re always carried to the temple and offered to
the god, who was supposed to have driven them towards the shore.[82]
When the king or the priests imagined that the shark wanted food, they
sallied forth with their attendants, one of whom carried a rope with a
running noose. On coming to a group or crowd of people, they threw the
rope among them, and whoever happened to be taken in the snare, whether
man, woman, or child, was strangled on the spot, the body cut in pieces,
and flung into the sea, to be bolted by the ravenous monsters.[83]
Fishermen sometimes wrapped their dead in red native cloth, and threw
them into the sea to be devoured by the sharks. They thought that the
soul of the deceased would animate the shark which had eaten his body,
and that the sharks would therefore spare the survivors in the event of
a mishap at sea.[84] It was especially stillborn children that were thus
disposed of. The worshipper of the shark would lay the body of the
infant on a mat, and having placed beside it two roots of taro, one of
kava, and a piece of sugar-cane, he would recite some prayers, and then
throw the whole bundle into the sea, fully persuaded that by means of
this offering the transmigration of the soul of the child into the body
of a shark would be effected, and that thenceforth the formidable
monster would be ready to spare such members of the family as might
afterwards be exposed to his attack. In the temples dedicated to sharks
there were priests who, at sunrise and sunset, addressed their prayers
to the image which represented the shark; and they rubbed themselves
constantly with water and salt, which, drying on their skin, made it
appear covered with scales. They also dressed in red cloth, uttered
piercing yells, and leaped over the wall of the sacred enclosure;
moreover they persuaded the islanders that they knew the exact moment
when the children that had been thrown into the sea were transformed
into sharks, and for this discovery they were rewarded by the happy
parents with liberal presents of little pigs, roots of kava, coco-nuts,
and so forth.[85] The priests also professed to be inspired by sharks
and in that condition to foretell future events. Many people accepted
these professions in good faith and contributed to support the
professors by their offerings.[86]

[82] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 90; compare _id._, pp. 129 _sq._

[83] Tyerman and Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 422 _sq._; J. J. Jarves,
_op. c