his professional
services were more valuable. In order to avoid the danger of being thus
bewitched through the refuse of their persons, the Tahitians used
scrupulously to burn or bury their shorn hair, lest it should fall into
the hands of enchanters.[255]

[255] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 363-370.

It is possible that some even of the great national gods were no more
than ghosts of dead men, whose human origin was forgotten. There is some
reason for supposing that this was true of Hiro, the god of thieves. On
the one hand, this deity was reputed to be the son of the great god
Oro;[256] and when a mother desired her child to grow up a clever thief,
she repaired to a temple, where the priest, on receipt of the requisite
offerings, caught the spirit of the god in a snare and infused it into
the infant, thus ensuring the future proficiency of the infant in the
arts of theft and robbery.[257] Yet, in spite of these claims to
divinity, there are some grounds for thinking that Hiro was himself
originally no better than a thief and a robber. He is said to have been
a native of Raiatea, from whose sacrilegious fingers not even the
temples and altars of the gods were safe. His skull was shown in a large
temple of his own construction in that island down to the early years of
the nineteenth century. His hair, too, was stuffed into the image of his
reputed father, the god Oro, and perished when that image was committed
to the flames by the early converts to Christianity.[258]

[256] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iii. 112, 125.

[257] J. Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the
South Sea Islands_, pp. 466 _sq._

[258] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 254 _sq._ As to
Hiro, the god of thieves, see also J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._
i. 447-449.

Once a year the Society Islanders celebrated a festival accompanied by
rites, of which one has been compared to the Roman Catholic custom of
performing a mass for the benefit of souls in purgatory. The festival
was called "the ripening of the year," and the time for its observance
was determined by the blossoming of reeds. It was regularly observed in
the island of Huahine, and vast multitudes assembled to take part in it.
As a rule, only men engaged in the pagan festivals, but at this
particular one women and children were also present, though they were
not allowed to enter the sacred enclosure. The celebration was regarded
as a kind of annual acknowl