Connecticut western news., 1909-04-22
WORSHIP THE SHARKS
South Sea Islanders Fear Them
 as the Abode of Ghosts.
HOLD SOULS OF THEIR DEAD,
The Natives Offer Gifts and Food, Sometimes Human, to Sppease the Man Eaters-The Hawaiians Used to Feed Their Dead to the Monsters.

In view of the wide distribution of sharks and their strength and ferocity. qualities which appealed to the savage mind, 1t is not strange that the cult of shark worship should have arisen. This worship is especially common In the south seas. where sharks are very nu- merous, says the Detroit Free Press.
 In the Solomon islands living sacred objects are chiefly sharks, aUlgators, snakes, etc. Sharks are Ill all these is- ......>>3,s Tery crtcn thought to Ee the abode of ghosts, as natives will at times before their death announce that they will appear as sharks. Afterward any shark remarkable for size or color which is observed to haunt a certain shore or rock Is taken to be some ones ghost, and the name of the deceased Is given to it.
 Such q one was Sautahimatawa at Ulawa, dreaded man eater, to which offerings of porpoise teeth were made. At Saa certain food, such as cocoanuts from certain trees. Is reserved to feed such a ghost shark, and there are cer- tain men of whom 1t is known that after death they will be in sharks. These, therefore, are allowed to eat such food in the sacred place. In Saa and Ulawa If a sacred shark had at tempted to seize a man and he had escaped the people would be so mu"h afraid of the sharks anger that they would throw the man back in the se2 to be drowned. These sharks also were thought to aid in catching the bonito. for taking which supernatural power was necessary.
 In the Banks islands a shark may be tangaroa, sort of familiar spirit CT the abode of one. Some years ago Manurwar, son of Mala, the chief man in Vanua Lava, had such shark. fln had given money to a Manwo man to send 1t to him. It was very tame and would come up to him when he went down to the beach at Nawono and follow along in the surf as he walked along the shore. In the New Hebrides some men have the power, the natives believe, of changing themselves into sharks.
 The Samoan native believed that his gods appeared in some visible incar- nation, and the particular thing in which 1t was in the habit of appear ing was to him an object of venera- tion. Many worshiped the shark in this way, and while they would freely partake of the gods of others they felt that death would be the penalty should they eat their own god. The god was supposed to avenge the in suit by taking up his abode in the offenders body and causing to gen crate there the very thing which he had eaten until 1t produced death. In one village Taema, the war god, was present in a bundle of sharks teeth. These curiosities were done up in piece of native cloth and consulted be- fore going to battle. If the bundle 1 felt heavy that was a bad omen, but if light the sign was good, and off they went to the fight.
 In the Fiji islands. Viavia and other gods claim the shark as their abode, and their devotees must never eat of that fish, for if they did they would be partaking of the god himself.
 It was in the Hawaiian Islands, how ever. that shark worship reached its greatest perfection. Its worship was quite common on the islands, each one having q special shark as his ances tral god The worship of sharks was due largely to the fact that the beliet in the transmigratiOn of souls is quite general amsng the Polynesians. and the Hawaiians would feed their dead to the sharks under the suppositiOr that in this way the soul of the dead would enter the sharks and so animate the latter as to incline them to respect the bodies of the living.
 Several of the African coast tribes vorckip tln shark. Three or four times in the year t:,ey celebrate the festiva of the shark. which Is done in this wise: They all POW out in their boats to the middle of the river, where they invoke, with the stra1gest ceremonies the protection of the great shark. They offer to him poultry and goats in Crdel to satisfy his sacred appetite. But this is nothing. An infant is every yea sacrificed to the monster. which ha: been feted and nourished for the sac rifice from its birth to the age of ten On the day of the fete it is bound to ; post Cn d sandy point at low water As the tide rises the child may ute cries of tc-r0r, but they are of nr avail, as it is abandoned to the waves and the sharks soon arrive to fini,h it agony ard thus permit it to enter int heaven.
 The Polynesians have an ancient ia ble treating of the flight of Ina. th daughter of Vaitoringa and Ngactna to the sacred isle. After the sol dumped her at the edge of Ahe break CTS with such disastrous results to il self from the angry princess the latte summoned the shark and by its hel
 succeeded i'll reaching the sacred i
 land. Feeling thirsty during the voy
 age. Ina cracked a cocoanut on tn
 sharks forehead. and this accounts fo
 the bump now found on the forehea