indeed, and the
rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron and
others a king's fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and
concerning which they have some superstitious notions with
respect to good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and
robin-redbreast, giving them the name of _eatua_, and by no
means killing or molesting them; yet they never address a
petition to them, or approach them with any act of adoration."
See J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 224.

[102] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 329 _sq._, 331.

The general name for "god" in the Society Islands, as throughout
Polynesia, was _atua_.[103] The word was also applied, in the expression
_oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_, to the spirits of departed relatives, who
were also worshipped and ranked among the deities.[104] To these we
shall return presently; meantime it may not be out of place to give some
notice of the worship of the other gods, since in the religion of the
Society Islanders, as of other branches of the Polynesian race, it was
closely interwoven with the worship of the dead.

[103] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 333 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 440 _sqq._; E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, pp. 30 _sq._, _s.v._ "atua." Captain Cook and the
first missionaries spelled the word _eatua_ or _eatooa_. See J.
Cook, _Voyages_, i. 221, vi. 149; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 343.

[104] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 324 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 454 _sq._

Sec. 4. _The Temples and Images of the Gods_

The sacred place dedicated to religious worship was called a _morai_,
or, as it is also spelled, a _marai_ or _marae_, which may be translated
"temple," though all such places were uncovered and open to the sky. The
national temples, where the principal idols were deposited, consisted of
large walled enclosures, some of which contained smaller inner courts.
The form was frequently that of a square or a parallelogram, with sides
forty or fifty feet long. The area was paved with flat stones, and two
sides of it were enclosed by a high stone wall, while the front was
protected by a low fence, and within rose in steps or terraces a solid
pyramidical structure built of stone, which usually formed one of the
narrow sides of the area, either at the western or at the eastern end.
These pyramids, which were always truncated so as to form a narrow
platform or ridge on t