INQUIRING OF THE IDOL. 373 
image, into which it was imagined the god entered 
when any one came to inquire his will. Some¬ 
times 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, squeaking 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 
circumstances might appear. If the answer was 
propitious, arrangements were forthwith made for 
its prosecution ; 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 abey¬ 
ance 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 frequently 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 resemblance 
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, the counte¬ 
nance became terrific, the features distorted, and 
the eyes wild and strained. In this state he often 
