90 A MISSION TO VITI. 



which the missionaries Williams and Turner* have 

 published some good illustrations. Compared with cer- 

 tain remnants of Priapus worship, as found in Indian 

 temples, the "Museo segreto" of Naples, and, freed from 

 all obscenity, in the obelisks of Egypt, their nature be- 

 comes evident. More or less, these monoliths repre- 

 sented the generative principle and procreation ; and, if 

 the subject admitted of popular treatment, it would not 

 be difficult to show that the Polynesian stones, their 

 shape, the reverence paid to them, their decoration, and 

 the results expected from their worship, are quite in 

 accordance with a widely-spread superstition, which as- 

 sumed such offensive forms in ancient Home, and found 

 vent in the noblest monuments of which the land of the 

 Pharaohs can boast. Turner, after stating that he had 

 in his possession several smooth stones from the New 

 Hebrides, says that some of the Polynesian stone-gods 

 were supposed to cause fecundity in pigs, rain and sun- 

 shine. A stone at Mayo, according to the Earl of 

 Roden, was carefully wrapped up in flannel, periodically 

 worshipped, and supplicated to send wrecks on the coast. 

 Two large stones, lying at the bottom of a moat, are 

 said to have given birth to Degei, the supreme god of 

 Fiji. In all instances an addition to objects already 

 existing was expected from these monoliths. There was 

 a stone near Bau, which, whenever a lady of rank at 

 the Fijian capital was confined, also gave birth to a little 

 stone. It argues nothing that these stony offsprings 

 were fraudulently placed there. The ideas floating in 



* Williams's ' Fiji and Fijians,' p. 220. Turner's 'Nineteen Years in 

 Polynesia,' p. 347. 



