286 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



tions. But, though frequently tyrannical and oppressive, it 

 often performed the salutary part of our laws and police regu- 

 lations, with this difference, however, in its favour : that 

 whereas many of us are, more or less, inclined to infringe the 

 law, no Polynesian would have ventured to disobey the Tabu, 

 being perfectly convinced that this crime would immediately 

 entail upon him the signal vengeance of his gods. Every 

 chieftain had the right to subject his inferiors to a Tabu, and 

 was in a like manner obliged to submit to the interdictions 

 pronounced by his superior. If by some chance he had 

 infringed a Tabu, he could only be exonerated by a chieftain 

 of higher rank. Thus the Tabu placed an enormous power in 

 the hands of the privileged castes, and secured by the chains of 

 superstition the eternal slavery of the people. 



As among the ancient Grreeks an invisible world of gods ruled 

 over the visible phenomena of nature, thus also the fertile fancy 

 of the Polynesians peopled earth and heaven, the ocean and the 

 mountains with a mighty host of spirits. They recognized their 

 presence in the rising sun, the mild moonlight, the howling 

 storm, the roaring breaker, and the soft evening breeze. The 

 peak of the mountain, the fleecy vapours hanging on its side, the 

 foaming waterfall, and above all the volcano and the earthquake, 

 were all palpable objects, connected with a presiding divinity. 

 Most of these gods were vindictive, proud, irascible beings, ever 

 ready to do mischief in a material or immaterial form ; and 

 even the spirits of deceased relations were feared as malignant 

 demons. Thus, here as elsewhere, superstition added its fantas- 

 tical terrors to the real evils of existence. 



The Polynesian Pantheon, a strange mixture of poetry and 

 absurdity, was as richly peopled as that of the ancient Grreeks 

 or Scandinavians. Tangaloa was the creator of their little world, 

 which, according to the Tonga account, he fished up from the 

 sea. Tahiti was the first part that appeared. Just as its rock 

 showed above water, the line broke. However, the rock 

 in which the hook stuck could still be seen on the island of 

 Hoonga, and the family of Tuitonga were in possession of the 

 hook. In Tahiti and Samoa the workman was the same, but 

 the work different. The Tahitian Tangaloa formed the ocean 

 from the sweat of his brow — so hard did he work in making the 

 land. 



