5 4 °
RELIGION:
R E M A R K S o n ' t h e •
imagined a Coexifting material hard fubilance neceffary, which they-
call O -T e - p a p .a a rock. Thefe procreated O -H e e n a the
goddefs who created the moon, and prefides in the black clon'd
which appears in this' luminary; . T e-whe;t Tod-m a .-TARAi-
the creator o f the liars; O o m a r r E.eo the God and Creator
of the Seas.; and O r r e - orre * who is the God o f the Winds..
But the lea, is under the direbtion o f 13 Divinities, who ali have
fome peculiar employment, as their name often fee-ms. to imply:,
their names are the following; 1 . O o r .qo- ii A d d o o , 2. TAMA'ooEE,,
3. T a - a p e s , 4: A too- areeono; 3. T a n k e a , 6. T ahou-m e—
OSSA, 7. OTA-JVIA-Otf-WE, "f 8, OxVilbl, J 9. O-WHATTA,.
16. T a -hooa, II. -Teoo-T -e iy a , § 14. Om a -hooroo,
13. O-wh addoo. The great God T aroa- t ?e a i - eto6moo lives,
in the fun, and is reprefented as a man, who has fine hair, reaching,
down to the very ground'; he is thought to be the caufe b f the
earthquakes, in which cafe the natives call him O-Maouwe, and
he is likewife the creator of the fun ; a rude reprefentation o f this:
deity, under the attribute o f O-Maouwe, was obferved by Captain-
Cook, in 1769, when he made the tour o f Taheitee in a boat: i t
was * §
* Qrree fignifies. wind". , •- . * ,
-f- Ma-6u fignifies a {hark.
\ Onuhai is called a Hone or pebble»
§ H'eiya is a fifh or a fail of a canoe*
r i Ui M A N S P E C I E S. 541.
was formed, of balket-work, and covered with black:and white religion-
feathers. This is the only instance of a figure or~reprefentation of
their divinities which I ever heard: o f ; and Capt. Cook does- not.
mention that any refpeft Or reverence-was paid to this rude figure:
e f Mtioiiwe. The natives have a tradition that the great. D e ity
procreated the inferior divinities, each o f whom created the part o f
the world allotted to his peculiar care : one the leas,,another the'
moon, the liars,, the birds, fifties, &c. 8sc. O-Maouwe created.
the fun, and-then took the immenfe rock O-Te-papa, his wife, and.
dragged her from Well to Eaft through the feas : when the ifl.es,.
which the natives now inhabit, were broken o ff; . after which. he
left this great land to the.Eaft, where it Hill exifts.. The-care and
government of each ifland was committed to the inferior divinities,
enumerated b e f o r e .T h e god ‘Tine, . is not more particularly ad-
dreffecLthan the reft o f his brother divinities, nor is he fuppofed to
take a greater-part in the affairs o f mankind, * except at Huaheine,
which place is under his peculiar infpedtion, and where he is ’wor-
lhipped as the tutelar'divinity of that country. Befides thefe divinities
o f the feCond clafs, there. are others o f a ftill inferior rank,,
and though called E-aiooas, . are no more than what the Greek or, '
Roman Mythologifts would have called. Genii, or D i i Minorum
j • 6 ■ ••• - ; Gentium:
* Hawkëfworth, vol ii-. p. 239»