Priest-kings

The social position of the priests was different in different groups. Outwardly they were distinguished by their tattooing (of wavy lines on the forehead, among the Maoris) and their long staff. Priest-kings, or ariki, formed among the Maoris the top of the social structure. They did not go to war, but left that duty to a selected chief of their kindred. They retained the power of laying on taboo, even if the chiefship had been transferred to another; and boasted of being sprung from an older branch of the common family tree. None but the ariki knew the sacred songs. The place where he sat had to be avoided, or tabooed, and to touch his hand was a capital offence.

In Tonga, the eldest niece of the Tuitonga was a priest-princess, ranking with, and in some respects above, the prince. In other cases, those who were permanently inspired were priests only, even when they were only honoured servants. Boat-builders, as servants of Tangaroa, had priestly privileges; and in Oahu a chief was at once priest, schoolmaster, fisherman, and maker of wooden bowls.

Among the Marquesans, the atuas or godlike prophets were at the head of the tabooed ranks; next to them came hereditary chiefs; then the tuas, who prophesied amid convulsions, and after their death received sacrifices as atuas; the tohunas who offered sacrifices in accordance with tradition; the ouhous or moas, assistants of the sacrificing priest; the toas or leaders in war; and lastly the natikahas, who uttered the curses. In Hawaii, also, the priest took precedence of the prince.

Disputes about the sanctity, or the privileges of the priests, have very often occasioned splits in the tribe and migrations. Migrations of idols carried by the priests form an interesting part of the Polynesian migration legend. In order to maintain his place, or rise higher, the priest had to offer sacrifices in no small number. Among the Maoris, the tohunga lived in celibacy, but the chief priest of the tribe had to marry in order to keep up the succession. Besides this, the consecrated tauiras had to fast, and lived apart from the rest with the priests, round the temple.

Yap, Nukuor, and other Micronesian islands, have a priest-chief, and priests as distinct from sorcerers. Invisible Kalits pass for oracles by a fraud, at the back of which are the priests. They possess houses in a number of districts, each inhabited by a woman who is permanently dedicated to them. Many obtain great influence through intercourse with sacred animals. Lastly, the taboo-system contributes here also to the creation of limits, whereby the priests keep the power of interfering in every relation of life. In quite small tribes, the eldest person undertakes the management of worship, while in larger communities he has beside him a priest, who is doctor, weather-maker, and sorcerer. He must have the faculty of going into an ecstatic state. Tradition is preserved in the family, and in his conjuration the priest turns for inspiration first to his ancestors. If he has ancestors in whom others believe, he is doubly qualfied to be priest.

Article employed in Melanesian rites,
for holding objects of use in magic
approx. 150mm high. (Berlin Museum.)

The priests draw omens from the sky, from the barking of dogs, the crowing of cocks, etc., or from their own oracular implements. Before a war, the Maori priest prophesies by putting up carved sticks on a sand-heap, according to the number of the friendly and hostile tribes, and throwing at them with a bunch of strings tied together; the forecast is propitious if the sticks fall up hill. Before any undertaking, the Maori used to deliver magic sentences. Every chant has its rhythm, and is divided into verses, so that it may be propagated more easily from one generation to another. Other songs have an expiatory effect. The mata, or vision, is a mirror of the future. Nightly visions are interpreted as the soul's journeys into the spirit land; and for this reason dreams serve to prescribe tribal decrees. In Hawaii, the priest, when prophesying, made the symbols of thunder and lightning with his stone axe, by way of calling upon the god of the sky for aid.

Consecration of priests

The consecration of the priest took place with great ceremonies. In New Zealand, where there was a kind of school of the priests, the candidates stood under a covering of boughs with one foot in the water, the other on land. The secret science of the priests was imparted to their disciples by the head of the records; this law demanded extraordinary attention. A single wrong word in conjurations might spoil everything, and even be fatal to the priest. Commune and tribe were no prouder of their god than of his tried and tested priest.

Where things are on a small scale, the priest is doctor as well; but where men are assembled in larger numbers, as in Hawaii, Tonga, or New Zealand, there is a class of priests specially occupied with medical practice. One of their chief duties is to get some information from the deity about the patient's illness; to this end the priest, sitting near the sick man after conjurations, addresses inquiries to the deity, and receives his answer in a shrieking voice. Sicknesses which cannot be cured by the priest are described as coming from forefathers.

In the administration of justice, the priest's duty consists in discovering the criminal by secret means. They look for him in the water; if they cannot catch sight of him they make fire by rubbing, and utter a curse over it. In this way they endeavour to find those who have caused perplexing cases of death by magic arts. Most ordeals also are in the hands of the priest; in Hawaii, the suspected person must hold his hands over water, and the water must not tremble in the vessel while the priest looks on him.