RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. 
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of by the atua, whose spirit entered it ; the priest then 
either held it in the hand, and vibrated it in the air, whilst 
the powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece of 
string, formed of the centre of a flax leaf, round the neck of 
the image, and stuck it in the ground ; he sat at a little dis- 
tance from it, leaning on a tuahu, a short stone pillar, stuck 
in the ground in a slanting position, and holding the string 
in the hand, gave the god a jerk, to arrest his attention, 
lest he should be otherwise engaged, like Baal of old, either 
hunting, or fishing, or sleeping, and therefore must be 
awaked : having thus secured the attention of the god, he 
repeated his first karakia, in a quick singing tone ; this 
being finished, he took a short piece of fern stalk, which he 
stuck into the ground ; then gave the god another pull, 
uttered another karakia, stuck another bit of fern stalk into 
the ground, and thus continued until he had repeated all 
his karakias, which were counted by fern stalks, the same 
as beads are done by the heathen in Thibet; the god was 
supposed to make use of the priest's tongue in giving a 
reply, and the atua only entered the image for the occa- 
sion, the natives declare they did not worship the image 
itself, but only the god represented, and that it was merely 
used as a way of approaching him. They have a very 
great unwillingness to repeat their karakias, and never do so 
to strangers, the heathen natives think there is such power 
in them, that they cannot be even uttered without taking 
effect, the Christianized natives are afraid that the mere 
repetition would give the evil spirit power over them. The 
priest, when inspired, was really thought to have the spirit 
of the god in him ; his body was violently agitated, he 
writhed as in great pain, rolled about his eyes, his arms 
quivered, and he seemed insensible to all external objects ; 
then every word spoken was attributed to the god ; when 
the answers were given, the symptoms gradually sub- 
sided, and the priest regained his usual composure. The 
reply was frequently given in such incoherent terms, that 
the priest only could interpret its meaning ; the whistling 
of the wind — the moving of the trees — a flash of lightning — 
