200 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the god of husbandry; the chief of the others was 
Taneetehia, the god of carpenters, builders, canoe-wrights, 
and all who wrought in wood. Nenia and Topca the 
gods of those who thatched houses, and especially of 
those who finished the angles where the thatch of each 
side joined. With these, others of a more repulsive cha¬ 
racter might be associated, but I shall only mention Heva 
the god of ghosts and apparitions, and Hiro the god of 
thieves. To the list from which the above are taken, 
including nearly one hundred of the objects formerly wor¬ 
shipped by the nation, a number of the principal family 
idols of the king and chiefs might be added, as every 
family of any antiquity or rank had its tutelar idol. 
The general name by which they were distinguished 
was atua^ which is perhaps most appropriately trans¬ 
lated god. This word is totally different in its meaning, 
as well as sound, from the word varua, spirit, although 
that is sometimes applied to the gods : when the people 
were accustomed to speak disrespectfully of them, they 
called them varaua ino, bad or evil spirits. It is also 
different in its signification from the word which is used 
to designate an image, and the spirits of departed chil¬ 
dren or relations, and frequently those evil genii to 
whom the sorcerers addressed their incantations. 
Atua, or akua, is the name for god, without any excep¬ 
tion, throughout the whole of the eastern part of Polyne¬ 
sia. The first a appears to be a component part of the 
word, though in many sentences it is omitted, in con¬ 
sequence of the preceding word terminating in a vowel. 
It is then pronounced tua 3 and though but little light 
is thus thrown on the origin of the people, it is interest¬ 
ing to trace the correspondence between the taata or 
tangata, first man, in Potynesia, and tangatanga, a 
