The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-08-27

quiry into any case Of stealing, or other concealed
matter, had "a difficulty III finding out the cul-
prit, they would make all involved swear that
they Were innocent. In swearing before the
chiefs, the suspected parties laid IA handful Of
grass on the stone, or whatever 1t was, which
was supposed to be the representative of the
village god, and, laying their hand ON it, would
say, .. In the presence of our chiefs now assem-
BLEED, | lay my hand ON the stone. If | stole the
thing may | speedily die" This was a common
mode OF swearing. The meaning Of the grass
was a silent additional inlrecatiOn, that his
family might all Gie, and that grass might grow
over their habitation. If all swure, and the Gull
prit was still undiscovered the chiefs then wound
up the affair by committing the case to the village
god, and sulemnly invoking him To mark out for
speedy destruction the guilty mischief-maker
But, instead OF appealing 10 the chiefs, and
calling for an oath, many were contented with
their own individual schemes and IL precautions,
u brighten thieves and prevent stealing. When
a man went To his plantation and SAW that some
cocoa-nuts. or a bunch of bananas, had been
stolen, he would stand and shout at the top of
his voice two or three times. '. May FIRE blast the
eyes of the person who has stolen nv bananas,
May fire burn out his eyes and the eyes of his
god too :" This rang throughout the adjacent
plantations. and made the thief tremhle. They
dreaded such uttered imprecations. Others
cursed more privately when a thing was stolen.
as we may suppose the mother of Micah did
(Judges xvii. y. In common disputes also,
affecting the veracity of each other, it was Gus
tonary for the one To say 10 the other, Touch
your eyes, IT what you say is true" IF he touched
his eyes, the dispute was settled. IL was as if
he had said, - May | be cursed with blindness if
it is not true what | say Or the doubter
would say to his opponent, - Who will eat you
Say the Name of your god lie whose word
was doubted would then name the household
god of his family, as much as to say, May god
so-and-So destroy me. if what [ have said is not
true Or more expressive course still, of TAX
ing a stick and digging a hole in the ground,
which was as if he said. May | be buried i'm
mediarely if what say is not true But there
was another class OF curses, which were also
feared. and formed a powerful check on stealing,
especially from plantations and fruit-trees. viz,
the silent hieroglyphic taboo, or tapui %(taIooe),
as they called it OF this there was II great varie-
ty. and the following are Il specimen -
/. The Se0-pike tdbO0.-If "a man wished that
a sea-pike might run into the body of the person
VIII" attempted to steal. say. his bread-fruits, he
would plat some cocoa-nut leaflets in the form
of a sea-pike, and suspend it from one or more
of the trees which he wished to protect. Any
ordinary thief would be terrified to touch a tree
from which this was suspended. He would ex-
pect that the next time he went to the sea. a fish,
of the said description, would dart up, and NOR
tally wound him.
=. The 1rhite shark taboo was another object of
terror to a thief. This was done by plating a
leaf in the form of IL shark, adding
HN' 1899
1t was tantamOunt To an expressed imprecatinn,
that the thief might be devoured by the white
shark the next time he went TO fish.
3. The CrOSs-stick tabOo.-This was a piece of
any sort Of stick suspended horizontally from
the tree. 1t expressed the wish of the owner of
the tree, that any thief touching it might have
a disease running right across his body, and re-
manning fixed ;here till he died.
From these few illustrations, it will be OBJ
that Samoa formed no exception to the
remarkably widespread system of superstitious
taboo and the extent TO which it preserved hon
and order among n heather people will be
readily imagined. At the present day. the belief
in the power Of These rude hieroglyphics is not
Yet eradicated. In passing along. you still see
something with streamers flying, dangling from
a tree in one place a basket suspended in an
other, and some reeds erect in IL third. The
too, and dying hours of some hardened
thief still bring out confessions of his guilt.
Facts such as these which have just been emu
still further show the %cruelties of the
reign of superstition, and exhibit, in striking
contrast, the better spirit and the Turer precei.ts
by that blessed volume which is now re-
ceived, read. and rractiSed by many in Samoa.
In days of heatheniSm, there was no good rem
dered for evil there, and the only prayers tor
injurers and enemies were curses Tor their hurt
and desfructinn.