The priests' functions

The service of the gods is not exclusively the priests' affair; but they occupy a pre-eminent position in consideration of their holding intercourse with the highest among the heavenly beings, and attending to their sanctuaries and sacrifices. Nothing is more sacred than matters connected with the gods; temples, idols, sacrifices, feasts, and whatever is used thereat, animals, trees where the gods are wont at times to stay, and the like. In Tahiti the custom by which the king, as the most sacred member of the community, entered the house of a god at its dedication for the first time unattended, has been transferred to Christian churches.

Every man's immediate worship was paid to the god of his family. To this family-god the father of the household prays before the fire at the time of the evening meal; and at family feasts the eldest offers the ava-bowl to the gods of the household. But the child is dedicated at birth to the communal god whom the priest serves. He appears in the form of an animal, whose movements the priests interpret as omens.

Priests and chiefs

Lastly, the priests serve the great gods of the nation, being themselves chiefs or closely attached to the chiefs. Thence arose the statement, due to misunderstanding, that private persons served their gods in person, chiefs through the priests. These priests are in Tonga distinguished by the name "set apart," since they are men with a special kind of soul. Their posterity are regarded as similarly endowed, and thus the priesthood is always hereditary in a family standing over that of the chiefs, or the chiefs are themselves hereditary priests. A certain character of Dei gratia extends even to the village headmen. In Samoa the fire may not go out, even at night, in a chief's house. Whoever would not bring the due first-fruits to the chief of his village was overtaken by disasters, for the chief shared the taxes with the Aitus. In time of war high chiefs remain in the village to assist by their prayers; but on serious occasions the priest is taken into the battle to curse the enemy. In Hawaii one member at least of a chief's family received consecration to the priesthood. The priest is possessed by the souls of the dead, and his family god is his helper. Beside this inspiration a great deal of valuable traditional knowledge belong to him, the most important parts of which go back to the very highest gods, and form a source of great influence.

Love charm, from New Guinea - approx. 280mm length. (Christy Collection.)

If a priest can succeed in getting possession of any small portion of another man, he can by art-magic exercise power over him, so the good and ill of their fellow-men is in the priest's hands. For this reason the chief's pocket-handkerchief carrier in Hawaii is never allowed to go far away. Relics of dead persons afforded the most important means of magic. In Mare a tuft of a priest's hair, his eyebrows, bones, finger and toe-nails; in New Caledonia his finger-nails; in Tonga bone figures in human form; in Samoa tapa which has been worn by renowned ancestors, are talismans. But the most highly-valued article is the skull, which is prepared, preserved, and venerated in the most various ways. A man's hair, nails, etc., slowly burnt in a certain mixture, react on him so as to cause illness or even death. If a piece of a dead man's bone is wrapped in leaves and laid in the way, while a verse is sung, the person for whom the magic is meant will be visited with boils, eruptions, and so on. The Maori priests kill their enemy by putting a stone for a heart into his image.

Beside the priests there were sorcerers in New Zealand, astrologers in Hawaii. In the latter country the sons of Hina, the Polynesian Selene, were instructed in magic by their mothers. Great value was set upon knowledge in the priests. Their name Tohunga, literally "interpreter of tokens," was applied in New Zealand to any person conspicuous for achievements in any line, whether canoe-building or spear-making; he was a learned man. All the tohungas in a New Zealand tribe regarded the most learned as Tino Tohunga, the highest of all, and he lived with the riki or chiefs. Where there were no bards, as in the Marquesas, the priests were the guardians of historical tradition, as for instance the Kahunas of Hawaii.