POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
235 
In the Sandwich Islands^ the king, personating the 
god^ uttered the responses of the oracle^ from his conceal¬ 
ment in a frame of wicker-work. In the southern islands, 
the priest usually addressed the image, into which it was 
imagined the god entered when any one came to inquire 
his will. Sometimes the priest slept all night near the 
idol, expecting his communication in a dream; at other 
times it was given in the cry of a bird, whose resort was 
in the precincts of his temple; in the sighing of the 
breeze among the entwining branches of the tall and 
slender trees around the temple; or in the shrill, squeak¬ 
ing articulations of some of the priests. When the 
priest returned to those by whom he had been employed, 
if an unfavourable answer had been given, the project 
was at once abandoned, however favourable other cir¬ 
cumstances might appear. If the answer was propi¬ 
tious, arrangements were forthwith made for its prose¬ 
cution ; but if no answer had been given, no further steps 
were then taken, it was considered to be restrained by the 
idol, and was left in abeyance with him. 
Appearing to the priest in a dream of the night, 
though a frequent, was neither the only nor the principal 
mode by which the god intimated his will. He fre¬ 
quently entered the priest, who, inflated as it Were with 
the divinity, ceased to act or speak as a voluntary agent, 
but moved and spoke as entirely under supernatural 
influence. In this respect there was a striking resem¬ 
blance between the rude oracles of the Polynesians, and 
those of the celebrated nations of ancient Greece. 
As soon as the god was supposed to have entered the 
priest, the latter became violently agitated, and worked 
himself up to the highest pitch of apparent frenzy, the 
muscles of the limbs seemed convulsed, the body swelled, 
