host may naturally develop either
into a god or into a devil.

[251] In confirmation of my conjecture that the missionaries
mistook a general name (_tee_, otherwise spelled _tii_) for the
name of a particular demon, I may point out that the naturalist
J. R. Forster before them seems to have fallen into precisely
the same mistake with regard to another general name for
departed spirits (_oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_). Thus he writes:
"Besides these divinities of the second class, there are others
of a still inferior rank, and though called _Eatooas_, are no
more than what the Greek or Roman mythologists would have called
_Genii_, or _Dii minorum gentium_: one of them, called
_Orometooa_, is of a malignant disposition, resides chiefly near
the _Marais_ and _Toopapous_ (places of burial) and in or near
the boxes, or little chests, including the heads of their
deceased friends, each of which, on that account, is called
_Te-wharre no te Orometooa_, the house of the evil genius
_Orometooa_, The people at Taheitee are of opinion, that if
their priests invoke this evil genius, he will kill, by a sudden
death, the person on whom they intend to bring down the
vengeance of this divinity." See J. R. Forster, _Observations
made during a Voyage round the World_, pp. 541 _sq._ In this
passage we can hardly doubt that "this evil genius," Orometooa,
is simply the _oramatuas_ or _oromatuas_, the spirits of the
dead, by means of whom sorcerers were supposed to injure or
destroy any one at whom they or their employers had a grudge.
See above, p. 299, and below, pp. 323 _sqq._

It is to be feared that in the case of Tahitian ghosts the course of
spiritual evolution was rather in the direction of devilry than of
deity. At least this conclusion seems forced on us by the account which
William Ellis, perhaps our best authority on Tahitian religion, gives of
the character of these worshipful beings. I will reproduce it in his own
words.

"The objects of worship among the Tahitians, next to the _atua_ or gods,
were the _oramatuas tiis_ or spirits. These were supposed to reside in
the _po_, or world of night, and were never invoked but by wizards or
sorcerers, who implored their aid for the destruction of an enemy, or
the injury of some person whom they were hired to destroy. They were
considered a different order of beings from the gods, a kind of