50 
THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
their arms, sometimes their cattle, a victim having to be 
sacrificed to atone for the sins of the deceased. This was 
usually the case with the Polynesian chiefs; they were 
buried with all their valuable property, their weapons, 
jewels, garments, and slaves were sacrificed to bear them 
company and wait upon them. 
7. The Aborigines are snake worshippers. The Nagas, 
the Polynesian, and especially the Melanesian, were the same. 
8. The Indian Aborigines pay religious reverence to stones, 
trees, or stumps, so likewise the Polynesian and Mela- 
nesian. 
9. The one, although Polytheists are not idolaters, like 
the Hindus ; so also the Maori, although they had a kind of 
idol which the priest carried, still it was not worshipped, but 
addressed as a visible representation of their gods, whose 
enmity they tried to conquer by the utterance of their most 
powerful spells and incantations. 
10. Indian Aborigines are generally devil worshippers, so 
also the Maori. 
In addition to these, there are other resemblances to be 
noticed. The Mundane egg of the one is to be traced in the 
mythology of the other. In the Hindu myth, the Mundane 
egg was placed in the sea, where it burst asunder; so with 
the Maori, the two parts, earth and heaven, were severed, 
and from the sea everything proceeded, Maui thence drew 
up the earth. 
No traces of idolatry are to be found in the most ancient 
of the Indian writings, the Rigveda; none in Maori traditions. 
The chief God of the Indian Aborigines, Rudra, resembles 
in name the Maori God Rehua, who dwelt in the highest 
of their ten heavens. 
Major Macpherson states : — 
1. Amongst the Khonds, when a village begins to decay, 
it is not repaired, but a new one built on a different site, and 
none of the old materials are used. A Khond village lasts 
on an average fourteen years. This is precisely the same 
amongst the Maories, they never repair their houses or even 
their churches, however good the buildings may be, and 
