MICRONESIA. 97 



plished in all their knowledge and arts, and versed in every noble 

 exercise : a good dancer, an able warrior, one who has seen life at 

 home and abroad, and enjoyed its highest excitements and delights, 

 in short, a complete man of the world. In their estimation, this is 

 the proudest character to which any person can attain, and such a 

 one is fully prepared to enter, at his death, on the highest enjoyments 

 of their elysium. 



RELIGION. 



In the clusters of Apamama and Tarawa, three kinds of divinities 

 are worshipped. The first class consists of proper deities, of whom 

 there are several, such as Tabueriki, Itivini, Itituapeu, Aorierie, &c. 

 Of these the first-named, called also Wanigain, is the greatest, not as 

 being superior in his attributes to the rest, but merely from having 

 the greatest number of worshippers. About two-thirds of the people 

 pray to him as their tutelary divinity ; the rest do not acknowledge 

 his authority, but address their prayers to other deities, or to the 

 spirits of their ancestors, or to certain kinds of fish, which constitute 

 the other two classes of divinities. Tabueriki is worshipped under 

 the form of a flat coral stone, of irregular shape, about three feet long 

 by eighteen inches wide, set up on one end in the open air. It is 

 tied round with leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, which considerably in- 

 crease its size and height. These are changed every month, to keep 

 them always green. The worship paid to the god consists in repeat- 

 ing prayers before this stone, and laying beside it a portion of the food 

 prepared by the natives for their own use. This is done at their daily 

 meals, at festivals, and whenever they particularly wish to propitiate 

 his favour. The first fruits of the season are always offered to the 

 god. Every family of distinction has one of these stones, which is 

 considered rather in the light of a family altar than as an idol. 



At Makin, according to Grey, the names of Tabueriki, Itivini, and 

 the other deities, are unknown, and the only spirits which the natives 

 worship are those of their ancestors. When a chief dies, a stone, simi- 

 lar to those dedicated in the other islands to Tabueriki, is set up, and 

 dressed in the same manner with leaves. The reverence offered to it 

 is exactly the same, being a presentation of food accompanied with 

 prayers. Hence there can be little doubt that the deities worshipped 

 in the southern clusters were only deified chiefs, the memory of whose 

 existence has been lost in the lapse of time. The reverence paid to 



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