322 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
their own history, and handed down by tradition 
through successive generations. If so much that 
is mysterious and fabulous has been mingled with 
the history of those nations among whom hiero¬ 
glyphics or the use of letters has prevailed, it 
might be expected to exist in a greater degree, 
where oral communication, and that often under 
the fantastic garb of rude poetry, is the only mode 
of preserving the traditional knowledge of former 
times. 
Distinguished, however, as the Polynesian my¬ 
thology is by confusion and absurdity, it is not 
more so than the systems of some of the most 
enlightened and cultivated pagan nations, of the 
past or present time. It was not more character¬ 
ized by mystery and fable, than by its abomina¬ 
tions and its cruelty. Its objects of worship were 
sometimes monsters of iniquity. The islanders 
had “ lords many and gods many/' but seldom 
attributed to them any moral attributes. Among 
the multitude of their gods, there was no one 
whom they regarded as a supreme intelligence or 
presiding spiritual being, possessing any moral 
perfections, resembling those which are insepa¬ 
rable from every sentiment we entertain of the 
true God. 
Like the most ancient nations, they ascribe the 
origin of all things to a state of chaos, or darkness, 
and even the first existence of their principal 
deities refer to this source. Taaroa, Oro, and 
Tane, with other deities of the highest order, are 
on this account said to befanau po , born of Night. 
But the origin of the gods, and their priority of 
existence in comparison with the formation of the 
earth, being a matter of uncertainty even among 
the native priests, involves the whole in obscurity. 
