OF THEIR PRIESTHOOD, 147 
no more regarded than the meanest slave, only as 
his chieftainship gives him power and authority ; 
and his injunctions are always unheeded, unless 
they coincide with the opinions, the will, or the 
superstition of the persons enjoined. The priests 
are employed to bring either wind or rain ; but, 
for the former purpose, any uninitiated person 
may officiate. When rain is wished for, to cause 
a flood, or to irrigate the cultivations, priests are 
always sent for : and some few of the people have 
implicit confidence in their power to cause the 
waters of heaven to descend. When a priest ar- 
rives for the purpose of bringing rain, he has pru- 
dence enough to refuse to act, unless there is a 
great probability, from the appearance of the 
heavens, of a plentiful downfal being at hand. If 
there is the least sign of a wind blowing from any 
easterly point, he may be assured of a speedy 
rain : and as all the natives are good observers of 
the signs of clouds and wind, they rarely fail in 
their prognostications. Though the more sensible 
part of the community do not belieVe in any of 
these ceremonies, or in the power of the priest to 
effect any thing beyond what could be effected 
by any other man, they send for these conjurors, 
from other tribes, to answer some political pur- 
pose, or that they may make the individual a 
liandsome present for his services, and through 
him be considered to make a present to the tribe, 
or family, to which he belongs. 
Nothing can exceed the beautiful regularity 
with which the faces and thighs of the New Zea- 
H 2 
