The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 33

[243] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 152.

The fear of ghosts in the minds of the Society Islanders has long survived their conversion to Christianity; indeed, we are informed that it is as rampant as ever. No ordinary native would dare to visit one of the lonely caves where the mouldering bones or skulls of his forefathers were deposited for safety in days of old.[244] At one point on the western coast of Tahiti, where the mountains advance in precipices close to the sea, the road which skirts their base is a place of fear to the natives. For in these precipices are caves full of skulls, and the ghosts who reside in the caverns are reported sometimes to weary of their own society and to come down to the road for company, where in a sportive vein they play all sorts of tricks on pa.s.sers-by. Not so long ago three Tahitians were riding home at dusk from Papeete, where they had been drinking rum. Just at the pa.s.s under the cliff they were surprised by ghosts, who threw them into the ditch at the side of the road. So great is the dread which the natives entertain of apparitions at this spot that the Government has been compelled to divert the road, so that it no longer skirts the foot of the haunted mountain, but gives it a wide berth, and runs in a long sweep by the edge of the sea.[245]

[244] A. Baessler, _Neue Sudsee-Bilder_, p. 37.

[245] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 83 _sq._

Again, at another point on the west coast of Tahiti, where mighty mountains, a glorious sea, and little coral islands with their groves of palms, offer a view of enchanting beauty, there is said to be a cave containing the skulls of chiefs in a jutting cliff half-way up the mountain. The cave was in charge of an old man in whose family the office of guardian was hereditary. It had been entrusted to him by his father on his deathbed, and the son had kept the secret faithfully ever since. In vain did a traveller seek to persuade the old man to guide him to the cave; in vain did the chief himself beg of him to reveal the grotto which concealed the mouldering relics of his forefathers. The guardian was obdurate; he believed that the world was not wide enough to hold two men who knew the holy place. He a.s.sured the traveller that n.o.body could reach the cave without the help of the ghosts, so perpendicular and so smooth was the face of the cliff that led up to it.

When he himself wished to make his way to it, his custom was to go to the foot of the crag and pray, till the spirits came and wafted him lightly up and down again; otherwise it would have been a sheer impossibility for him to ascend and descend.[246]

[246] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 81 _sq._

-- 10. _The Wors.h.i.+p of the Dead_

The belief in the existence of the spirits of the dead, and in their power to help or harm the living, naturally led the Society Islanders, like so many other peoples of the world, to propitiate these powerful beings, to sue their favour, or to appease their anger by prayer and sacrifice, in short, to wors.h.i.+p them. On this subject the first missionaries to these islanders tell us that, in addition to the greater G.o.ds, "for general wors.h.i.+p they have an inferior race, a kind of _dii penates_. Each family has its _tee_ or guardian spirit: he is supposed to be one of their departed relatives, who, for his superior excellences, has been exalted into an _eatooa_ (_atua_). They suppose this spirit can inflict sickness or remove it, and preserve them from a malignant deity who also bears the name _tee_, and is always employed in mischief."[247] "Every family has its _tee_, or guardian spirit, whom they set up, and wors.h.i.+p at the _morai_."[248] "They regard the spirits of their ancestors, male and female, as exalted into _eatooas_ (_atuas_) and their favour to be secured by prayers and offerings. Every sickness and untoward accident they esteem as the hand of judgment for some offence committed."[249] As for the mischievous spirit who bore the same name as the wors.h.i.+pful spirit of a dead ancestor, the missionaries say that "the evil demon named _Tee_ has no power but upon earth; and this he exercises by getting into them with their food, and causing madness or other diseases; but these they imagine their tutelar saints, if propitious, can prevent or remove."[250]

[247] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 344.

[248] T. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 343.

[249] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 345. "The general name for deity, in all its ramifications, is _eatooa_" (_id._ p. 343).

[250] J. Wilson, p. 346.

We may suspect that the missionaries were mistaken in thus sharply distinguis.h.i.+ng between an "evil demon" and a "tutelar saint," both of whom went by the same name (_tee_). Probably the "evil demon" and the "tutelar saint" were alike supposed to be souls of dead persons, with this difference between them, that whereas the one had been good and beneficent in his life, the other had been bad and maleficent; for it is a common belief that the dead retain in the other world the character and disposition which they manifested on earth, and that accordingly as disembodied spirits they may benefit or injure their surviving relatives.[251] Thus according to his character and behaviour in this present state of existence a person's ghost may naturally develop either into a G.o.d or into a devil.

[251] In confirmation of my conjecture that the missionaries mistook a general name (_tee_, otherwise spelled _tii_) for the name of a particular demon, I may point out that the naturalist J. R. Forster before them seems to have fallen into precisely the same mistake with regard to another general name for departed spirits (_oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_). Thus he writes: "Besides these divinities of the second cla.s.s, there are others of a still inferior rank, and though called _Eatooas_, are no more than what the Greek or Roman mythologists would have called _Genii_, or _Dii minorum gentium_: one of them, called _Orometooa_, is of a malignant disposition, resides chiefly near the _Marais_ and _Toopapous_ (places of burial) and in or near the boxes, or little chests, including the heads of their deceased friends, each of which, on that account, is called _Te-wharre no te Orometooa_, the house of the evil genius _Orometooa_, The people at Taheitee are of opinion, that if their priests invoke this evil genius, he will kill, by a sudden death, the person on whom they intend to bring down the vengeance of this divinity." See J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage round the World_, pp. 541 _sq._ In this pa.s.sage we can hardly doubt that "this evil genius," Orometooa, is simply the _oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_, the spirits of the dead, by means of whom sorcerers were supposed to injure or destroy any one at whom they or their employers had a grudge.

See above, p. 299, and below, pp. 323 _sqq._

It is to be feared that in the case of Tahitian ghosts the course of spiritual evolution was rather in the direction of devilry than of deity. At least this conclusion seems forced on us by the account which William Ellis, perhaps our best authority on Tahitian religion, gives of the character of these wors.h.i.+pful beings. I will reproduce it in his own words.

"The objects of wors.h.i.+p among the Tahitians, next to the _atua_ or G.o.ds, were the _oramatuas tiis_ or spirits. These were supposed to reside in the _po_, or world of night, and were never invoked but by wizards or sorcerers, who implored their aid for the destruction of an enemy, or the injury of some person whom they were hired to destroy. They were considered a different order of beings from the G.o.ds, a kind of intermediate cla.s.s between them and the human race, though in their prayers all the attributes of the G.o.ds were ascribed to them. The _oramatuas_ were the spirits of departed fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, etc. The natives were greatly afraid of them, and presented offerings to avoid being cursed or destroyed, when they were employed by the sorcerers.

"They seem to have been regarded as a sort of demons. In the Leeward Islands, the chief _oramatuas_ were spirits of departed warriors, who had distinguished themselves by ferocity and murder, attributes of character usually supposed to belong to these evil genii. Each celebrated _tii_ was honoured with an image, through which it was supposed his influence was exerted. The spirits of the reigning chiefs were united to this cla.s.s, and the skulls of deceased rulers, kept with the images, were honoured with the same wors.h.i.+p. Some idea of what was regarded as their ruling pa.s.sion, may be inferred from the fearful apprehensions constantly entertained by all cla.s.ses. They were supposed to be exceedingly irritable and cruel, avenging with death the slightest insult or neglect, and were kept within the precincts of the temple. In the _marae_ of Tane at Maeva, the ruins of their abode were still standing when I last visited the place. It was a house built upon a number of large strong poles, which raised the floor ten or twelve feet from the ground. They were thus elevated, to keep them out of the way of men, as it was imagined they were constantly strangling, or otherwise destroying, the chiefs and people. To prevent this, they were also treated with great respect; men were appointed constantly to attend them, and to keep them wrapped in the choicest kinds of cloth, to take them out whenever there was a _pae atua_, or general exhibition of the G.o.ds; to anoint them frequently with fragrant oil; and to sleep in the house with them at night. All this was done, to keep them pacified. And though the office of calming the angry spirits was honourable, it was regarded as dangerous, for if, during the night or at any other time, these keepers were guilty of the least impropriety, it was supposed the spirits of the images, or the skulls, would hurl them headlong from their high abodes, and break their necks in the fall."[252]

[252] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_. i. 334-336.

The difference in power and dignity between the great national G.o.ds (_atuas_) and the spirits of deceased relations (_oramatuas tiis_) might be measured by the size of their images; for whereas the images of the G.o.ds were six or eight feet long, those of the spirits were not more than so many inches.[253] But while these malignant and irritable spirits--the souls of dead fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children--resided generally either in their little images or in their skulls, they were not strictly confined to these material vehicles; they resorted occasionally to the sh.e.l.ls from the seash.o.r.e, especially to a beautiful kind of murex, the _Murex ramoces_. These sh.e.l.ls were kept by the sorcerers, and the peculiar singing or humming sound that may be heard when the valve is applied to the ear was imagined to proceed from the demon in the sh.e.l.l.[254]

[253] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 337.

[254] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 363.

It was these malignant and dangerous demons whom the sorcerer employed as his agents to execute his fell purposes. But to effect them he had to secure something connected with the body of his intended victim, it might be the parings of his nails, a lock of his hair, his spittle or other bodily secretions, or else a portion of the food which he was about to eat. Over this material substance, whatever it was, the sorcerer recited his incantations and performed his magical rites either in his own house or in his private temple (_marae_). The result was believed to be that the demon entered into the substance, and through it pa.s.sed into the body of the man at whom the enchanter aimed his elfish darts. The wretched sufferer experienced the acutest agonies; his distortions were frightful to witness; his eyes seemed starting from his head; he foamed at the mouth; he lay writhing in anguish on the ground; in short, to adopt the native expression, he was torn by the evil spirit. Yet his case was not hopeless; the demon could be mollified by a bribe, or defeated by the intervention of a more powerful demon. Hence, when any one was believed to be suffering from the incantations of a sorcerer, if he or his friends were rich enough they engaged another sorcerer for a fee to counteract the spells of the first and so to restore the health of the invalid. It was generally supposed that the efforts of the second sorcerer would be crowned with success if only the demon whom he employed were equally powerful with that at the command of his rival, and if the presents which he received for his professional services were more valuable. In order to avoid the danger of being thus bewitched through the refuse of their persons, the Tahitians used scrupulously to burn or bury their shorn hair, lest it should fall into the hands of enchanters.[255]

[255] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 363-370.

It is possible that some even of the great national G.o.ds were no more than ghosts of dead men, whose human origin was forgotten. There is some reason for supposing that this was true of Hiro, the G.o.d of thieves. On the one hand, this deity was reputed to be the son of the great G.o.d Oro;[256] and when a mother desired her child to grow up a clever thief, she repaired to a temple, where the priest, on receipt of the requisite offerings, caught the spirit of the G.o.d in a snare and infused it into the infant, thus ensuring the future proficiency of the infant in the arts of theft and robbery.[257] Yet, in spite of these claims to divinity, there are some grounds for thinking that Hiro was himself originally no better than a thief and a robber. He is said to have been a native of Raiatea, from whose sacrilegious fingers not even the temples and altars of the G.o.ds were safe. His skull was shown in a large temple of his own construction in that island down to the early years of the nineteenth century. His hair, too, was stuffed into the image of his reputed father, the G.o.d Oro, and perished when that image was committed to the flames by the early converts to Christianity.[258]

[256] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iii. 112, 125.

[257] J. Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, pp. 466 _sq._

[258] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 254 _sq._ As to Hiro, the G.o.d of thieves, see also J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 447-449.

Once a year the Society Islanders celebrated a festival accompanied by rites, of which one has been compared to the Roman Catholic custom of performing a ma.s.s for the benefit of souls in purgatory. The festival was called "the ripening of the year," and the time for its observance was determined by the blossoming of reeds. It was regularly observed in the island of Huahine, and vast mult.i.tudes a.s.sembled to take part in it.

As a rule, only men engaged in the pagan festivals, but at this particular one women and children were also present, though they were not allowed to enter the sacred enclosure. The celebration was regarded as a kind of annual acknowledgment made to the G.o.ds. Prayers were offered at the temple, and a sumptuous banquet formed part of the festival. At the close of the festival every one returned to his home, or to his family temple (_marae_), there to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives, that they might be liberated from the _po_, or state of Night, and might either ascend to paradise ("sweet-scented Rohutu") or return to this world by entering into the body of one of its inhabitants. But "they did not suppose, according to the generally received doctrine of transmigration, that the spirits who entered the body of some dweller upon earth, would permanently remain there, but only come and inspire the person to declare future events, or execute any other commission from the supernatural beings on whom they imagined they were constantly dependent."[259]

[259] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 351 _sq._ Compare J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 502 note^1, 523.

Hence we learn that the spirits of the dead as well as the G.o.ds were believed to be capable of inspiring men and revealing to them the future. In this, as in other respects, the dead were a.s.similated to deities.

CHAPTER VI

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE MARQUESANS

-- 1. _The Marquesas Islands_

The Marquesas are an archipelago of eleven or twelve chief islands in the South Pacific, situated about nine hundred miles to the north-east of Tahiti. They fall into two groups, which together stretch in a direction from north-west to south-east, from 8 to 11 of South lat.i.tude. The south-eastern group, of which Hivaoa (Dominica) is the largest island, was discovered by the Spanish Admiral Alvaro Mendana de Neyra in 1595, but, so far as appears, it was not again visited by Europeans until 1774, when Captain Cook touched at the islands on his second voyage. Curiously enough, the north-westerly group, of which Nukahiva is the largest and most important island, remained unknown until 1791, when it was discovered by the American Captain Ingraham, who named the group the Was.h.i.+ngton Islands. About a month later, in June 1791, the French navigator Marchand visited the same islands, and in 1797 the first missionary, William Crook, was landed from the missionary s.h.i.+p _Duff_. The whole archipelago is now known as the Marquesas, a name which the Spanish Admiral Mendana bestowed on the islands discovered by him in honour of the Marquess de Canete, Viceroy of Peru, by whose order the voyage had been undertaken.[1]

[1] Captain J. Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 274 _sqq._; G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_, ii. 5 _sqq._; C. P. Claret Fleurieu, _Voyage round the World performed by E. Marchand_ (London, 1801), i. 27 _sqq._, 55 _sqq._; J. Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, pp. lxxiii. _sqq._, 127 _sqq._; A.

J. von Krusenstern, _Voyage round the World_ (London, 1813), i.

136; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _iles Marquises ou Nouka-hiva_ (Paris, 1843), pp. 1 _sqq._, 12 _sq._; Le P. Mathias G----, _Lettres sur les iles Marquises_ (Paris, 1843), pp. 7 _sqq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _L'Archipel des Iles Marquises_ (Paris, 1877), pp. 1 _sqq._; C. E. Meinicke, _Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans_, ii. 235 _sq._; F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, ii. 522.

The islands are of volcanic formation, lofty and mountainous. The interior consists generally of a range of mountains some three thousand feet high, from which a series of spurs descend steeply to the coast, terminating for the most part in tremendous cliffs, at the foot of which the great rollers break in foam; for with a single exception there are no coral reefs, and a s.h.i.+p can sail in deep water within a cable's length of the rocks. Viewed at a distance from the sea, the aspect of the islands is somewhat stern and forbidding. Bare mountains, jagged peaks, sometimes lost in the clouds, and an iron-bound coast of black and beetling crags, buffeted eternally by the surf, make up a gloomy picture; but a nearer view discloses verdant valleys nestling between the ridges which radiate from the central mountains. These valleys are watered by mountain streams and clothed with dense tropical vegetation, their luxuriant green offering an agreeable contrast to the bareness and aridity of the frowning precipices and sharp peaks which soar above them. Cascades tumbling from high cliffs into the depths of the glens add to the beauty and charm of the scenery. So steep and precipitous are the ridges which divide these smiling vales from each other that the ascent and descent are in many places both difficult and dangerous even for the natives; European mountaineers need to have stout limbs and steady heads to accomplish them in safety. Hence in former days each valley contained a separate tribe, which was commonly in a state of permanent hostility towards its neighbours across the mountain barriers.[2] Of these tribes the most famous were the warlike and dreaded Taipiis or Typees, who occupied a beautiful valley at the eastern end of Nukahiva, and in their mountain fastness deemed themselves inaccessible to their enemies. However, in the early part of the nineteenth century an American naval officer, Captain David Porter, succeeded, not without great difficulty, in carrying havoc and devastation into these sylvan scenes.[3] Later in the century a runaway American sailor, Hermann Melville, spent more than four months as a captive in the tribe, and published an agreeable narrative of his captivity; but never having mastered the language, he was not able to give much exact information concerning the customs and beliefs of the natives.[4] As there is no maritime plain interposed between the mountains and the sh.o.r.e, the only way of pa.s.sing from one valley to another is either to go by sea or to clamber over the intervening ridges. It would be materially impossible, we are told, unless at enormous and ruinous cost, to make a road or even a mule-path round any of the Marquesas Islands, as has been done in Tahiti.[5]

[2] As to the formation and scenery of the islands, see Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 110; C. S. Stewart, _Visit to the South Seas_ (London, 1832), i. 193 _sqq._; F. D. Bennett, _Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe_ (London, 1840), i. 299 _sqq._; H. Melville, _Typee_, pp. 8 _sq._, 17 _sq._, and _pa.s.sim_ (_Everyman's Library_); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C.

Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 138 _sq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 84 _sq._; Clavel, _Les Marquisiens_ (Paris, 1885) pp. 1 _sq._; C. E. Meinicke, _op. cit._ ii. 236 _sq._; F. H. H.

Guillemard, _op. cit._ pp. 522 _sq._; A. Baessler, _Neue Sudsee-Bilder_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 192 _sq._, 220 _sqq._ As to the extreme difficulty of scaling the mountains and precipices to pa.s.s from one valley to another, see particularly M.

Radiguet, _Les Derniers Sauvages_ (Paris, 1882), pp. 101 _sq._, note.

[3] Captain David Porter, _Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean_, Second Edition (New York, 1822), ii. 86 _sqq._

[4] H. Melville, _Typee_ (London, _Everyman's Library_, no date). The first edition of this book was published in 1846.

Melville's residence among the Taipiis (Typees) fell in the year 1841.

[5] P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ p. 85.

Despite their situation in the heart of the tropics, the Marquesas enjoy an extremely healthy climate subject to none of the inconveniences usually incidental to countries in the same lat.i.tude; endemic and epidemic diseases are alike unknown. European soldiers can work in the sun without accident and without exhaustion.[6] The climate has been described as an eternal spring, without winter or even autumn; though a perpetual succession of ripe fruits may seem to lend an autumnal air to the landscape, which yet is never chilled by h.o.a.r frosts or saddened by the sight of bare boughs and fallen leaves.[7] Even in the hottest days a cool wind blows from the sea, and at night there is a breeze from the land. Rain falls during some months of the year, especially from May or June to August or September; but on the whole there is little variation in the seasons;[8] the Marquesan year has been described as one long tropical month of June just melting into July.[9] Yet we are told that the northern islands sometimes suffer from droughts which may last for years; at such times vegetation languishes, till a fresh cloud-burst restores the verdure of the trees and gra.s.s as by magic.[10] It is then, too, that the cascades everywhere enliven the landscape by the glitter and roar of their tumbling waters, which, after dropping from the height, flow rapidly down their steep beds into the sea.[11]

[6] M. Radiguet, _Les Derniers Sauvages_ (Paris, 1882), pp. 304 _sq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ p. 57.

[7] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p. 94.