Contents

How the Gods were influenced. Placatory offerings. Food offerings. Blood offerings. Ari, the bloodless offering of the racial homeland. Dogs sacrificed to gods. Offerings waved towards gods. Firstfruits offerings. Offerings by travellers to local spirits. Offerings at mortuary memorial. Offerings to dead. Human sacrifice. Cannibalism. Sacrifice for a new house. Human sacrifice in Polynesia, &c. Human sacrifice for a new canoe. For a new fortified village. Mortuary sacrifice. Sacrifices connected with war; with agriculture, &c. Sacrifice of relatives. Development of religion. Images. The Maori no idolater. House-carvings do not represent gods. Certain small images represent gods. Such images used as temporary shrines only. How the indwelling spirit god was consulted. Bones of dead used for a similar purpose. Stone images represent gods of agriculture. Rongo so represented. Anthropomorphic gods a necessity. Maori religion a loose system.