RACES BIBLIOGRAPHY COMMITTEE. 323 
friendly spirits, who lead them away to a land of plenty. All 
with a pierced nose pass into that country, hence every native 
has the nose pierced in childhood. The Motuans say the spirit is 
dried over a fire, and when light and dry is taken into Tauru. 
Spirit land is one of plenty, and there they live as they do here. 
There is death there, and after it the spirits become lights 
(mamaro) that wander over the sea. 
When chiefs or leading men in families are laid in the grave, 
friends bend down and speak into their ears, and ask that they 
may be remembered in that other state, and that they always may 
have plenty of dugong, turtle, fish of all kinds, and kangaroo. 
MYTHOLOGY. 
The sorcerers and sorceresses have communication with spirits, 
and it is they who know all about the other state. Spirits can 
both help and injure men, and are more dreaded than loved. 
PHILOLOGY. 
See Motu Grammar, by Mr. Lawes, and list of words at end. 
(2.) Maneara (Hervey Is~anps), By Rev. W. Wyarr GILL. 
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
On the island of Mangaia, in the Hervey Group, as soon as a 
child is born, a leaf* of the Alocasia indica (Seeman) was cut off, 
its sides carefully gathered up, and filled with pure water. Into 
this extempore baptismal font the child would be placed. First 
tieing with a bit of “tapa” (native cloth made from the inner 
bark of the Broussonetia papyrifera) the part of the navyel-string 
nearest the infant, the right hand of the operator longitudinally 
divided the cord itself with a bamboo-knife. The dark coagulated 
blood was then carefully washed out with water, and the name of 
the child’s god declared, it having been previously settled by the 
parents whether their little one should belong to the mother’s 
tribe or to the father’s. Usually the father had the preference ; 
but occasionally, when the father’s tribe was devoted to furnish 
sacrifices, the mother would seek to save her child’s life by getting 
it adopted into her own tribe, the name of her own tribal divinity 
being pronounced over the babe. As a rule, however, a father 
would stoically pronounce over his child the name of his own 
* From 8 to 12 feet in circumference. The Alocasia indicu isa gigantic aroid, the native 
name of which is “kape.” 
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