edgment made to the gods. Prayers were
offered at the temple, and a sumptuous banquet formed part of the
festival. At the close of the festival every one returned to his home,
or to his family temple (_marae_), there to offer special prayers for
the spirits of departed relatives, that they might be liberated from the
_po_, or state of Night, and might either ascend to paradise
("sweet-scented Rohutu") or return to this world by entering into the
body of one of its inhabitants. But "they did not suppose, according to
the generally received doctrine of transmigration, that the spirits who
entered the body of some dweller upon earth, would permanently remain
there, but only come and inspire the person to declare future events, or
execute any other commission from the supernatural beings on whom they
imagined they were constantly dependent."[259]

[259] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 351 _sq._ Compare
J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 502 note^1, 523.

Hence we learn that the spirits of the dead as well as the gods were
believed to be capable of inspiring men and revealing to them the
future. In this, as in other respects, the dead were assimilated to
deities.

CHAPTER VI

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE MARQUESANS

Sec. 1. _The Marquesas Islands_

The Marquesas are an archipelago of eleven or twelve chief islands in
the South Pacific, situated about nine hundred miles to the north-east
of Tahiti. They fall into two groups, which together stretch in a
direction from north-west to south-east, from 8 deg. to 11 deg. of South
latitude. The south-eastern group, of which Hivaoa (Dominica) is the
largest island, was discovered by the Spanish Admiral Alvaro Mendana de
Neyra in 1595, but, so far as appears, it was not again visited by
Europeans until 1774, when Captain Cook touched at the islands on his
second voyage. Curiously enough, the north-westerly group, of which
Nukahiva is the largest and most important island, remained unknown
until 1791, when it was discovered by the American Captain Ingraham, who
named the group the Washington Islands. About a month later, in June
1791, the French navigator Marchand visited the same islands, and in
1797 the first missionary, William Crook, was landed from the missionary
ship _Duff_. The whole archipelago is now known as the Marquesas, a name
which the Spanish Admiral Mendana bestowed on the islands discovered by
him in honour of the Marquess de Canete, V