Offerings

The gods of Mangaia were jealous gods who were angered by neglect. Offerings of food or some substitute were made to placate them. Neither quantity nor quality was demanded. The mere act of giving something constituted a recognition of the official status of the god and an affirmation of respect. Ill luck resulting from neglect of a god was summed up in the saying, "Ua vare te kete o Rua-tama'ine." (The basket of Rua-tamaine was forgotten.)

In the ceremonial fishing in honor of the first-born sons and daughters, offerings of fish were made to the tribal gods on the tribal marae. As the fish were not eaten by the priests, the successful fishermen selected their smallest fish, strung a strip of hau bark through the gills to make a loop, and hung the offering over a notched or branched stick set up in the marae. The unsuccessful fisherman picked out a coral pebble with a hole through it, strung a strip of bark through it, and hung it up like a fish. Gill (12, p. 65) states that libations of chewed kava root were offered to Tane-arua-moana to send an abundance of sprats.

Part of the duty of the keeper of the national godhouse was to feed the gods daily just before sunset. For this purpose, he made an oven (umu) in which he cooked or partly cooked a number of taro. He then took up one in his hand saying, "To taro e Rongo, a kai!" (Your taro, O Rongo, eat!) The taro was then thrown away into the bushes. He offered a taro to Motoro in a similar way and so in turn to all the principal gods in the god-page 179house. In conclusion, he offered a single taro for all the other gods not represented in the godhouse. The gods were supposed to eat the shadow (ata) of the food. The priest, before eating the food and kava taken to him for himself, threw aside a pinch of taro for his god. At all public feasts the gods were fed in the same way as at the godhouse before the allotments were distributed to the people.

When a marae was newly constructed an offering was made to the god. When Ue constructed the Maungaroa marae the only fish he could catch as an offering was a panako avare (sprat?), with which he had to be satisfied. The human heads of the Maputa marae were intended not only as fillings but also as offerings to Tane-ngaki-au.

All the tribal gods were satisfied with offerings of food. Rongo alone had to be served with human flesh. As a famous cannibalistic priest of Tangiia required human flesh for his own consumption and not as a sacrifice on the altar of his god, it is evident that the ika kokoti (cut-up sacrifice) in the mythical distribution by Vatea to Tangiia, in distinction to the human sacrifices that were offered up whole to Rongo, is probably a projection backwards of the cannibalism of the priest of Tangiia.