74 KEY. M. EELLS, ON THE WORSHIP AND TRADITIONS OF 



spirits. On leaving the body, it Avas by degrees eaten by the 

 gods, and if it underwent this process of being eaten and 

 going through the gods three times, it became imperishable, 

 deified, and might visit the world and inspire others. They 

 liad a kind of heaven which they called ]\Iirn. It Avas 

 described as a beautiful place, quite an elysium, where the 

 air was remarkably salubrious, plants and shrubs abundant, 

 highly odoriferous and in perpetual bloom. Still their ideas 

 of the amount of future happiness to be enjoyed did not 

 depend altogether on their moral conduct in this Avorld. 

 Mention is also made of a hell.* 



Sir John Lubbock adds that they believed that the spirits 

 existed separately hereafter, some going to a much happier 

 place than others. This, however, did not depend on their 

 conduct in this life, but on their rank, their chiefs going to 

 the happier place, and the rest of the people to the less 

 desirable one.f ]\lalte Brun, hoAvever, says that they believed 

 that according to the degree of virtue and piety in this 

 world, Avould be the honour and happiness of the soul in the 

 next world. J 



In the SandAvieh Islands there Avas a general opinion that 

 a future state existed, and Avith it, a A^ague expectation of 

 rcAvards and punishments. Some supposed that departed 

 spirits Avent to Po, a place of night, Avhere they Avere anni- 

 hilated, or eaten by the god. Others considered the region 

 of Akea and Milu their final resting place. These Avere 

 former kings of Hawaii, who went beloAv, and founded the 

 kingdom of Hades. § 



Conchislon. — I must close, this paper Avit'n much the same 

 conclusions as I did my former one, only there is more reason 

 for accepting them. The beliefs here found in these islands 

 agree almost entirely Avith those of the natives of America, 

 Asia, Africa, and Europe : with those of barbarous, savage, 

 semi-civilized, and civihzed people; Avith those of the 

 idolater, IMohannnedan, and Christian. Not but that they 

 have many, A^ery many ignorant beliefs and superstitious 

 practices connected Avith them, but still the great fact 

 remains that Avhen these superstitious ideas are stiipped 



* Pohjnesian Researches, pp. 303-305. 



+ Smithsonian Report, 18G9, j). 3l)0. 



X Malte Brim's (Jeog., vol. ii, p. 406. 



§ Jarves' Sandwich Islands, p. 25. 



