THE ABOEIGmES OP THE ISLANDS OP THE PACIPIC OCEAN. 65 



When the Tahitians embalmed a person they dug a hole 

 in the ground, where a priest deposited Avith prayer the 

 dead man's sins, asking that they do not attach to the sur- 

 vivors, and saying to the corpse, " with you let the guilt 

 now remain." Every disease too was supposed to be sent 

 because of crime, or else because of the offering of an 

 enemy.* 



Nearly all that will be said about priests, temples, and 

 sacrifices in this paper bears directly on this subject, as 

 most sacrifices were offered in their temples by their priests 

 because of their sins. 



III. — The Relation between Man and the Superior 

 Beings op the other World. 



(rt) What these sjjirits have done and are doing for man. 



(1) Creation. — Dr. John Eraser in describing the religious 

 ceremonies of initiation among the Australians just referred 

 to, speaks of certain songs in connection therewith, which 

 they say were given them by Baiamai, their great Creator. 

 This statement must be taken as true, notAvithstanding the 

 fact that Sir John Lubbock says of the inhabitants of Australia 

 that they have no idea of creation. 



Among the inhabitants of the Coral Islands the belief 

 was held that Taaroa Avas the Creator God.f The people of 

 NcAv Zealand believed in the creation of man, and that Avoman 

 was formed from the rib of the man.ij: According to the 

 Fijians, Ndengei was the creator of man.§ The tradition 

 among the Tongas has a strong Mosaic element in it, also a 

 Cain and Abel, the blacks being descended from Cain, and 

 the Avhites from Abel. The Samoan legends agree in the 

 main with those of the Fijians.|| Moreover the' Rev. 

 T. PoAvell read a paper on the Samoan tradition of Creation 

 and the Deluge before this Institutell in which he gives a des- 

 cription, occupying seven pages, of the creation of the world, 

 rocks, man, animals, the heavens, and the inferior gods by 



* Polynesian Researches, pp. 301, 306. 



t Coral Islands, vol. ii, p. 287. 



X Malte Brim's Geog., vol. ii, p. 381. 



§ Fiji and Fijians, chap. 7. 



II Coral Islands, vol. ii, p. 153. 



ir Trans., vol. xx, p. 145. 



