THE HOSTS OF GODS INVOKED. 281 
with them, and whose favour they desired. In 
order to propitiate the gods, a human sacrifice was 
offered. The work was begun, and the house 
must be finished in one day, on which day every 
individual must abstain from all kinds of food, no 
canoe must be launched, no fire lighted, while the 
work was in progress, and at the foot of the central 
pillar the body of a man offered in sacrifice was de¬ 
posited. Into this house the toos , or images of the 
spirits, were sometimes taken; but although the 
priest always offered his prayer here, the gods were 
usually left in their sacred temples, and only a 
feather was taken from their images, which they 
supposed to be endowed with all their power. 
The last religious ceremony, prior to the com¬ 
mencement of conflict, was the haumanava. Slight 
temples were erected in the sacred canoes of Oro, 
and the other gods. In these, the red feathers 
taken from the idols were deposited; they were 
called manntahi no Tane, &c. or single bird of 
Tane; all the gods were supposed to be present, 
having been brought from their elysian abodes by 
the prayers of the priests. There was a kind of 
intermediate race of beings, between men and 
gods, who were employed as messengers, to fetch 
the latter in cases of emergency; each god had his 
own messenger, hovering about the habitations of 
men, in the shape of a bird or a shark. When the 
priest by prayers sought the aid of these gods, they 
imagined that the messenger set off to the place of 
the god’s abode, somewhere in fare papa , near 
“ the foundation of the world,” and made the 
usual declaration —Mai haere i te ao , e tamae ti te 
ao , “ Come to the world, or state of light, there is 
war in the world.” 
The sacred feathers being deposited in the tern- 
