THE KINGSMILL 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 



