RELIGION. 
103 
was always accompanied with prayer. (See James v. 15.) 
Another office of the priest was that of the moko mokai, or 
embalming of the heads of relatives, which was likewise the 
office of the Egyptian physicians and priests. This union of 
the two seems to have pervaded the whole heathen world ; 
it is preserved by the Red Indian in the name of the medi- 
cine man who attended to the bodily and spiritual health of 
the people. 
The New Zealand priest could rule the winds, render them 
favorable for fishing, restrain the malignance of evil spirits, 
destroy the power of witchcraft, and hold converse with the 
gods ; he could likewise enchant, bewitch, and destroy his 
enemy by his spells, and controul the powers of nature. 
How similar to the African rain-makers, the wizards of the 
northern tribes, the Finns and Lapps, the Angekoks of the 
Esquimaux, the Shamans of Siberia, the Brahmins of India, 
Bonzes of China, the Druids and Magi of old. We have still, 
even in England, wise men and women who profess to tell 
secrets and discover things stolen ; the very same characters 
are to be met with in New Zealand and Polynesia, who lay 
claim to similar powers. Perhaps the gipsy brought that 
knowledge with him from India, and thence also the Poly- 
nesian acquired it. 
Necromancy, which has existed from the time of the witch 
of Endor, and has so strangely and greatly revived in enlight- 
ened Britain and the United States, is a relic of the most 
ancient times, and is still devoutly believed in by the Maori 
and Polynesian races ; in fact, the spiritualism of the pre- 
sent day is nothing more nor less than demonology, and 
though it pervades the southern hemisphere, it is actually 
at present less openly practised there amongst the heathen 
than in these enlightened countries. It may be disguised 
under various names of spirit-rapping, mediums, and ma- 
nifestations ; their seances are either a gross deception 
or nothing else than demonology ; and it is a singular 
instance of identity of practice between the most civilized 
and uncivilized portions of mankind, when we find the 
enlightened races of one hemisphere treading in the steps of 
