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Religious Changes

When the Christian iconoclasts gained their victory over their opponents, the native ceremonial following a victory could not be observed. Through the acceptance of the Christian tenets, a human sacrifice could not be offered to Rongo. Without a human sacrifice, the correct ceremonies for installing a new government could not be conducted on the inland and shore temples of Rongo. Numangatini, by transferring his allegiance to Jehovah, could not carry out his duties to Rongo, for which duties the two offices he held had been created. The peace drums could not be sounded. Hence the high priestly offices of the Inland-high-priest and the Shore-high-priest ceased to function. Though Numangatini bore the double title, the function of publicly interceding with the gods for the welfare of the people and the fertility of food supplies had been automatically transferred to the Tahitian missionary, the foreign priest of Jehovah.

The high office of the Distributor of Food also was shorn of its religious significance. The charms that gave success to the fishing fleets were no longer made, for the patron deity, Mokoiro, was deserted as was Rongo; his priest was displaced by the native missionary from a distant island. Now before the fishing fleet page 80set out, the fishermen bent their knees on the seashore while the missionary, Davida, offered up a Christian prayer for success.

The hereditary priests of the tribal gods also joined the ranks of the unemployed. The expert craftsmen, who carved the gods out of wood and made the special thick bark cloth to clothe them, lost their employment and their status in society. The keeper of the national god house lost his position, for the house was burned to the ground and the gods defiled. The beater of the drum and his family were deprived of their office of making drums and sounding them to usher in peace, for the ritual was abandoned and with it went the gifts of land that pertained to their office. Gods, temples, and ritual were swept away in one fell swoop, and the hereditary offices of three high priests, thirteen tribal priests, and two subsidiary offices disappeared with them.

The food basket of the fish deity, Rua-tama'ine, was no longer hung up near the now-deserted house of the deposed Shore-high-priest. The fishing festivals in honor of first-born sons and first-born daughters could no longer be observed, for they had been accompanied by offerings of fish to the tribal gods. The individual fisherman dropped not a pebble and spoke not a word as he passed the stone shrine of Rua'atu. The avalanche that had swept away his major deities page 81swept away the minor deities as well. He had been taught by the new priest that Jehovah was a jealous god and "Thou shalt serve no other gods but me."

The change from a polytheistic to a monotheistic system made the gods of the father and mother identical. The child's navel cord had to be cut as a physical necessity, but the process was divested of its religious significance. The cord was no longer cut to the tribal god of the father, and the child could no longer boast of the social distinction given by having his cord treated by a vaekai expert. The official cutter of cords joined the ranks of the unemployed. The missionary priest of the one god had supplanted him, and the ritual of admission was changed to the making of the sign of the cross on the infant's forehead with a finger dipped in water.

The new religion required assembly places for its converts, and the large houses of worship of another culture took the place of the stone inclosures that had been defaced and desecrated. The roofed church displaced the open temple, and within its entrance stood the font indicating that admission to the service of the new god was by baptism with water and not by the cutting of the navel cord. The ritual within the new building was conducted by the missionary Davida and his successors. The multiple duties that had been carried out on various temples by a number of priests of rank page 82and power were dispensed with, and the new forms were the monopoly of a single missionary. Ancient offices that had been inherited from illustrious ancestors were swept away, and a visiting missionary, appointed by the white representatives of the London Missionary Society, took their place. Sic transit gloria Mangaiae.

A few more changes took place as a direct result of the new religion. Prayers and hymns supplanted the chants and incantations of the old religion. The ancient ritual had formed what may be termed the immaterial property of the priestly families. It had been of immense value to them but, as its value disappeared, the ancient chants were no longer taught and were soon forgotten.

The Bible was translated into the Rarotongan dialect, and one of the white missionaries stated with pride, "The Bible is read, studied, and quoted by the Polynesians of today in place of the heathen songs and myths of bygone ages." ^* The learned natives, termed 'are korero, ceased to transmit orally the Mangaian myths, legends, and traditions, for they had ceased to be of academic value. What has filtered through are woefully attenuated versions often distorted to conform more closely to the Biblical stories page 83with which the minds of native informants had become saturated.

The Mangaian version of the future state consisted of an underworld for the souls of those who died an ordinary death and a special region in the heavens, termed Tai'iria, for those who died in battle. In the underworld, an ogress named Miru received captured souls and cooked them in an oven, not as punishment for evil in this world but simply because she was a female cannibal. It was easy for the Mangaians to accept the new theory of a hell in the underworld with an everlasting fire to punish the nonconverted. A heaven in the upper spaces as a reward for the Christians supplanted the Tai'iria of the favored warriors.

The frequent human sacrifices were replaced by the one supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the symbolism of the holy sacrament struck a reminiscent chord.

The teaching that Jehovah created the world in six days and the subsequent taboo of every seventh day as a day of rest were accepted literally by the Mangaians. The institution of the Sabbath led to the abandonment of the annual lunar cycle with months determined by the rising of the new moon with each night named after the phases of the moon. Its place was taken by the Christian solar year divided into twelve calendar months with their subdivision into weeks, each culminating in a sacred Sabbath. The taboo of the Sab-page 84bath was such that all the food for the Sabbath was cooked on the preceding Saturday. All work on the Sabbath was tabooed, and even walking to other villages on Sunday was punished by a fine of five dollars.