20 
THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
Asiatic. They had the Fetish tree, and their sacred rocks 
to which offerings were made.* Remnants of snake worship 
are also to be traced, although there are no such reptiles in 
New Zealand, yet they have innumerable traditions of 
immense Saurians or Ngarara, and Taniwa, fabulous fresh 
water and marine monsters. They also paid a sort of 
worship to an enormous kind of eel, the Ruahine, to such 
offerings were made, by which, in process of time, they were 
rendered quite tame.f This reverence however did not save 
those divinities from the oven in times of scarcity. 
All the religious ceremonies of the Australian natives were 
celebrated by night in the forest, a kind of acknowledgment 
of the powers of darkness. The writer is not aware that this 
* Sacred trees as well as stones are common on the east coast of New 
Zealand. In the Bay of Plenty, they are generally to be discerned by being 
painted red or bound round with garments, or having rags, &c., suspended 
from their branches ; these are a kind of memorial monument to a Chief, 
and every friend who passes by suspends a rag or garment ; often times they 
are so adorned with ornaments as to present a singular appearance. 
On sacred stones or rocks it was customary to offer the liver or entrails of 
enemies slain in battle. 
In India., sacred trees are common, as well as posts and stones. The Deodar, 
Given to God, the tree of Siva or Deva is planted near their temples, as also the 
Banyan, and the Buddists have the Pippul or Bo tree. The Brahmins have 
the Kalpa tree in Paradise. This seems to be a custom as old as Adam, and to 
have prevailed in every age and clime. — (Gen. iii. 24. II. Kings xxiii. 7. 
Hosea iv. 13.) Herodotus and Elean relate that Xerxes in his important 
expedition against Greece tarried a whole day in ' the desert of Lydia, to pay 
homage to a large plane tree, on the branches of which he hung rich garments, 
bracelets, and other precious ornaments, and the next day proceeding on his 
march he left a soldier to guard the honored tree. — Ouseley's Travels in the East. 
f “Bishop Crowther has recently sent to England an account of a visit to 
Bonny, near one of the mouths of the Niger. He commenced the mission in 
January, 1866, at the request of the king and chiefs. The fruits already appear 
in the partial abandonment of idolatry. The Bishop says that as the entire de- 
struction of iguanas (reptiles which have been worshipped) the previous year 
had not been attended with any revengeful visitation from the gods, the people 
were prepared, for further reformation. Accordingly, when asked for a part of 
a sacred grove in order to open up a road between the town and Mission Station, 
the chiefs at once granted it. This so-called sacred grove was found full of 
snakes, bees, and human bones, the evidence of deeds of darkness. Many of 
these bones were the bones of twin children who, according to the custom of 
the country, are always thrown, immediately upon their birth, into some sacred 
grove.” — Visit of the Bishop of the Niger to Bonny. 
