POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
257 
wood, called by the natives the body of Oro, into which 
they imagined the god at times entered, and through 
which his influence was exerted, Pomare's party bore 
away on their shoulders, and, on returning to the camp, 
laid in triumph at their sovereign’s feet. It was subse¬ 
quently fixed up as a post in the king’s kitchen, and 
used in a most contemptuous manner, by having bas¬ 
kets of food suspended from it; and, finally, it was 
riven up for fuel. This was the end of the principal 
idol of the Tahitians, on whom they had long been 
so deluded as to suppose their destinies depended; 
whose favour, kings, and chiefs, and warriors had 
sought; whose anger all had deprecated; and who had 
been the occasion of more bloody and desolating wars, 
for the preceding thirty years, than all other causes 
combined. Their most zealous devotees were in general 
now convinced of their delusion, and the people united 
in declaring that the gods had deceived them, were 
unworthy of their confidence, and should no longer be 
objects of respect or trust. 
Thus was idolatry abolished in Tahiti and Eimeo; 
the idols hurled from the thrones they had for 
ages occupied; and the remnant of the people 
liberated from the slavery and delusion in which, by 
the cunningly devised fables of the priests, and the 
doctrines of devils,” they had been for ages held 
as in fetters of iron. It is impossible to contemplate 
the mighty deliverance thus effected, without exclaiming, 
^^What hath God wrought!” and desiring, with regard 
to other parts of the world, the arrival of that promised 
and auspicious era, when the gods that have not made 
the heavens” shall be destroyed, and the idols shall be 
utterly abolished.” 
2 L 
