134 GODS AND GODDESSES. 
They believed in one supreme God, Athua- 
rahai, creator and governor of the world, and 
of all other gods. They gave him a consort, 
who however was not of the same nature, but 
of a material and very firm substance, and 
therefore called O-te-Papa, that is to say, 
Rock. From this pair proceeded a goddess 
of the moon, the gods of the stars, the winds, 
and the sea, and the protecting deities of the 
several islands. After the chief god had cre- 
ated the sun, he conveyed his consort, the 
mighty Rock, from the West to the Kast over 
the sea: in their progress, some portions of 
her substance separated from her, and formed 
the islands. 3 
Besides the gods of the second rank, they 
believed also in inferior deities, and in a wicked 
genius, who killed men suddenly at the requisi- 
tion of the priests—an article of faith which 
this order doubtless found very convenient. 
They also supposed that a genius dwelt in every 
man, thinking and feeling in him, and separated 
himself from the body after death, but without 
removing from it; often inhabiting the wooden 
images which are erected in the burial-places, 
