The American Antiquarian And Oriental Journal Vol 21 PDF Download

Excerpt from The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, Vol. 7: January-November, 1885 The Polynesian reverence for the gods extended to the per formance of certain external rites alone. The consciousness of sin and the demands of a moral law seem hardly to have been present to their minds. Religion was a bargain between man and the higher powers. The gods were virtually told: Give us food, health, victory, and we will reward you with rich o erings; but no service, no pay. Hence, when their plans miscarried they hurled maledictions at their gods, and broke their images or exchanged them for others. The greater power of the white men was ascribed to the superiority of their gods, a fact which contributed not a little to their ready acceptance of Christianity. They had many idols, but these were not regarded as the gods themselves, only as their more or less temporary abode; there fore to destroy an image did the god no bodily harm, but sim ply turned him out of doors. It was common to erect in the villages, especially near burial places, houses which were devoted to the service of the gods. In New Zealand sacred groves, in which were the graves of the chiefs, took their places. The character of the priesthood differed somewhat on the various groups. In Samoa the o fice belonged to a particular} family, descending from father to son. It was also hereditary in New Zealand. In Tonga any one who was inspired by the gods might become a priest, except the chiefs, who were themselves gods; still, these not infrequently employed priests. The duties of the priests were to present offerings and prayers, to declare the will of the gods as revealed by dreams or otherwise, to lay or remove tabu, to decide upon war, and to practice magic arts for the destruction of enemies or the restoration of the sick. Their persons were sacred, and their in uence very great. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."