A Person In The
House Told Us They Were Eatua No Te Toutou, Gods Of The Servants Or
Slaves.
I doubt if this be sufficient to conclude that they pay them divine
worship, and that the servants or slaves are not allowed the same gods as
men of more elevated rank; I never heard that Tupia made any such
distinction, or that they worshipped any visible thing whatever.
Besides,
these were the first wooden gods we had seen in any of the isles; and all
the authority we had for their being such, was the bare word of perhaps a
superstitious person, and whom, too, we were liable to misunderstand. It
must be allowed that the people of this isle are in general more
superstitious than at Otaheite. At the first visit I made the chief after
our arrival, he desired I would not suffer any of my people to shoot herons
and wood-peckers; birds as sacred with them as robin-red-breasts, swallows,
&c. are with many old women in England. Tupia, who was a priest, and well
acquainted with their religion, customs, traditions, &c. paid little or no
regard to these birds. I mention this, because some amongst us were of
opinion that these birds are their Eatuas, or gods. We indeed fell
into this opinion when I was here in 1769, and into some others still more
absurd, which we had undoubtedly adopted, if Tupia had not undeceived us. A
man of his knowledge and understanding we have not since met with, and
consequently have added nothing to his account of their religion but
superstitious notions.[2]
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