20 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



seems to have been generally the case. In New Zealand, alone, the 

 civil authority has been lost, and only the religious dignity retained. 

 In Samoa, a separation has also been effected between the two offices, 

 and a new word formed to designate the sacerdotal class. In all the 

 other groups there is, properly speaking, no priesthood. There are 

 certain individuals to whom the name of tufunga, (or tohuya, tahuya, 

 tahuna, tahua, &c.,) is given, who take charge of the temples and 

 images, perform religious rites, communicate with the deities, &c. 

 Except when engaged in the exercise of these functions, they are not 

 regarded as persons of peculiar sanctity, and enjoy no consideration 

 whatever beyond that which springs from their personal rank and 

 wealth, or their influence with the chiefs. The word by which they 

 are called signifies an artisan, or one who follows a particular profes- 

 sion ; a house or canoe builder, a carver, a tattooer, a director of funeral 

 ceremonies, &c., are all called by this name, as well as a priest. Those 

 of the latter class must, therefore, be considered merely as persons 

 appointed by the real priests, i. e., the aliki, or chiefs, to go through 

 the drudgeries of their office, with which they are unwilling to be 

 troubled. 



But in refusing to exercise the ordinary functions of the priestly 

 station, the chiefs have been careful not to renounce the dignity and 

 immunities connected with it. The extraordinary personal respect 

 evinced towards them cannot be accounted for from their civil rank 

 alone, since it is nearly as profound among those democratic tribes, 

 who, like the Nukuhivans, pay little regard to their authority, as 

 under the despotic governments of Tahiti and Hawaii. It is tabu for 

 a common man to enter without permission the house of a chief, or to 

 wear a garment belonging to him, or to stand in his presence at cer- 

 tain times, or to do other acts savouring of undue familiarity and dis- 

 respect. The penalty does, indeed, vary according to the nature of 

 the government. In the Marquesas, the offender would be mulcted 

 of some of his property, by way of expiation ; in Tonga, this would 

 be accompanied by severe personal chastisement; while under the 

 iron rule which prevailed in the Sandwich Islands, death was the 

 only atonement. 



A strong argument in favour of this view of the origin of the tabu, 

 is found in the fact that on nearly if not quite all the groups, there 

 have been, at a very late period, men who have been regarded by the 

 natives as partaking of the divine nature, in short, as earthly gods. 



