44 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
ments of the Fijians, and of the Maories of New Zea- 
land.” 
When Captain Wilson visited Tongataboo, in the 
Friendly Islands, in 1797, four large conch-shells were 
found on the floor of a large house sacred to the god of 
Bretane. These were used to alarm the country in times 
of danger. In these islands conch-shells were also blown 
at the interment of chiefs.” 
Shell-trumpets, made from /7rzfom tritonis and other 
large shells, enter largely into the religious ceremonies of 
the Samoans. 
In his description of the religion of these people, 
Turner® relates that “in their temples they had generally 
something for the eye to rest upon with superstitious 
reveration. In one might be seen a conch shell, suspended 
from the roof in a basket made of cinnet network ; and 
this the god was supposed to blow when he wished the 
people to rise to war.” 
The Samoans have a host of imaginary deities, and 
these gods are supposed to be incarnate in some visible 
object, the particular thing in which the god appears being 
an object of veneration. 
Faamalu (shade), one of the village gods, was repre- 
sented by a trumpet-shell, and at the annual worship of 
this god all the people met in the place of public gatherings 
with heaps of cooked food. Another local god was called 
Tapaai (Beckoning) and was a war god of a family on 
Tutuila. He was supposed to be present in a trumpet- 
shell. When the people were about to go to war the shell 
was blown by the priest, and all listened. If it blew rough 
®! Lubbock, “ Prehistoric Times,” 1865, pp. 358 and 369. Captain 
Cook also mentions the ** Triton’s trumpet” as one of the sonorous instru- 
ments of the New Zealanders. 
“2 G. A. Cooke, "System of Universal Geography,” — London, i., 
1Sol, pp. 77 and 97. : 
"9 (|. Turner, *! Samoa, etc.,”” London, 1884, p. 19. 
