PUBLIC EXPOSURE OF PRIESTCRAFT. 375 
On an occasion, of more recent date, the 
god and the prophet were not treated with quite 
so much respect, but were rather rudely handled. 
The natives of Rurutu having determined to 
renounce idolatry, it was proposed by the native 
teachers that the people should meet together at 
the sacred enclosure, near the idol temple, where 
both sexes would unitedly partake of those kinds 
of food which had heretofore been regarded as 
sacred, and the eating of which by any female, 
especially in such a place, the gods would have 
punished with death. 
At a previous meeting, Auura, one of the chiefs, 
had told a priest, who pretended to be inspired, 
that he was the very foundation of the deceit, and 
that he should never deceive them again. The 
priests, however, appeared at the appointed meet¬ 
ing ; and one of them, pretending to be inspired, 
began denouncing, in the name of his god, the 
most awful punishment upon those that had 
violated the sacred place. One or two of the 
natives of Raiatea went up to him, and told him 
to desist, and not attempt to deceive them any 
longer, that the people would not tolerate their 
imposition. The priest answered, that it was the 
god that was within him, and that he was the god. 
When uruhia, (under the inspiration of the spirit,) 
the priest was always considered as sacred as the 
god, and was called, during this period, atua , god, 
though at other times only denominated taura , or 
priest. Finding him determined to persist in his 
imprecations, one of the Christian boatmen from 
Raiatea said, “ If the god is in, we will try and 
pinch, or twist, him out.” Immediately seizing the 
priest, who already began to shew symptoms of 
violent convulsive muscular action, they prevented 
