PRIESTS AND SORCERERS. 295 
Different priests employ different prayers or in¬ 
cantations, and are careful to keep the knowledge 
of them confined to their families, as each one 
supposes, or wishes the people to think, his own 
form the best; hence we have often heard the 
natives, when talking on the subject, say, “ He 
pule mana ko me” A powerful prayer has such a 
one :—and the priest or sorcerer who is supposed 
to have most influence with the god, is most fre¬ 
quently employed by the people, and hence de¬ 
rives the greatest emoluments from his profession. 
Though Uri is the principal god of the sorcerers, 
each tribe has its respective deities for these occa¬ 
sions. Thus the poor deluded people are led to 
imagine that the beings they worship are con¬ 
tinually exerting their power against each other; 
or that the same god who, when a small offering 
only was presented, would allow sickness to con¬ 
tinue till death should destroy the victim of his 
displeasure, would, for a larger offering, restrain 
his anger, and withdraw the disease. The sorcerers 
were a distinct class among the priests of the 
island, and their art appears to claim equal an¬ 
tiquity with the other parts of that cruel system of 
idolatry by which the people have been so long 
oppressed ; and though it has survived the destruc¬ 
tion of the national idolatry, and is still practised 
by many, it is entirely discontinued by the prin¬ 
cipal chiefs in every island, and by all who attend 
to Christian instruction. 
