pirits of deceased relations (_oramatuas tiis_) might
be measured by the size of their images; for whereas the images of the
gods were six or eight feet long, those of the spirits were not more
than so many inches.[253] But while these malignant and irritable
spirits--the souls of dead fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and
children--resided generally either in their little images or in their
skulls, they were not strictly confined to these material vehicles; they
resorted occasionally to the shells from the seashore, especially to a
beautiful kind of murex, the _Murex ramoces_. These shells were kept by
the sorcerers, and the peculiar singing or humming sound that may be
heard when the valve is applied to the ear was imagined to proceed from
the demon in the shell.[254]

[253] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 337.

[254] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 363.

It was these malignant and dangerous demons whom the sorcerer employed
as his agents to execute his fell purposes. But to effect them he had to
secure something connected with the body of his intended victim, it
might be the parings of his nails, a lock of his hair, his spittle or
other bodily secretions, or else a portion of the food which he was
about to eat. Over this material substance, whatever it was, the
sorcerer recited his incantations and performed his magical rites either
in his own house or in his private temple (_marae_). The result was
believed to be that the demon entered into the substance, and through it
passed into the body of the man at whom the enchanter aimed his elfish
darts. The wretched sufferer experienced the acutest agonies; his
distortions were frightful to witness; his eyes seemed starting from his
head; he foamed at the mouth; he lay writhing in anguish on the ground;
in short, to adopt the native expression, he was torn by the evil
spirit. Yet his case was not hopeless; the demon could be mollified by a
bribe, or defeated by the intervention of a more powerful demon. Hence,
when any one was believed to be suffering from the incantations of a
sorcerer, if he or his friends were rich enough they engaged another
sorcerer for a fee to counteract the spells of the first and so to
restore the health of the invalid. It was generally supposed that the
efforts of the second sorcerer would be crowned with success if only the
demon whom he employed were equally powerful with that at the command of
his rival, and if the presents which he received for