From Darkness to Light in Polynesia: With Illustrative Clan Songs

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Religious tract society, 1894 - 383 pages
Missionary's account of Cook Islands history up to 1894.
 

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Page 362 - And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Page 334 - ... The terms given to the vanquished were that they should each receive a taro-patch from their conquerors, and for the future live in the Christian village, and give up their heathen practices. Forty-eight years have since elapsed ; and the peace then made has never been disturbed. Tereavai afterwards became a useful deacon of the church at Tamarua, and an eloquent builder-up of the faith he had striven to destroy. From his own lips I learnt that he provoked the fight, in order that his name might...
Page 351 - ... After all, the great point is to give to the natives the entire New Testament, the Psalms and Proverbs, with Genesis, Job, and Isaiah. The lesson of my missionary life is this : I would give to every race, if practicable, the entire Bible. But if this may not be, I would omit as little as possible. ... At first the heroic portions of the Scriptures tell most upon a -warrior race emerging into the light ; then the miracles and parables of the New Testament captivate. But as the spiritual life...
Page 8 - ... great facilities for studying the natives themselves and their traditions. I found that they had two sets of traditions and songs — one referring to their gods (of these you have heard a specimen this evening) and to the supposed experiences of men after death ; another relating veritable history. In such researches we cannot be too careful to distinguish history from myth. But when we find hostile clans in their epics giving substantially the same account of the past, the most sceptical must...
Page 341 - September, 1865, nearly eighty years of age. He was emphatically a good man, ready for every good word and work. He was never absent from his place in the adult Bible-class or in church, except when ill. During the last two years of his life he became childish ; yet I could nearly always fix his attention for a few minutes by referring to the interests of his soul. The last words I heard from his lips a few days before his death were, "I am dying; but I am in God's hands. Jesus alone is the Way,...
Page 168 - AN ill-looking but brave warrior of the cannibal tribe of Ruanae, named Vete, fell violently in love with a pretty girl called Tanuau, who repelled his advances and foolishly reviled him for his ugliness. His only thought now was to be revenged for this unpardonable insult. He could not kill her, as she wisely kept close to the encampment of Mautara. After some months Tanuau sickened and died. The corpse was conveyed across the island to be let down the chasm of Baupa, the usual burying-place of...
Page 347 - Lifting up the sacred volnme before the entire congregation, he concluded in these words : " This is my resolve : the dust shall never cover my Bible, the moths shall never eat it, the mildew shall never rot it.
Page 369 - Going, it might be only a bit of cooked taro ; on coming back it must be an entire fish. If nothing whatever had been obtained, a white coral pebble should be put in the basket instead. Ruatamaine was a very exacting divinity : if the accustomed offering was omitted, no success in fishing could be expected.
Page 380 - The lex talionis, or law of blood revenge, was one of the principal reasons why the South Sea Islanders were rapidly degenerating when Christianity arrested their downward progress. In order that the duty of revenge might not be forgotten, it was customary to make tattoo marks on the throat and arms. If the person or persons escaped during the offended man's lifetime, he gave the same injunctions to his children at his death : thus it was handed down from generation to generation, until the lust...
Page 243 - Mourua took his new name — the name by which everybody on Mangaia knows him — Kavoro — ie ' skin and bones ' — on account of the death of his mother, who wasted away to a skeleton. To the great English navigator he appeared to be a very docile; agreeable fellow. His real character will appear by the following anecdote : Mourua had a sister named Teao, who married Moenga, a member of the very tribe who handled him so roughly on the mountain ridge. The head-quarters of that tribe were at the...

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