48 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



Sometimes it would be announced by the sorcerer that a certain 

 person was about to fall sick. The threatened victim then had 

 to reside in the temple, and enchantments were pronounced over 

 him twice a day ; he was anointed with coconut oil, and was 

 placed in the smoke of a fire so that the demon's eyes might be 

 blinded and he escape. 



A kind of divination was practised by spinning a coconut 

 before the altar ; if it came to rest in a particular position 

 success was prophesied, but if the result was unpropitious the 

 nut would be coaxed, fondled, and spun again. A similar 

 divination by spinning a coconut is described by Mariner in 

 Tonga.* 



" A temple with a covering was known as a ' Fale-Atua,' a 

 shrine was an ' Afu,' and the priest, as in the Tokelaus and in 

 Samoa, was a 'Vakatua.' Long after the significance of the 

 temple was forgotten the stone shrine or memorial was wor- 

 shipped."! A beautiful illustration of the gods and temple of 

 Fakaafu by a member of the first European party who visited 

 that island of the Tokelau Group, faces p. 274 of Dana's Corals 

 and Coral Islands, 1872. 



The last temple on Funafuti was destroyed by the hands of 

 Mr. O'Brien. 



On this atoll the priests chose the sailing dates for canoes 

 visiting other islands. If the vessel missed her destination, 

 the drifting and starving crew used first to kill and eat the 

 " devil-master." 



Regarding heathen worship, the Rev. S. J. Whitmee writes j 

 of the Ellice Group in general at the time when the Archipelago 

 was passing from Paganism to Christianity : " They worshipped 

 the spirits of their ancestors; mostly those who originally peopled 

 the islands, but some of later generations have been deified in 

 some of the islands. They have shrines in some places where 

 they offer their devotions, and where the gods come to hear their 

 prayers and accept their offerings. Some have tangible repre- 

 sentatives of their gods in the shape of stones : but as far as I 

 could learn, they always had the idea of spiritual beings taking 

 up their abode in them either for a time or permanently. They 

 have also a number of sacred men through whom they communi- 

 cate with their gods. In some of the southern islands, now 

 Christianized, there was only one sacred man in each village. 

 He was chosen by the people from one particular family. At 



* Mariner Tonga, ii., 1817, p. 239. 

 t Newell Joe. cit. 

 I Whitmee loc. cit., pp. 26, 27. 



At the temple of Maumau on Nanomea, there stood a nine feet 

 high coral sandstone slab from the beach. Turner loc. cit., p. 291. 



