WORSHIP AND MISSIONS. 27 



had its deity, and the man often had a god distinct from that of his wife. In New 

 Zealand divine images were rare and a very few of inferior workmanship have come to 

 ns. It is remarkable that when the Maoris excelled in wood-carving their skill was 

 expended on other than divine images. So it was to even a greater extent with the 

 Fijians and Samoans. Of the Society Islands idols of most complicated form and 

 good workmanship are to be seen in the British Museum, but nowhere else. In Tonga 

 images and bundles of sticks alike served to fix the wandering prayers of the people. 

 Human sacrifices were most common on the Hawaiian Islands where cannibalism did 

 not exist, least common among the anthropophagous Vitians. 



In the western Pacific the objects of worship were generally departed spirits, 

 and a refined form of this ancestor worship is seen in the curious custom of Korowars 

 in New Guinea which recalls the image always provided for the ka of the. ancient 

 Egyptian. The idols of the Marquesan at one end of the Pacific and of the New 

 Hebridean at the other were elaborately cut from wood or stone. The temples of east- 

 ern Polynesia were built of stone in substantial manner, while in the west the Mela- 

 nesian erected ephemeral structures of cane or palm leaves, and the Fijian built with 

 sinnet the hardly more durable "Devil Houses" of his cult. Had not the Hawaiian 

 temples been destroyed by the hand of man they would have lasted for many centu- 

 ries ; this is also true of the morais of the Tahitians. 



Throughout the Pacific there was an unseen world recognized by all. Good 

 spirits and bad, white spirits and black were everywhere and were generally objects 

 of dread and propitiation. Night was especially the time when the spirits drew near 

 to human beings, and even when Christianity has replaced many of the ancient beliefs 

 a Pacific islander does not like to travel alone in the dark. 



Missions. — This is not the place to speak at length of the great work the 

 devoted bands of missionaries have been doing for the last eighty years in the Pacific 

 region. All sects, from the Buddhist and Mahometan on the west to the Protestant, 

 Catholic and Mormon on the east have earnestly ploughed some portion of the field, 

 and the harvest has in many cases been good. With the religious Polynesians the 

 work was not so difficult, and in turn the Tongan, Samoan and Hawaiian converts 

 became earnest and successful helpers in the missions to the other groups. In the 

 Marquesas faithful Hawaiian missionaries have labored for many years, and so have 

 they done in Micronesia. The Melanesian Mission has also made good use of native 

 converts in reclaiming the heathen. The whalers made it possible for the mission- 

 aries to land on many islands, and the missionaries have in turn made it possible and 

 pleasant for other civilized people to dwell where formerly paganism and cannibalism 



were supreme. 



[in] 



