The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 8

[72] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 221.

-- 6. _Priests and their Inspiration_

Priests were known by the t.i.tle of _fahe-gehe_, a term which means "split off," "separate," or "distinct from," and was applied to a man who has a peculiar sort of mind or soul, different from that of ordinary men, which disposed some G.o.d occasionally to inspire him. Such inspirations frequently happened, and when the fit was on him the priest had the same reverence shown to him as if he were the G.o.d himself; at these times even the king would retire to a respectful distance and sit down among the rest of the spectators, because a G.o.d was believed to exist at that moment in the priest and to speak from his mouth. But at other times a priest had no other respect paid to him than was due to him for his private rank in society. Priests generally belonged to the lower order of chiefs or to their ministers, the _matabooles_; but sometimes great chiefs were thus visited by the G.o.ds, and the king himself has been inspired by Tali-y-Toobo, the chief of the G.o.ds.[73]

The profession of priest was generally hereditary, the eldest son of a priest becoming, on his father's death, a priest of the same G.o.d who had inspired his deceased parent. In their uninspired moments the priests lived indiscriminately with the rest of the people and were treated with no special deference.[74]

[73] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 80 _sq._

[74] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 136-138.

The ceremony of inspiration, during which the priest was believed to be possessed by a G.o.d and to speak in his name, was regularly accompanied or preceded by a feast, at which the drinking of kava formed the princ.i.p.al feature. The priest himself presided at the feast and the people gathered in a circle round him; or, to be more exact, the people formed an ellipse, of which the priest occupied the place of honour at one of the narrow ends; while opposite him, at the other extremity of the ellipse, sat the man who was charged with the important duty of brewing the kava. At such sessions the chiefs sat indiscriminately among the people on account of the sacredness of the occasion, conceiving that such humble demeanour must be acceptable to the G.o.ds. The actual process of inspiration was often witnessed by Mariner, and is described by him in his own words as follows:

"As soon as they are all seated, the priest is considered as inspired, the G.o.d being supposed to exist within him from that moment. He remains for a considerable time in silence, with his hands clasped before him; his eyes are cast down, and he rests perfectly still. During the time that the victuals are being shared out, and the cava preparing, the _matabooles_ sometimes begin to consult him; sometimes he answers them, at other times not; in either case he remains with his eyes cast down.

Frequently he will not utter a word till the repast is finished, and the cava too. When he speaks, he generally begins in a low and very altered tone of voice, which gradually rises to nearly its natural pitch, though sometimes a little above it. All that he says is supposed to be the declaration of the G.o.d, and he accordingly speaks in the first person as if he were the G.o.d. All this is done generally without any apparent inward emotion or outward agitation; but on some occasions his countenance becomes fierce, and, as it were, inflamed, and his whole frame agitated with inward feeling; he is seized with an universal trembling; the perspiration breaks out on his forehead, and his lips, turning black, are convulsed; at length, tears start in floods from his eyes, his breast heaves with great emotion, and his utterance is choked.

These symptoms gradually subside. Before this paroxysm comes on, and after it is over, he often eats as much as four hungry men, under other circ.u.mstances, could devour. The fit being now gone off, he remains for some time calm, and then takes up a club that is placed by him for the purpose, turns it over and regards it attentively; he then looks up earnestly, now to the right, now to the left, and now again at the club; afterwards he looks up again, and about him in like manner, and then again fixes his eyes upon his club, and so on, for several times: at length he suddenly raises the club, and, after a moment's pause, strikes the ground, or the adjacent part of the house, with considerable force: immediately the G.o.d leaves him, and he rises up and retires to the back of the ring among the people."[75]

[75] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 99-101. Compare E. E. V.

Collocot, "Notes on Tongan Religion," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, x.x.x. (1921) pp. 155-157.

-- 7. _The Wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds, Prayers, and Sacrifices_

The wors.h.i.+p offered to the G.o.ds consisted as usual of prayers and sacrifices. Prayers were put up to them, sometimes in the fields, and sometimes at their consecrated houses. On ordinary occasions a simple offering consisted of a small piece of kava root deposited before a G.o.d's house.[76] But in the great emergencies of life the favour of the G.o.ds was sued with more precious offerings. When the younger daughter of Finow, a girl of six or seven years, was sick to death, the dying princess was carried from her father's house into the sacred enclosure of Tali-y-Toobo, the patron G.o.d of the kings, and there she remained for a fortnight. Almost every morning a hog was killed, dressed, and presented before the G.o.d's house to induce him to spare the life of the princess. At the same time prayers were addressed to the deity for the recovery of the patient; but as this particular G.o.d had no priest, the prayers were offered by a minister (_mataboole_), sometimes by two or three in succession, and they were repeated five, six, or seven times a day. Their general purport was as follows: "Here thou seest a.s.sembled Finow and his chiefs, and the princ.i.p.al ministers (_matabooles_) of thy favoured land; thou seest them humbled before thee. We pray thee not to be merciless, but to spare the life of the woman for the sake of her father, who has always been attentive to every religious ceremony. But if thy anger is justly excited by some crime or misdemeanour committed by any other of us who are here a.s.sembled, we entreat thee to inflict on the guilty one the punishment which he merits, and not to let loose thy vengeance on one who was born but as yesterday. For our own parts, why do we wish to live but for the sake of Finow? But if his family is afflicted, we are all afflicted, innocent as well as guilty. How canst thou be merciless? Have regard for Finow and spare the life of his daughter." When despite of prayers and the sacrifices of pigs, the girl grew daily worse instead of better, she was removed to many other consecrated enclosures of other G.o.ds, one after the other, where the like fond prayers and fruitless offerings were presented in the vain hope of staving off the approach of death.[77]

[76] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 224.

[77] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 350-360.

But more precious sacrifices than the blood of hogs were often laid at the feet of the angry G.o.ds. When a relation of a superior rank was ill, it was a very common practice for one or more of his or her inferior kinsfolk to have a little finger, or a joint of a finger, cut off as a sacrifice to induce the offended deity to spare the sick man or woman.

So common was the custom in the old days that there was scarcely a person living in the Tonga islands who had not thus lost one or both of his little fingers, or a considerable portion of both. It does not appear that the operation was very painful. Mariner witnessed more than once little children quarrelling for the honour of having it performed on them. The finger was laid flat upon a block of wood: a knife, axe, or sharp stone was placed with the edge on the joint to be severed, and a powerful blow with a hammer or heavy stone effected the amputation.

Sometimes an affectionate relative would perform the operation on his or her own hand. John Williams questioned a girl of eighteen who had hacked off her own little finger with a sharp sh.e.l.l to induce the G.o.ds to spare her sick mother. Generally a joint was taken off at a time; but some persons had smaller portions amputated to admit of the operation being often repeated in case they had many superior relations, who might be sick and require the sacrifice. When they had no more joints which they could conveniently spare, they rubbed the stumps of the mutilated fingers till the blood streamed from the wounds; then they would hold up the bleeding hands in hope of softening the heart of the angry G.o.d.[78]

Captain Cook understood that the operation was performed for the benefit of the sufferers themselves to heal them in sickness,[79] and the same view was apparently taken by the French navigator Labillardiere,[80] but in this they were probably mistaken; neither of them had an accurate knowledge of the language, and they may easily have misunderstood their informants. Perhaps the only person in the islands who was exempt from the necessity of occasionally submitting to the painful sacrifice was the divine chief Tooitonga, who, as he ranked above everybody, even above the king, could have no superior relation for whom to amputate a finger-joint. Certainly we know that Tooitonga had not, like the rest of his countrymen, to undergo the painful operations of tattooing and circ.u.mcision; if he desired to be tattooed or circ.u.mcised, he was obliged to go to other islands, particularly to Samoa, for the purpose.[81] Perhaps, though this is not mentioned by our authorities, it would have been deemed impious to shed his sacred blood in his native land.

[78] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 438 _sq._, ii. 210-212; Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, pp. 239, 278; John Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands_, pp. 470 _sq._; Jerome Grange, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xvii. (1845) pp. 12, 26; Sarah S. Farmer, _Tonga and the Friendly Islands_, p. 128.

[79] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 204, v. 421 _sq._ However, in a footnote to the latter pa.s.sage Captain Cook gives the correct explanation of the custom on the authority of Captain King: "It is common for the inferior people to cut off a joint of their little finger, on account of the sickness of the chiefs to whom they belong."

[80] Labillardiere, _Relation du Voyage a la recherche de la Perouse_ (Paris, 1800), ii. 151.

[81] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 79, 268.

But sacrifices to the G.o.ds for the recovery of the sick were not limited to the amputation of finger-joints. Not uncommonly children were strangled for this purpose.[82] Thus when Finow the king was grievously sick and seemed likely to die, the prince, his son, and a young chief went out to procure one of the king's own children by a female attendant to sacrifice it as a vicarious offering to the G.o.ds, that their anger might be appeased and the health of its father restored.

They found the child sleeping in its mother's lap in a neighbouring house; they took it away by force, and retiring with it behind an adjacent burial-ground (_fytoca_) they strangled it with a band of bark-cloth. Then they carried it before two consecrated houses and a grave, at each place gabbling a short but appropriate prayer to the G.o.d, that he would intercede with the other G.o.ds in behalf of the dying king, and would accept of this sacrifice as an atonement for the sick man's crimes.[83] When, not long afterwards, the divine chief Tooitonga, in spite of his divinity, fell sick and seemed like to die, one or other of his young relations had a little finger cut off every day, as a propitiatory offering to the G.o.ds for the sins of the saintly sufferer.

But these sacrifices remaining fruitless, recourse was had to greater.

Three or four children were strangled at different times, and prayers were offered up by the priests at the consecrated houses and burial-grounds (_fytocas_) but all in vain. The G.o.ds remained deaf to the prayers of the priests; their hearts were not touched by the cutting off of fingers or the strangling of children; and the illness of the sacred chief grew every day more alarming. As a last resort and desperate remedy, the emaciated body of the dying man was carried into the kitchen, the people imagining that such an act of humility, performed on behalf of the highest dignitary of the Tonga islands, would surely move the deities to compa.s.sion and induce them to spare a life so precious to his subjects.[84] The same curious remedy had shortly before been resorted to for the benefit of the dying or dead king, Finow the First: his body was carried into the kitchen of the sacred chief, the Tooitonga, and there placed over the hole in the ground where the fire was lighted to cook victuals: "this was thought to be acceptable to the G.o.ds, as being a mark of extreme humiliation, that the great chief of all the Hapai islands and Vavaoo, should be laid where the meanest cla.s.s of mankind, the cooks, were accustomed to operate."[85]

[82] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 208 _sq._

[83] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ i. 366.

[84] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 438 _sq._; compare _id._ ii. 214.

[85] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ i. 367 _sq._

The custom of strangling the relations of a sick chief as a vicarious sacrifice to appease the anger of the deity and ensure the recovery of the patient was found in vogue by the first missionaries to Tonga before the arrival of Mariner. When King Moom[=o]oe lay very sick and his death was hourly expected, one of his sons sent for a younger brother under pretence of wis.h.i.+ng to cut off his little fingers as a sacrifice to save the life of their dying father. The young man came, whereupon his elder brother had him seized, strangled, and buried within a few yards of the house where the missionaries were living. Afterwards the fratricide came and mourned over his murdered brother by sitting on the grave with his elbows on his knees and covering his face with his hands. In this posture he remained for a long time in silence, and then departed very thoughtful. His motive for thus mourning over the brother whom he had done to death is not mentioned by the missionaries and was probably not known to them. We may conjecture that it was not so much remorse for his crime as fear of his brother's ghost, who otherwise might have haunted him.[86] Morality, or at all events a semblance of it, has often been thus reinforced by superst.i.tious terrors.

[86] Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, pp. 238-240.

In recording this incident the missionaries make use of an expression which seems to set the strangling of human beings for the recovery of sick relations in a somewhat different light. They say that "the prince of darkness has impressed the idea on them, that the strength of the person strangled will be transferred into the sick, and recover him."[87] On this theory the sacrifice acts, so to say, mechanically without the intervention of a deity; the life of the victim is transfused into the body of the patient as a sort of tonic which strengthens and revives him. Such a rite is therefore magical rather than religious; it depends for its efficacy on natural causes, and not on the pity and help of the G.o.ds. Yet the missionaries, who record this explanation of the custom, elsewhere implicitly accept the religious interpretation of such rites as vicarious sacrifices; for they say that among the superst.i.tious notions of the natives concerning spirits was one that "by strangling some relations of the chief when he is sick, the deity will be appeased, and he (that is, the sick chief) will recover."[88] Perhaps both explanations, the religious and the magical, were a.s.signed by the Tongans: consistency of thought is as little characteristic of savage as of civilised man: provided he attains his ends, he recks little of the road by which he reaches them. An English sailor named Ambler, who had resided for thirteen months in Tonga before the arrival of the missionaries, told them, "that when a great chief lay sick they often strangled their women, to the number of three or four at a time."[89] Such a sacrifice is more likely to have been religious than magical; we may suppose that the victims were rather offered to the G.o.ds as subst.i.tutes for the chief than killed to recruit his failing strength by an infusion of their health and vigour. A chief would probably have disdained the idea of drawing fresh energy from the bodies of women, though he might be ready enough to believe that the G.o.ds would consent to accept their life as a proxy for his own. It is true that elsewhere, notably in Uganda, human beings have been killed to prolong the life of the king by directly transferring their strength to him;[90] but in such cases it would seem that the victims have invariably been men and not women.

[87] Captain James Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 240.

[88] Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, p. 257.

[89] Captain James Wilson, _op. cit._, p. 278. This Ambler was a man of very indifferent, not to say infamous, character, but he rendered the missionaries considerable service by instructing them in the Tongan language, which he spoke fluently. See Captain James Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 98, 244 _sq._

[90] See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Third Edition, ii. 219 _sqq._

-- 8. _The Doctrine of the Soul and its Destiny after Death_

Thus far we have dealt with the primary or superior G.o.ds, who were believed to have been always G.o.ds, and about whose origin nothing was known. We now pa.s.s to a consideration of the secondary or inferior G.o.ds, whose origin was perfectly well known, since they were all of them the souls of dead chiefs or n.o.bles, of whom some had died or been killed in recent years. But before we take up the subject of their wors.h.i.+p, it will be well to say a few words on the Tongan doctrine of the human soul, since these secondary deities were avowedly neither more nor less than human souls raised to a higher power by death.

The Tongans, in their native state, before the advent of Europeans, did not conceive of the soul as a purely immaterial essence, that being a conception too refined for the thought of a savage. They imagined it to be the finer or more aeriform part of the body which leaves it suddenly at the moment of death, and which may be thought to stand in the same relation to the body as the perfume of a flower to its solid substance.

They had no proper word to express this fine ethereal part of man; for the word _loto_, though it might sometimes be used for that purpose, yet rather means a man's disposition, inclination, pa.s.sion, or sentiment.

The soul was supposed to exist throughout the whole of the body, but to be particularly present in the heart, the pulsation of which they regarded as the strength and power of the soul. They did not clearly distinguish between the life and the soul, but said that the right auricle of the heart was the seat of life. They took the liver to be the seat of courage, and professed to have remarked, on opening dead bodies, that the largest livers belonged to the bravest men, in which observation they were careful to make allowance for the enlargement of livers consequent on disease.[91]

[91] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 127 _sq._

They acknowledged that the _tooas_ or lower order of people had minds or souls; but they firmly believed that these vulgar souls died with their bodies and consequently had no future existence. In this aristocratic opinion the generality of the commoners acquiesced, though some were vain enough to think that they had souls like their betters, and that they would live hereafter in Bolotoo. But the orthodox Tongan doctrine restricted immortality to chiefs and their ministers (the _matabooles_); at most, by a stretch of charity, it extended the privilege to the _mooas_ or third estate; but it held out no hope of salvation to _tooas_, who formed the fourth and lowest rank of society.[92]

[92] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ i. 419, ii. 99, 128 _sq._

Mariner's account, which I have followed, of the sharp distinction which the Tongans drew between the immortality of chiefs and the mortality of common people is confirmed by the testimony of other and independent observers. According to Captain Cook, while the souls of the chiefs went immediately after death to the island of Boolootoo (Bolotoo), the souls of the lower sort of people underwent a sort of transmigration or were eaten by a bird called _loata_, which walked upon their graves for that purpose.[93] The first missionaries, who landed in Tongataboo in 1797, report that the natives "believe the immortality of the soul, which at death, they say, is immediately conveyed in a very large fast-sailing canoe to a distant country called Doobludha, which they describe as resembling the Mahometan paradise. They call the G.o.d of this region of pleasure Higgolayo, and esteem him as the greatest and most powerful of all others, the rest being no better than servants to him. This doctrine, however, is wholly confined to the chiefs, for the _tooas_ (or lower order) can give no account whatever; as they reckon the enjoyments of Doobludha above their capacity, so they seem never to think of what may become of them after they have served the purposes of this life."[94] One of these first missionaries was a certain George Veeson, who had been a bricklayer before he undertook to convert the heathen to Christianity. Wearying, however, of missionary work, he deserted his brethren and betook himself to the heathen, among whom he lived as one of them, adopting the native garb, marrying native women, and eagerly fighting in the wars of the natives among themselves. In this way he acquired a considerable knowledge of the Tongan language and customs, of which he made some use in the account of his experiences which he published anonymously after his return to England. Speaking of Tongan ideas concerning the immortality of the soul he says that he heard the chiefs speak much of Bulotu (Bolotoo). "Into this region, however, they believed none were admitted but themselves. The Tuas, or lower cla.s.s, having no hope of sharing such bliss, seldom speculate upon a futurity, which to them appears a subject lost in shadows, clouds, and darkness."[95] The missionaries reported to Commodore Wilkes that the spirits of all chiefs were supposed to go to Bolotoo, while the souls of poor people remained in this world to feed upon ants and lizards.[96]

With regard to the fate of the soul after death, the Tongans universally and positively believed in the existence of a great island, lying at a considerable distance to the north-west, which they considered to be the abode of their G.o.ds and of the souls of their dead n.o.bles and their ministers (the _matabooles_). This island they supposed to be much larger than all their own islands put together, and to be well stocked with all kinds of useful and ornamental plants, always in a high state of perfection, and always bearing the richest fruits and the most beautiful flowers according to their respective natures; they thought that when these fruits or flowers were plucked, others immediately took their place, and that the whole atmosphere was filled with the most delightful fragrance that the imagination can conceive, exhaled from these immortal plants. The island, too, was well stocked with the most beautiful birds, of all imaginable kinds, as well as with abundance of hogs; and all of these creatures were immortal, except when they were killed to provide food for the G.o.ds. But the moment a hog or a bird was killed, another live hog or bird came into existence to supply its place, just as happened with the fruits and flowers; and this, so far as they could ascertain, was the only way in which plants and animals were propagated in Bolotoo. So far away was the happy island supposed to be that it was dangerous for living men to attempt to sail thither in their canoes; indeed, except by the express permission of the G.o.ds, they could not find the island, however near they might come to it. They tell, however, of a Tongan canoe which, returning from Fiji, was driven by stress of weather to Bolotoo. The crew knew not the place, and being in want of provisions and seeing the country to abound in all sorts of fruits, they landed and proceeded to pluck some bread-fruit. But to their unspeakable astonishment they could no more lay hold of the fruit than if it were a shadow; they walked through the trunks of the trees and pa.s.sed through the substance of the houses without feeling any shock or resistance. At length they saw some of the G.o.ds, who pa.s.sed through the men's bodies as if they were empty s.p.a.ce. These G.o.ds recommended them to go away immediately, as they had no proper food for them, and they promised them a fair wind and a speedy pa.s.sage. So the men put to sea, and sailing with the utmost speed they arrived at Samoa, where they stayed two or three days. Thence, again sailing very fast, they returned to Tonga, where in the course of a few days they all died, not as a punishment for having been at Bolotoo, but as a natural consequence, the air of that place, as it were, infecting mortal bodies with speedy death. The G.o.ds who dwell in Bolotoo have no canoes, not requiring them; for if they wish to be anywhere, there they are the moment the wish is felt.[97]

[93] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 423.

[94] Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, pp. 278 _sq._

[95] Quoted by Miss Sarah S. Farmer, _Tonga and the Friendly Islands_, p. 131. As to Veeson, see _id._ pp. 78, 85 _sqq._ The t.i.tle of his book is given (p. 87) as _Authentic Narrative of a Four Years' Residence in Tongataboo_ (London: Longman & Co., 1815). I have not seen the book. The man's name is given as Vason by (Sir) Basil Thomson in his _Diversions of a Prime Minister_ (Edinburgh and London, 1894), pp. 326, 327, 329, 331; but his real name seems to have been George Veeson. See Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_, pp. 6, 230.

[96] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_, iii. 22.

[97] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 101-103.

It is said that in order to people Bolotoo the G.o.d Hikuleo used to carry off the first-born sons of chiefs and other great men, whom he transported to the island of the G.o.ds. To such lengths did he go in this system of abduction that men on earth grew very uneasy. Their ranks became thinner and thinner. How was all this to end? At last the other G.o.ds were moved to compa.s.sion. The two G.o.ds Tangaloa and Maui laid hold of brother Hikuleo, pa.s.sed a strong chain round his waist and between his legs, and then taking the chain by the ends they fastened one of them to the sky and the other to the earth. Thus trussed up, the deity still made many attempts to s.n.a.t.c.h away first-born sons; but all his efforts were thwarted and baffled by the chain, for no sooner did he dart out in one direction, than the chain pulled him back in another.

According to another, or the same story, the excursions of the deity were further limited by the length of his tail, the end of which was tethered to the cave in which he resided; and though the tail was long and allowed him a good deal of rope, do what he would, he could not break bounds or obtain more than a very partial view of what was going on in the rest of the world.[98]