PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 559* 



Thomson, while Angas tells us that the priest is generally the 

 operator in the ceremony of tattooing, he being supposed to excel 

 in all sorts of carving, the implication is that he is the maker of 

 these effigies in the cases of chiefs, if not in other cases. For 

 while it is alleged that the house-posts, rudely representing de- 

 ceased members of an ordinary family, are made by members of 

 the family, we have, in the special characters of the effigies made 

 of chiefs, evidence that priests have been the executants. Dr. 

 Ferdinand von Hochstetter says : 



" The carved Maori-figures, which are met with on the road, are the 

 memorials of chiefs who, while journeying to the restorative baths of 

 Rotorua, succumbed to their ills on the road. Some of the figures are 

 decked out with pieces of clothing or kerchiefs ; and the most remarkable 

 feature in them is the close imitation of the tattooing of the deceased, by 

 which the Maoris are able to recognize for whom the monument has been 

 erected. Certain lines are peculiar to the tribe, others to the family, and 

 again others to the individual." 



As the priests are the professional tattooers, probably being also 

 the authorities concerning tribal and family marks, it is a fair 

 inference that they are the makers of these images of chiefs, in 

 which the tribal, family, and individual marks are represented. 



Certain usages have been found among the Australians which, 

 if not directly relevant, are indirectly relevant. At an initiation 

 ceremony in the Murring tribe, according to Howitt 



" A similar rude outline of a man in the attitude of the magic dance, 

 being also Daramulun, is cut by the old men (wizards) at the ceremonies, 

 upon the bark of a tree at the spot where one of them knocks out the tooth 

 of the novice. . . . 



" At a subsequent stage of the proceedings a similar figure is molded 

 on the ground in clay, and is surrounded by the native weapons which 

 Daramulun is said to have invented." 



Here the obvious implication is that the traditional hero, Dara- 

 mulun, is represented by the figures which the wizards (medicine- 

 men or priests) make ; while the initiation ceremony is the dedi- 

 cation of the novice to him, considered as present in the figure : 

 to which figure, indeed, a road is marked out on the tree, down 

 which Daramulun is supposed to descend to the image. 



By the above-named house-posts which, among the New Zea- 

 land ers, are erected as memorials of members of the family, we 

 are introduced to the further set of illustrations furnished by 

 household gods. These the accounts of various races in various 

 parts of the world make familiar. 



Concerning the Kalmucks and Mongols, who have such domes- 

 tic idols, Pallas tells us that the priests are the painters, as well 

 as the makers, of images of copper and clay. 



According to Ellis the idol-worship of the Malagasy " appears 

 to have sprung up in comparatively modern times, and long sub- 



