THE KINGS MILL ISLANDERS. 
87 
worship are those of their deceased ancestors. The custom on the 
death of a great chief is to set up a similar stone and deck it with 
cocoanut-leaves, after which such offerings as have been mentioned 
are made to it. Kirby thought, from what he had seen, that the natives 
of Kuria believed that their gods also had once been chiefs, who from 
the lapse of time had been forgotten. For the performance of these 
duties there are priests, but they do not enjoy any particular respect 
or power on that account. The priests are called iboya or boya, and 
are not a distinct class: any young man of high rank and possessed of 
shrewdness may become a priest. Every family of consequence has 
a priest to attend to its tutelar deity, who performs the rites and cere¬ 
monies. The perquisites of priests consists only in the food offered to 
the god, which the former takes away after it has remained a short 
time, and eats it at his own house. In the absence of the priest, the 
father of the family officiates by offering up family prayers, and the food 
is removed and eaten by some elderly person belonging to the house¬ 
hold. Prayers are offered up either in a sitting or standing posture, 
and are accompanied by no particular ceremony or gesticulations. 
The prayers are usually petitions for health, long life, success in war, 
fishing, the arrival of ships, and other blessings they may desire at the 
moment, and which it is believed to be in the power of the gods to 
give them. 
The priest makes known the oracles of the gods, which he receives 
in the following manner. On the sandy beach on the weather or 
eastern side of the island, there are many houses, called ba-ni-mota, 
or bota-ni-anti. These are of the usual size of the dwelling-houses, 
but the walls are of coral stone, and they have no loft. The doorway 
is always in the west end, because the Kainakaki, the country of souls, 
lies in that direction. In the centre of this house, a stout pillar of coral 
stone is built up to the height of three and a half feet, having in its 
middle a hollow of about a foot in diameter ; to this the priest puts his 
ear, and pretends to receive the instructions of his god. 
On Kuria there are six of these houses, and besides there are many 
hollow pillars standing uncovered along the beach, as it is not deemed 
necessary that the oracle should always have a covering. 
On Makin there is no regular order of priests, and the father of the 
family, as in the case of the absence of the priest on the other islands, 
officiates. On this island they have a class of men, which are un¬ 
known to the others, conjurors, and persons who pretend to have inter¬ 
course with spirits. 
The natives of the group put great faith in omens and charms. The 
most common mode of divination they call kaina, which is performed 
