266 Transactions . — Miscellaneous . 



In cases where communication between gods and men was 

 necessary, as it was when decisions on pubHc events were 

 desired, the priests were naturally the mediums. In war 

 more particularly their services were in constant requisition 

 to declare the will of the gods, or the nature of the omens and 

 predictions derived from the utterances of the gods. The 

 behef was in such cases that the god entered for the time 

 into the body of the priest, and through him uttered words 

 intended as a guidance for the people. Many such utterances 

 have been preserved ; they wei'e in their nature frequently 

 oracular, and so obscure that neither priest nor people could 

 explain their meaning. Possibly this may be due to craft on 

 the part of the priest, who, not feeling certain in his own mind 

 as to the result, often conveyed the message in such form as 

 to admit of more than one interpretation. It is quite clear 

 frem what we know of the relation of the priest to the gods, 

 on occasions when communication was necessary, that they 

 were for the time in a state of trance, or possessed — as they 

 call it, UTua. The process took some time ; frequently the 

 priest retired to his own dwelling, and there, by what process 

 we know not, communicated, or pretended to do so, with the 

 spiritual nature of the god. Let me say here that the so- 

 called Maori gods made of stone or wood were not in reality 

 gods, but merely their effigies, in which the spiritual god took 

 up its abode for the time, on the intercession of the priest, in 

 order to reveal its message. The Maoris were only idolators 

 in the same sense as any other branch of the Polynesians. 

 Their gods were spirits, though endowed with human attributes. 

 Their idols or images were concessions to that faculty of the 

 Polynesian order of mind which demanded a tangible repre- 

 sentation of the unseen and spiritual nature of their gods. 

 The priests often saw the gods in a trance, and on coming 

 to themselves would declare the message to the people, often 

 in the guise of a song, many of which are really pretty in the 

 original. 



"When the priest was imia, or possessed by the god, he 

 must have been a terrible object to look on, according to the 

 many accounts I have heard. He was like a furious raging 

 madman, his body and limbs convulsed, his eyes protruding, 

 foaming at the mouth, giving utterance to strange tongues ; 

 sometimes rolling on the ground, at others rushing hither and 

 thither with furious grimaces and frantic cries. These fits 

 gradually died away, and were succeeded by a long period of 

 utter prostration. I need not point out that in some of these 

 features we recognise what is sometimes seen in trance sub- 

 jects amongst ourselves, as well as in certain states of clair- 

 voyance. 



There were other methods of communicating with the gods 



