332 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
which were supposed to induce the god to abate his 
anger, and eject the luminaries of day and night 
from his stomach. 
The shape and stability of their islands they 
regarded as depending on the influence of spirits. 
The high and rocky obelisks, and detached pieces 
of mountain, were viewed as monuments of their 
power. The large mountain on the left-hand side 
of the entrance to Opunohu, or Taloo harbour, 
which separates this bay from Cook’s harbour, and 
is only united to the island by a narrow isthmus, 
was ascribed by tradition to the operations of 
those spirits, who, like the spirits in most other 
parts of the world, prefer the hours of darkness 
for their achievements'. This mountain, it is 
stated, was formerly united with the mountains of 
the interior, and yielded in magnitude to none; 
but one night, the spirits of the place determined 
to remove it to the Leeward Islands, nearly one 
hundred miles distant, and accordingly began 
their operations, but had scarcely detached it from 
the main land, when the dawn of day discovered 
their proceedings, and obliged them to leave it 
where it now stands, forming the two bays already 
named. An aperture in the upper part of a moun¬ 
tain near Afareaitu, which appears from the low¬ 
land like a hole made by a cannon-ball, but which 
is eight or nine feet in diameter, is said to have 
been made by the passage of a spear, hurled by 
one of these supernatural beings. 
Amusement was in part the business of a Tahi¬ 
tian’s life; and with his games, as well as with 
every other institution, idolatry was connected. 
Five or six gods were imagined to preside over the 
upaupa, or games, of which Urataetae was one of 
the principal. 
