi raa_,) no fewer than seven victims were required. It was always celebrated after an invading army had forced the inhabitants to retreat to the mountains, and had desecrated the maraes by cutting down the branches of the sacred trees, and cooking their food with them, and with the wooden altars and decorations of the sacred place.

At the inauguration of their greatest kings, the islanders used what was called _Maro ura_, or the red sash. This was a piece of network, about six feet long and seven inches wide, upon which the red feathers of the parroquet were neatly fastened. A chief could receive no more honourable appellation than that of _Arii maro ura_, "King of the Red Sash." A new piece, about eighteen inches long, was attached at every sovereign's inauguration; and on all such occasions several human victims were required. A sacrifice was made, first for the _mau raa t.i.te_, or the extension of the network upon pegs, in order to attach to it the new piece. A second was necessary for the _fatu raa_, or actual attachment; and a third for the _piu raa_, or twitching the sacred relic off the pegs.

These ceremonies not only invested the sash itself with peculiar solemnity, but also rendered the chiefs who wore it more important in the eyes of the people. Well might it be so, when the thing was dyed, as it were, in innocent human blood.

Human sacrifices were also offered on the breaking out of war. Mr.

Williams remarks that a correct idea of the extent to which this system is carried may be obtained from a relation of the circ.u.mstances under which the last Tahitian victim fell, immediately prior to the introduction of Christianity. Pomare, king of Tahiti, was on the point of fighting a battle which would a.s.sure his supremacy or deprive him of his dominions.

It became to him, therefore, a matter of the highest concern to propitiate the G.o.ds by the most valuable offerings he could command. For this purpose, rolls of native cloth, pigs, fish, and immense quant.i.ties of other food were presented at the maraes; but the G.o.ds (or their priests) would not be satisfied; a human victim was demanded. Pomare, therefore, sent two of his messengers to the house of the victim, whom he had marked for the occasion. On reaching the place they inquired of the wife where her husband was, and she, in her innocence, gave the required explanation.

"Well," they continued, "we are thirsty; give us some cocoa-nut water."

She had no nuts in the house, she replied, but they were at liberty to climb the trees, and take as many as they desired. They then requested her to lend them the _O_,--a piece of ironwood, about four feet long and an inch and a half in diameter, with which the natives open the cocoa-nut.

She cheerfully consented, little suspecting that she was placing in their murderous hands the instrument which, in a few moments, was to inflict a fatal blow on her husband's head. Upon receiving the _O_, the men left the house, and went in search of their victim; and the woman, her suspicions being excited, followed them shortly afterwards, reaching the scene just in time to see the blow inflicted, and her husband fall.

She rushed forward to take a last embrace, but was immediately seized and bound hand and foot, while her husband's body was placed in a long basket made of cocoa-nut leaves, and carried from her sight. The sacrificers were always exceedingly careful to prevent the wife, or daughter, or any female relative from touching the corpse; for so polluting were females considered, that a victim would have been desecrated by a woman's touch or breath, to such a degree as to have rendered it unfit for an offering to the G.o.ds.

While the men were bearing their victim to the marae, he recovered from the stunning effect of the blow, and, bound as he was in the cocoa-nut leaf basket, said to his murderers: "Friends, I know what you are about to do with me; you are about to kill me, and offer me as a _tabu_ to your savage G.o.ds; and I also know that it is useless for me to beg for mercy, for you will not spare my life. You may kill my body, but you cannot hurt my soul; for I have begun to pray to Jesus, the knowledge of Whom the missionaries have brought to our island: you may kill my body, but you cannot hurt my soul."

This address did not move the compa.s.sion of his murderers. Laying their victim on the ground with a stone under his head, they crushed it to pieces with another. It appears that he had been selected as a victim because he had "begun to pray for JESUS;" and it is not unjust, therefore, to claim for this poor Tahitian savage a place in the n.o.ble army of martyrs.

"The manner in which human victims were sought," says Williams, "is strikingly ill.u.s.trative of many pa.s.sages of Scripture which portray the character of heathenism. As soon as the priest announced that such a sacrifice was required, the king despatched messengers to the chiefs of the various districts, and upon entering the dwelling they would inquire whether the chief had a _broken calabash_ at hand, or a _rotten cocoa-nut_. These and sinister terms were invariably used, and well understood, when such applications were made. It generally happened that the chief had some individual on his premises whom he intended to devote to this horrid purpose. When, therefore, such a request was made, he would notify, by a motion of the hand or head, the individual to be taken. The only weapon with which these procurers of sacrifices were armed, was a small round stone concealed in the hollow of their hand. With this they would strike their victim a stunning blow upon the back of the head, when others who were in readiness would rush in and complete the horrid work.

The body was then carried, amid songs and shouts of savage triumph, to the marae, there to be offered to the G.o.ds. At other times, the king's gang of desperadoes would arm themselves with spears, surround the house of their victim, and enjoy the sport of spearing him through the apertures between the poles which encircled the house. In these circ.u.mstances, the object of their savage amus.e.m.e.nt, frenzied with pain and dread, would rush from one part of the house to the other; but wherever he ran he found the spear entering his body; and at length, perceiving no possibility of escape, he would cover himself in his cloth, throw himself upon the floor, and wait until a spear should pierce his heart."

The Polynesian ideas of a future state were sufficiently curious. While believing in its existence, the natives had no conception of the value and immortality of the soul, no conception of the Everlasting. According to the Tahitians, there were two places of existence for separated spirits: one called _Roohutu noanoa_, or sweet-scented Roohutu, which in many points resembled the paradise of the Rarotongans; and the other was _Roohutu namu-namua_, or foul-scented Roohutu, of which it is impossible to furnish a description. According to the Rarotongans, paradise was a very long house, surrounded with beautiful shrubs and flowers, unfading, and of perpetual sweetness; its inmates enjoyed a beauty which never waned, and a youth which never waxed old, while pa.s.sing their days, without weariness, in dancing, merriment, and festivity. This was the highest idea of Heaven and future blessedness to which they could attain, and was as materialistic as that of the Mohammedans.

It was not necessary that a man should live a pure, true, and n.o.ble life to gain admission to the Polynesian paradise, nor was he excluded from it on account of his sins. In order to pa.s.s the departed spirit into elysium, the corpse was dressed in the best attire the relatives could provide, the head was wreathed with flowers, and other decorations were added. A pig was then baked whole, and placed on the deceased's body, surrounded by a pile of vegetable food. After this, supposing the departed to have been a son, the father would deliver some such speech as the following:--"My son, when you were alive I treated you with kindness, and when you were taken ill I did my best to restore you to health; and now you are dead, there's your _momoe o_, or property of admission. Go, my son, and with that gain an entrance into the palace of Tiki, and do not come to this world again to disturb or alarm us." Body, pig, and food would then be buried; and, if the kinsman received no contrary intimation within a few days of the interment, they believed that the offerings had obtained for the departed the desired admission. But if a cricket were heard on the premises, it was considered an ill omen, and they would utter the dismalest howls, and such expressions as the following: "Oh, our brother! his spirit has not entered the Paradise; he is suffering from hunger, he is shivering with cold!" The grave would immediately be opened, and the offering repeated,--generally with success.

The sacrifices of the Fijians are of a costlier character. The Fijian chiefs had from twenty to a hundred wives, according to their rank; and at the interment of a princ.i.p.al chief, the body was laid in state "upon a s.p.a.cious lawn," in the presence of a great crowd of interested spectators.

After the natives had exercised all the taste and skill at their command in adorning her person, the princ.i.p.al wife would walk out and take her seat near her husband's body. A rope was pa.s.sed round her neck; eight or ten powerful men pulled at it with all their strength until she died of suffocation; and the body was then laid by that of the chief. This done, a second wife seated herself in the same place; the process of strangulation was repeated, and she, too, died. A third and a fourth became voluntary sacrifices in the same manner; and all were interred in a common grave, one above, one below, and one on either side of the husband. The motive of this barbarous practice was said to be, that the spirit of the chief might not be lonely in its pa.s.sage to the invisible world, and that by such an offering its happiness might be at once secured.[55]

The Earl of Pembroke, in his light, gossipy book ent.i.tled, "South Sea Bubbles," describes a visit which he paid to one of the old sacrificial _maraes_, or inclosures, in the island of Raiatea.

"Strange places they were," he says; "built of enormous slabs of rock or coral, arranged in an oblong shape, and the s.p.a.ce inside them filled with shingle and coral, so as to form a platform about eight feet high. I think the largest was about fifty yards long; we scrambled up on to it by help of a tree, and stood on the spot stained with so much blood shed in the _name_ of religion. What horrible stories those stones could tell if they could speak!...

"What made the human sacrifices of the Society Islands so strangely ghastly and horrible, was the fact that the wretched victim was always chosen from one of certain families, set apart for that special purpose for generation after generation for ever. How this caste originated I do not know. Many of these families used to put to sea secretly in canoes, preferring an almost certain death by drowning or starvation to the terribly uncertain fate that was always hanging over their heads.

"When a man came to the priests to beg some heavenly, or rather infernal, favour, they would tell him, either from whim, malice, or some reason best known to themselves, that the G.o.d required a human sacrifice, and naming the victim, present the supplicant with the death-warrant in the shape of a sacred stone. He hides this carefully somewhere about him, and collecting a few friends, seeks out the doomed man. At last they find him sitting lazily under a tree or mending his canoe, and squatting down round him begin talking about the weather, fishing, or what not. Suddenly a hand is opened--the death stone discovered to his horrified view. He starts up terror-stricken, and tries to escape--one short, furious struggle and he is knocked down, secured, and carried off to the merciless priests. Ugh!

it is an ugly picture."[56]

CHAPTER XIII.

_THE FIJI ISLANDERS._

The annexation of the Fiji Islands to the British empire lends to the practices and beliefs of their inhabitants a peculiar interest, though to a great extent these have been abandoned since the establishment of Christianity.

Their creed is undiluted polytheism; their pantheon is full of all kinds of G.o.ds, differing in rank and power, and very widely represented on earth by some animate or inanimate object. Each Fijian has a G.o.d of his own, under whose care he supposes himself to be placed. They do not seem to have any religious teaching; but they have a priesthood, and that priesthood has, of course, its traditional formulas of worship. But nothing like regular worship, as Christians understand the phrase, is accepted or observed, and the Fijian religion is really a superst.i.tion, because its sole inspiring motive is fear. This motive the priests carefully develope, making it the basis of their claims and the source of their influence.

No man can gain access to the G.o.ds except through the priests; and the priests insist upon liberal offerings. When the worshipper comes upon questions of importance, the _Soro_ or sacrifice consists of whales' teeth and large quant.i.ties of food. For matters of inferior moment, the G.o.d is content with a mat, a club, a spear, or a tooth, or even young nuts coated with turmeric powder. On one occasion, when the chief Tuikilakila solicited the help of the Somo-somo G.o.ds in war, he built a large new temple to the war-G.o.d, and presented a quant.i.ty of cooked food, numerous turtles, and whales' teeth.

Part of the offering, or _sogaria_, is set apart for the G.o.d, and the rest forms a feast to which everybody is invited. The G.o.d's portion, as the reader will immediately conclude, is eaten by the priest and old men, but to the younger members of the community is strictly _tapu_.

Strangers who desire to consult a G.o.d begin by cutting a pile of firewood for the table. Sometimes only a whale's tooth and a dish of yams are presented. It is not necessary that the offering should be made in the temple. Mr. Williams speaks of priests to whom the inspiration came in a private house or in the open air.

He who designs to consult the oracle dresses and anoints himself, and, attended by his friends, goes to the priest, who, we will suppose, has been previously informed of the intended visit, and is lying near the sacred corner, preparing his response. When the votary arrives, the priest rises and sits so that his back is near the white cloth by which the G.o.d visits him, while the others occupy the opposite side. The votary presents a whale's tooth, states the object of his visit, and expresses a hope that the G.o.d will regard him with favour. Sometimes in front of the tooth is placed a dish of scented oil, with which the priest anoints himself, and then receives the tooth, eyeing it with deep and serious attention.

Unbroken silence follows. The priest, says Mr. Williams, grows absorbed in thought, and all gaze upon him with unwavering steadfastness. In a few minutes he trembles; his face appears slightly distorted, and twitching movements are seen in his limbs. These increase to a violent muscular action, which spreads until the whole frame is strongly convulsed, and the man shivers as with an ague fit. In some islands, adds Mr. Williams, this is accompanied with sobs and murmurs, the veins expand, and the circulation of the blood is quickened.

The priest is now possessed by his G.o.d, and all his words and actions are henceforth considered as the G.o.d's and not his own. Shrill cries of "Koi au! Koi au!" (It is I! It is I!) fill the air, and are supposed to indicate the deity's approach. While delivering the oracle, the priest's eyes stand out and roll, as if a frenzy had seized him; his voice is unnatural and his face pallid; his lips turn white; his breathing is laboured; and his whole appearance resembles that of "a furious madman."

The perspiration streams from every pore; the tears start from his strained eyes. But by degrees the symptoms disappear, and the priest stares around with purposeless gaze. Then as the G.o.d says "I depart," he throws himself down violently on the mat, or suddenly beats the ground with a club; whereupon those at a distance are informed by blasts on the conch, or the discharge of a musket, that the deity has returned into the world of spirits.

It would be a mistake to conclude that in these scenes the priest-actor is always a conscious impostor; he is frequently the victim of his own imagination, which he stimulates into an excess of frenzy.

The Fijians conceive that the way to Buruto, or Heaven, is impeded by many difficulties, except for the great chiefs, and that, therefore, the only certain plan for a man of inferior rank is to impose upon the G.o.d with a lie,--declaring himself to be a chief with so much earnestness that the G.o.d believes him, and allows him to pa.s.s! Probably in no other creed is admission to heaven made to depend upon a lie! With his war club and a whale's tooth on his shoulder, the spirit journeys to the world's end.

There grows the sacred pine, at which the spirit hurls his whale's tooth.

If he miss the mark, his journey comes to an abrupt termination; if he hit it, he travels onward until he reaches the spot where the spirits of the women murdered at his death await his arrival.

With these faithful attendants he goes forward, but is opposed by a G.o.d called Ravuyalo, against whom he employs his club. If he be defeated, the G.o.d kills and eats him; if he conquer, he again goes forward until he falls in with a canoe. Embarking, he is conveyed to the celestial heights where dwells the supreme G.o.d, Ndengei. Over the brink of the cliff stretches the long-steering oar of the G.o.d's canoe. He is asked his name and rank, and to this inquiry he replies with a detailed and very imaginative recital of his greatness and opulence, the heroic deeds he has achieved, the devastation he has effected, and the realms over which he has ruled. He is then commanded to seat himself on the blade of the oar, and, if his story have met with credence, he is borne aloft into Buruto; if Ndengei disbelieves it, the oar is tilted up, and he is hurled down for ever into the watery depths of blackness.

Bachelors are not admitted into Buruto, because as we have stated, the spirit waits for his wives, to prove that he is married. And if an unmarried man venture on the journey, a G.o.ddess called the Great Woman, throws herself in his way. She bears towards bachelors an implacable hatred, and no sooner sees one than she springs upon him and tears him to pieces. In her haste she sometimes misses him; but even then he has to contend against another G.o.d, who conceals himself by the side of the path, and as the bachelor spirit pa.s.ses by, leaps upon him, and dashes him against a stone.

There is a ghastliness about the funeral ceremonies of the Fijians which far surpa.s.ses even the dreary desolation of those in vogue among ourselves.

In common with several other savage tribes they hold that men and women who have grown decrepit and infirm have lived their lives, and should withdraw from this world of activity. Accordingly though they may be neither dead nor dying, preparations are made for their interment. And it seems that the moribund themselves do not object to this summary antic.i.p.ation of the moment of dissolution; on the contrary, when they become sensible of infirmity, they invite their sons to strangle them.

While the sons, far from objecting to an act of parricide, will intimate to their aged parents, if they delay the request, that they have lived long enough, and that it will be well for them to enjoy the rest of the grave. On both sides this singular conduct is due apparently to the Fijian belief that the condition of the spirit in the next world will exactly resemble that of the individual in this; and consequently everybody is desirous to cross the threshold while he retains some degree of activity of body.

Alone we must die, but we need not pa.s.s alone into the spirit-world! Such is the conviction of the Fijians, and accordingly they provide a dead chief with attendants, by strangling at his grave his favourite wives. And they slay a valiant warrior that he may precede him on his journey, and do battle for him with all evil spirits or demons. These victims are called "gra.s.s," and lie at the bottom of the chieftain's grave; the wives decked out in fleecy folds of the softest masi, the servants with their various implements in their hands, and the warrior equipped for the strife, with his favourite club by his side. No resistance is offered by any one of the sufferers; no attempt is made to escape; all seem to contend for the honour of escorting their chief into the other world.

Mr. Williams was present at the funeral of the King of Somo-somo in August, 1845. Age was beginning to tell upon him, but there was no immediately dangerous symptom, and on the 21st, when Mr. Williams visited him, he was better than he had been for two or three days before. Judge, then, of the missionary's surprise, when, on the 24th, he was informed that the king was dead, and that preparations were being made for his interment, he could scarcely believe the report. The ominous word "preparations" induced him to hasten at once to the scene of action, but his utmost speed failed to bring him to Nasima, the king's house, in time.

The moment he entered it was evident that, as far as concerned two of the women, he was too late to save their lives. The effect of that ghastly scene was overwhelming. Scores of deliberate murderers in the very act surrounded him; yet was there no confusion, and the unearthly horrid stillness was broken only by an occasional word from him who presided.

Nature seemed to lend her aid to enhance the impression of horror; there was not a breath in the air, and the half subdued light in that hall of death revealed every object with unusual distinctness.

"All was motionless as sculpture, and"--writes Mr. Williams--"a strange feeling came upon me, as though I was myself becoming a statue. To speak was impossible; I was unconscious that I breathed; and involuntarily, or rather against my will, I sank to the floor, a.s.suming the cowering posture of those who were actually engaged in murder. My arrival was during a hush, just at the crisis of death, and to that strange silence must be attributed my emotions; and I was but too familiar with murders of this kind, neither was there anything novel in the apparatus employed.

Occupying the centre of that large room were two groups, the business of whom could not be mistaken.

"All sat on the floor; the middle figure of each group being held in a sitting posture by several females, and hidden by a large veil. On either side of each veiled figure was a company of eight or ten strong men, one company hauling against the other a white cord which was pa.s.sed twice round the neck of the doomed one, who thus in a few minutes ceased to live. As my self-command was returning to me the group furthest from me began to move; the men slackened their hold, and the attendant women removed the large covering, making it into a couch for the victim."

Mr. Williams now repaired to the hut of the deceased king, to intercede with his successor on behalf of the other intended victims. Judge of his surprise and horror to find the king still alive. He was very feeble, it was true, but he retained complete consciousness, and occasionally put his hand to his side as his cough shook and tortured him. The young king seemed overcome with grief, and embracing Mr. Williams, said: "See, the father of us two is dead." He regarded his father's movements, even his speaking and taking food, as mechanical; in his view, the spirit had departed, and nothing remained but an infirm, and, therefore, valueless body. The preparations for the funeral were not interrupted, and Mr.

Williams could obtain no hearing for his expostulations. The young chief's princ.i.p.al wife and an attendant busily dusted his body with black powder, as if dressing him for the war-dance; and bound his arms and legs with long rolls of white masi, tied in rosettes, with the ends streaming on the ground. He was attired in a new masi robe, which fell about him in ample folds; his head was decorated with a scarlet handkerchief, arranged turban-wise, and ornamented with white cowrie-sh.e.l.ls, strings of which flashed on his dusky arms; while round his neck depended an ivory necklace, composed of long curved claw-like pieces of whale's teeth.