o had actually entered into the
weapon that inflicted the fatal blow.[176]

[175] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 395; J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._
i. 433, 538 _sqq._

[176] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 395 _sq._

The gods who were thus supposed to afflict human life with sickness and
disease and to bring it to an untimely termination in death were not
always nor perhaps usually the high primaeval deities; often they were
the souls of the dead, who ranked among the domestic divinities
(_oromatuas_). And, like the Maoris,[177] the natives of the Society
Islands are said to have stood in particular fear of the souls of dead
infants, who, angered at their mother for their too early death, took
their revenge by sending sickness on the surviving members of the
family. Hence when a woman was ill-treated by her husband, she would
often threaten to insult the ghost of a dead baby; and this threat, with
the deplorable consequences which it was calculated to entail, seldom
failed to bring the husband to a better frame of mind; or if he happened
to prove recalcitrant, the other members of the family, who might be
involved in the calamity, would intercede and restore peace in the
household. Thus we are told that among these islanders the fear of the
dead supplied in some measure the place of natural affection and
tenderness in softening and humanising the general manners.[178]

[177] See above, p. 49.

[178] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 538 _sq._

Disease and death were also attributed to the malignant charms of
sorcerers, who, hired by an enemy of the sufferer, procured for the
purpose the clipped hair or the spittle of their intended victim, the
flowers or garment he had worn, or any object which had touched his
person. But the real agents who were thought to give effect to the
charms were the minor deities, whom the sorcerer employed to accomplish
his nefarious ends. For this purpose he put the hair or other personal
refuse of the victim in a bag along with the images and symbols of the
petty divinities, and buried the bag and its contents in a hole which he
had dug in the ground. There he left it until, applying his ear to the
hole, he could hear the soul of the sufferer whimpering down below,
which proved that the charm was taking effect. If the intended victim
got wind of these machinations, it was always in his power to render
them abortive, either by sacrificing to the gods or by sending a present
to the so