218 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
this; the females, however, were not allowed to enter 
the sacred enclosure- A sumptuous banquet was held 
annually at the time of its observance, which was regu¬ 
lated by the blossoming of reeds. 
Their rites and worship were in many respects singular, 
but in none more so than in the ripening of the year, 
which was regarded as a kind of annual acknowledgment 
to the gods. When the prayers were finished at the 
marae, and the banquet ended, a usage prevailed much 
resembling the popish custom of mass for souls in 
purgatory. Each individual returned to his home, or 
to his family marae, there to offer special prayers for 
the spirits of departed relatives, that they might be 
liberated from the po, or state of night, and ascend to 
rohutunoanoa, the mount Meru of Polynesia, or return 
to this world, by entering into the body of some inhabi¬ 
tant of earth. 
They did not suppose, according to the generally 
received doctrine of transmigration, that the spirits who 
entered the body of some dweller upon earth, would per¬ 
manently remain there, but only come and inspire the 
person to declare future events, or execute any other 
commission from the supernatural beings on whom they 
imagined they were constantly dependent. 
