156 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES* 
It was a rude, uncarved log of aito wood, casua- 
rina equisatifolia , about six feet long. The altars 
were then broken down, the temples demolished, 
and the sacred houses of the gods, together with 
their covering, ornaments, and all the appendages 
of their worship, committed to the flames. The 
temples, altars, and idols, all round Tahiti, were 
shortly after destroyed in the same way. The log 
of 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 subsequently fixed up as 
a post in the king’s kitchen, and used in a most 
contemptuous manner, by having baskets 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 desolat¬ 
ing wars, for the preceding thirty years, than all 
other causes combined. Their most zealous devo¬ 
tees were in general now convinced of their delu¬ 
sion, 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 Ei- 
meo ; 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 u doctrines of devils,” they had been for ages 
