130 Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 



uterine succession is found. As to the little fairies, however, it should he 

 noted that certain burial customs show that ghosts are thought to be of very- 

 short stature — at any rate when they first leave the body. And this is a 

 reasonable belief, for they are supposed to have been contained within the 

 body. The Fijian language has not words corresponding to the Mota atai and 

 tamate. Yalo has to do duty for both, yalo ni mate (soul of the dead) being 

 used when it is desirable to specify definitely a ghost. 



In Williams's Fiji and Fijians an account of sacred stones, with illustra- 

 tions, will be found. The Rev. F. Langham, before mentioned, has in his 

 possession a stone which is evidently phallic. — L.F.] 



12. Sacred Objects. 



Men can tapuu things for particular purposes, but that 

 does not make the thing sacred (rongo). An inherent 

 natural quality of awfulness, in greater or less degree, 

 belongs to that which is rongo. Certain places are thus 

 rongo, and no one will visit them, excepting those who are 

 in some way u connected with" the places, and have a kind 

 of right to go there. Stones in such places are sacred ; so 

 are banyans and serpents. Serpents that haunt a house are 

 sacred, but no observance is paid to them. This applies to 

 other islands, for there are no land snakes at Mota. Certain 

 streams, or parts of a stream, are sacred — connected with a 

 vui — places of sacrifice. The cycas (mele) is always sacred; 

 and yet it is cut down without scruple if it be in the way. 

 Some individuals have a superstitious feeling about sharks, 

 owls, eels, lizards, and water snakes. 



Small round stones, or stones of some shape that took the 

 fancy, were assumed by men as a kind of fetish. They 

 imagined that some vui was connected with them, and that 

 they had an influence favourable to them. These stones 

 were buried in the garden to bring a good crop, or hung up 

 in the house in a bag. If a stranger came into a house in 

 which such a stone was hanging, and meddled with things 

 in an improper way, and afterwards met with an accident, 

 the man of the house would give the credit of it to the stone 

 — " My tangaroa did it." A man would take a fancy to a 

 stone, and hang it round his neck, and think it brought him 

 luck, made him shoot true,, and caused his enemies to miss 

 him. Tangaroa is a common name for some kind of deity 

 in the Pacific. Tagar, or togaro, is the chief spirit in Aurora 

 and Lepers' Island. 



[Tangaloa in Tonga and Samoa; tangaroa, ta 'aroa, kanaroa in other 

 groups. — L. F.] 



