POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
90 
ing him away from the enclosures into which he 
had broken, was the only punishment allowed to 
be inflicted. 
Keoroeva’s hogs were not the only ones thus 
privileged. The same lenient conduct was ob¬ 
served towards all the sacred pigs, to whatever idol 
they had been offered. 
Tiha , a female idol, they said was also held in 
great veneration by the people of Maui, and 
received nearly the same homage and offerings 
as Keoroeva. 
The people of Ranai, an adjacent island, had/a 
number of idols, but those best known by the 
chiefs with whom I was conversing, were R.aeapua 
and Kaneapua, two large carved stone images, 
representing the deities supposed to preside over 
the sea, and worshipped chiefly by fishermen. 
Mooarii, (king of lizards or alligators,) a shark, 
was also a celebrated marine god, worshipped by 
the inhabitants of Morokai, another island in the 
neighbourhood. The chiefs informed me, that on 
almost every point of land, projecting any distance 
into the sea, a temple was formerly erected for his 
worship. Several kinds of fish arrive in shoals on 
their coast, every year, in their respective seasons. 
The first fish of each kind, taken by the fishermen, 
were always carried to the heiau, and offered to 
their god, whose influence they imagined had 
driven them to their shores. In some remote 
period, perhaps, they had observed the sharks 
chasing or devouring these fish, as they passed 
along among their islands, and from this circum¬ 
stance had been led to deify the monster, sup¬ 
posing themselves indebted to him for the boun¬ 
tiful supplies thus furnished by a gracious Pro¬ 
vidence. 
