352 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
sacred enclosure. A sumptuous banquet was held 
annually at the time of its observance, which was 
regulated 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 rohu - 
tunoanoa , the mount Miru of Polynesia, or return 
to this w T orld, by entering into the body of one of 
its inhabitants. 
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 permanently remain there, but only come 
and inspire the person to declare future events, or 
execute any other commission from the super¬ 
natural beings on whom they imagined they were 
constantly dependent. 
