A SKETCH OF THE SAMOAN MISSION—THE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS DETERMINES TO
VISIT THE NAVIGATOR’S ISLES—PRELIMINARY WORK IN THE HERVEY
GROUP—DISCOVERY OF RAROTONGA—CONVERSION OF ITS PEOPLE—THEY HELP WILLIAMS
TO BUILD A SHIP WHICH SHALL CONVEY HIM TO SAMOA—VISIT TONGA—PROCEED TO
SAMOA—OVERTHROW OF IDOLATRY—REVERENCE FOR OLD MATS—WILLIAMS’S GRAVE AT
APIA.
When I first landed in Fiji in 1875, nothing amazed me so much as the
wonderful work which has there been done by the Wesleyan Mission—a work
of which the outside world literally knew nothing. Now that my
wanderings have led me further east, I see that different regiments of
the great Christian army have each been doing their part in forwarding
their Master’s cause; and so strangely interesting are many details of
their work, which I have now heard for the first time, that I think I
cannot do better than note them down, feeling quite convinced that you
will find them as new and as full of interest as I myself have done.
The extraordinary success of the South Sea missions is certainly to be
attributed in a great measure to that triumph of common-sense which made
the various societies agree, almost at the outset, in a great measure to
divide the field of labour, and so endeavour to avoid distracting the
minds of the simple islanders, by allowing them to perceive that their
teachers could possibly disagree among themselves.
In the North Pacific some good working power has doubtless been lost by
the establishment in the Sandwich Isles of both an English Episcopal
Mission and American Congregationalists. The Dowager Queen Emma is a
stanch adherent of the English Church, as was also her husband, who
himself translated the prayer-book into the Hawaiian language. But the
majority of the people there (as throughout Polynesia) find the less
ceremonious forms of religious observance better adapted to their needs.
So the American Board of Foreign Missions, which commenced its work in
1820, met with such success, that within half a century the whole group
had been evangelised, and a self-supporting native Church, with native
pastors, established. It is now extending its operations among the
islands in the north-western part of the Pacific, between the equator
and Japan. These are collectively described as Micronesia, on account of
their extremely small size, the majority being simply low atolls, few of
which rise more than ten feet above the level of the ocean.
The south-western isles of the Pacific, which come under the general
name of Melanesia, are chiefly in the hands of the English Church
Societies, and of the Presbyterian Mission.
The countless large groups which occupy the south-east of the ocean, and
are generally described as Polynesia, have been almost entirely
Christianised by the London and Wesleyan Missions.
Shortly after Captain Cook’s discoveries had first drawn attention to
the existence of these unexplored regions, the London Mission, which
includes men of all the evangelical sects, began its work by sending men
to the Marquesas, the Society Isles (Tahiti and Raiatea), and to Tonga.
Of the sad fate which befell the first Tongan missionaries, I have
already spoken. Three were murdered, and the rest compelled to fly for
their lives. Some years later, the Wesleyan Mission ventured to reoccupy
the field, when they found the people somewhat penitent. They were able
to establish themselves under the protection of some friendly chiefs,
and ere long had the satisfaction of knowing that Christianity was
striking firm deep roots in the soil which at first seemed so
unpromising.
Truly marvellous has been the growth of the tree thus watered by the
blood of those brave pioneers. Eighty years have elapsed since their
martyrdom, at which time there was not one isle in the whole Pacific
which was not steeped in debasing heathenism and cruel wars. Now,
throughout Polynesia, idolatry is a thing of the past; none of the
present generation have even seen the wood and stone gods of their
fathers: infanticide and murder are probably less common than in Europe,
and a reverent obedience to all Christian precepts a good deal more
apparent than in civilised countries. On upwards of 300 isles (where in
the early half of this century no boat could have touched without
imminent danger), Christianity of a really practical sort now reigns.
Upwards of a quarter of a million persons show their faith in its
requirements by utterly changed lives, and at least 60,000 of these are
regular communicants. The casual traveller, who, a few years ago, would
almost inevitably have been killed had he ventured to land, is now
chiefly in danger of asserting that the natives have been trained to be
religious overmuch,—their “innocent nature” cramped; and so the chances
are, that without intending to do mischief, he throws his influence of
the moment into the opposite scale, and is perhaps the source of more
evil than he dreams of.
Having not only succeeded in transforming the savage Tongans into
earnest Christians, but also into most zealous and capable teachers, the
Wesleyan missionaries next made their way to Fiji, where their success
was still more wonderful, and a race of most cruel cannibals has become
one of the gentlest on earth.[22]
About the same time the Samoan Isles, which were then an almost unknown
group, were sought out by the Rev. John Williams of the London Mission,
one of the boldest and most successful of the early pioneers. He began
his work at Raiatea, in the year 1817, with such success, that when, in
1821, an opportunity presented itself of visiting the Hervey Isles (of
which nothing was known, except that such a group existed), several
converts from Raiatea volunteered to go there as pioneers. They were
accordingly landed on the isle of Aitutaki,[23] the very name of which
might have suggested encouragement. There they were favourably received
by Tamatoa, the chief, and his people. Nevertheless, as it was well
known that these were all cannibals, and constantly at war one with
another, it was not without deep anxiety that Mr Williams left the
teachers to begin the mission. When, however, in the following year, he
returned to the group, in company with Mr Bourne, they were received
with the glad tidings that the people of Aitutaki had all, without
exception, abjured idolatry, burnt their _marais_, and begun to worship
the Saviour; that they had built a large church, and rigidly hallowed
the Sabbath. On the following day nearly 2000 of these now tamed savages
assembled on the shore, and all knelt together in solemn prayer to the
Christian’s God; after which they brought thirty of their discarded
idols, and carried them on board the mission-ship, that the men of other
isles, beholding them, might know that they were no gods, but only
worthless images, and so might be led to discard their own.
This was a satisfactory beginning for one year’s work; and a great
promise for the future lay in the fact that among the converts were six
natives from the then unknown isle of Rarotonga, who earnestly prayed
that teachers might be sent to their brethren, and that they themselves
might be allowed to accompany them. The men of Aitutaki declared the
Rarotongans to be most ferocious cannibals, and horribly treacherous,
and were sorely alarmed for the safety of any teachers who should
venture among them. Nevertheless it was agreed that the opportunity was
one not to be lost. Accordingly the mission-ship sailed in search of
Rarotonga. For eight days they sought in vain, but failed to discover
it.
At last they found themselves off an isle which proved to be Mangaia.
There three brave Tahitian teachers, two of whom were accompanied by
their wives, volunteered to land and endeavour to establish a footing
among the people. These, however, proved such unmitigated savages that
the attempt was frustrated. Though the chiefs had invited the teachers
to land, their doing so was the signal for brutal ill-treatment of both
men and women. All their little property was at once stolen, and they
only escaped with their lives by swimming back to the ship through the
surf.
A few months later another attempt was made to commence a mission in the
Hervey Isles. Once more the mission-ship returned to Mangaia, and two
unmarried teachers, Davida and Tiere, leaped into the sea and swam to
the shore, taking nothing with them but the cloth they wore, and a
portion of the New Testament in Tahitian, which was carefully wrapped up
and tied on their heads. Crowds had assembled on the shore, and one
warrior rushed at them with a long spear, but the lunge was arrested by
the king himself, who received them kindly, and at once led them to his
own seaside temple, in order that the people might consider their
persons sacred. This they were inclined to do; for soon after their
cruel treatment of the first teachers, a terrible epidemic had broken
out in the isle, which had carried off young and old, chiefs and
peasants. Supposing this to be a punishment sent by the God of those
strangers, they collected all the property they had stolen from them,
the calico dresses torn off the women, and the strips into which they
had torn the Bibles to make ornaments for their hair at the midnight
dances in honour of the god Tane. All these things they threw into a
chasm in the mountains into which they were in the habit of casting
their dead, and made solemn vows to the unknown God that if His servants
returned to their isle they should be well cared for. So now they
prepared a feast for the two bold swimmers, and allowed them to settle
among them in peace.
Meanwhile Mr Williams had continued the search for Rarotonga, and had
touched at the isles of Atiu, Mauke, and Mitiaro. The story of that
voyage is more thrilling than any romance. It was as if a flash of
electric light had suddenly illumined the thick darkness. What that
darkness was you may infer from the fact that only four years previously
all these islands had been decimated by war and cannibalism. The fierce
people of Mitiaro had slain and eaten several canoe-loads of the men of
Atiu, whose kinsfolk, determined to avenge them, came over in force, and
by treachery gained access to the stronghold of the men of Mitiaro. A
fearful massacre ensued, and to this day the oven is shown into which
men and women and helpless infants were thrown alive to be cooked; the
only mercy shown was when the brains of the children were dashed on the
stones, and so they were killed ere being cast into the oven. When the
conquerors had eaten their fill, they packed basketfuls of the savoury
meat to regale their wives and families at Atiu; but ere they left the
blood-stained isle they practised one more barbarity common to heathen
warfare. In dragging the great double canoes over the sharp coral, it is
usual to lay down soft banana stumps to act as rollers, and so protect
the canoes from injury. The rollers now used were living naked men and
women, tied together hand and foot, and over their writhing bodies were
the heavy canoes drawn in triumph.
The same terrible fate had overtaken the neighbouring isle of Mauke,
when the arrival of the mission-ship brought to these isles the blessed
Gospel of peace. The first man to step on board at Atiu was the terrible
chief, Romatane, who had led the expeditions against Mitiaro and Mauke:
he was a man of strikingly commanding aspect, with beautiful long black
hair. He was eagerly welcomed by the chief of Aitutaki, who had already
destroyed his idols and accepted the new faith; and so earnestly did
this zealous convert plead all through the long night with his brother
chief, that, ere the morrow dawned, the truth of his words seemed borne
in upon the mind of Romatane, and he vowed that never again would he
worship any God save Jehovah. He returned ashore to announce this
decision to his people, and his intention of immediately destroying his
idols and their temples. Then returning on board, he agreed to direct
the course of the vessel to the then unknown isles of Mitiaro and Mauke,
which hitherto he had visited only with fire and sword. Now it was his
voice that proclaimed the truths he had just learned, and that exhorted
the people to destroy all their idols and build a house for the worship
of the true God. At each isle he himself escorted the Tahitian teachers
and their wives to the house of the principal chief, and charged him to
care for them and hearken to their instructions.
Thus in one short day was this mighty revolution wrought in three isles,
which had never before even seen a foreign ship. Romatane and his
brother Mana proved themselves true to their first convictions; and
among their stanch fellow-workers was one who, to this day, tells how,
at the massacre of his kinsfolk on Mauke, when he was carried away
captive, he was laid on the baskets containing the baked flesh of his
uncles and fellow-countrymen, and narrowly escaped being himself
consigned to the oven.
The mission work progressed without a drawback. The people, almost
without demur, determined to destroy the idols they had so long revered.
Many were rescued as museum curiosities, and the mission-ship sailed
onward with those grotesque monsters hanging from her yard-arms, and
otherwise displayed as trophies, leaving in their stead earnest
converts, from Raiatea and Tahiti, to instruct these willing hearers.
When they had almost given up in despair their search for Rarotonga, one
of the new converts told them that if they would sail to a given point
on the isle of Atiu, he could thence take bearings which would enable
him to find it. So for this starting-point they made; and, true to his
word, the islesman directed them how to steer, and after several days
they reached the beautiful isle they sought. Here they were received in
the most friendly manner; and the young king, Makea (an exceedingly
handsome man, six feet high, and beautifully tattooed), came on board
himself, and agreed to take the native teachers ashore, with their wives
and the six Christian natives who had been brought back to their own
isle. This promising beginning was, however, not without a check; for in
the early dawn the teachers returned to the ship, bringing back their
wives with garments all tattered and torn, telling of the grievous
treatment they had endured. The chiefs were exceedingly anxious that the
teachers should remain on the isle to teach them the Word of God, but
wished to annex their wives.
It was therefore decided that, for the present, only one fine old
teacher should be left, with the six Rarotongans who had first suggested
the commencement of the mission, on their unknown isle. So well did
their work progress, that within a year the whole population had
renounced idolatry. Makea, the king, was among the earliest converts;
and when, in 1827, Mr Williams and Mr Pitman arrived with their wives
and families to settle in Rarotonga, they were received by an
enthusiastic crowd of about 3000 persons, each of whom insisted on
shaking hands so heartily, that their arms ached severely for several
hours after. All these were professedly Christians; and the new-comers
learnt that there was not a house on the isle in which the family did
not assemble morning and evening for family worship. A few days after
their arrival, they perceived a great body of people approaching bearing
heavy burdens. These proved to be fourteen immense idols, the smallest
of which was about fifteen feet high. Some of these were reserved to
decorate the rafters of the new chapel, built by the people themselves,
to contain 3000 persons; the rest were destroyed.
While this marvellous change was being wrought on the other isles, the
brave young teachers who had swum ashore on Mangaia were steadily making
their way. Within two years one died, leaving Davida to labour alone. He
had, however, by this time made some progress; and on one glad day the
king and chiefs determined to abandon the idol shrine, where, every
evening, offerings of food were presented to the thirteen known gods,
and to the great host of the unknown. So, to the great joy of Davida,
the thirteen idols were carried to his house by their late worshippers,
and there stripped of the sacred white cloth in which priests and gods
were always clothed. They are now preserved in the museum of the London
mission, and very much resemble the wooden idols of the ancient Britons
to be seen in our antiquarian museums.[24]
Thus, in an incredibly short space of time, was the whole system of
idolatry, with its bloody human sacrifices, overthrown in the Hervey
Isles; and how marvellous was the change wrought in every respect, has
been described by Lord Byron, Commander of H.M.S. Blonde, when he
accidentally found himself in the group,—and, recognising it as one of
those discovered by Captain Cook, approached land with extreme caution,
but was welcomed by noble-looking men, dressed in cotton shirts and very
fine mats, who produced written documents from the London Mission
Society, qualifying them to act as teachers, and then took him ashore to
a neat village with a good school and a crowded church.
From that time forward, the Hervey Islanders have not only been true to
their own profession, but have proved zealous missionaries in carrying
the Gospel to other isles. Their theological college has already sent
forth about 150 trained men as teachers. About 50 of these are at the
present moment scattered among various remote isles of the Pacific, some
of which are still cannibal. Six of the most zealous and determined men
have gone, accompanied by their brave missionary wives, to face the
unknown perils that await them in New Guinea—where, doubtless, their
work will bear good fruit, and prove the first step in opening up that
vast island to the commerce of the civilised world.[25]
The very first missionary effort of the Hervey Islanders was directed by
Mr Williams towards Samoa. Even before he left Raiatea, he had resolved
to visit the Navigator group, to endeavour, there also, to plant some
seed of good, which might perchance take root. Now that the work had so
prospered in the Hervey Isles, he ventured to broach the subject to his
wife, who, naturally enough, at first objected to being left alone with
her children for many months among a race of utter savages, while her
husband went off on a very long and dangerous voyage of about 200 miles,
to face perhaps still greater dangers when he reached his destination.
After a while, however, this brave woman made up her mind that it was
right he should go; and much to his astonishment, several months after
the subject had been dismissed, she volunteered her consent.
Then came the primary difficulty of transit. They possessed no vessel
which could possibly make such a journey—only native canoes. Nothing
daunted, Mr Williams determined to try his hand at shipbuilding, though
it was a trade of which he knew little, and he had scarcely any tools.
His first great difficulty lay in making a pair of smith’s bellows.
Though he possessed only four goats, three were sacrificed for the sake
of their skins. The fourth, which was giving a little milk, was spared.
Scarcely were the bellows finished, when the rats, sole indigenous
animals, assembled in scores, and in one night devoured every particle
of leather. Having none in reserve, invention was sorely taxed, till at
last Mr Williams devised a machine which should throw out air as a pump
throws water.
This was but one of the countless difficulties to be overcome. To obtain
planks, trees were split with wedges, and then cut up with small
hatchets. For lack of nails the planks were riveted together with wooden
pins. Sails were made of quilted mats and ropes of hybiscus bark.
Cocoa-nut husk supplied the place of oakum. A clumsy stone anchor was
contrived, and also a wooden one. In short, determination triumphed over
every difficulty; and in fifteen weeks, without any help save what the
Rarotongans could give by obeying his directions, Mr Williams had the
satisfaction of launching a seaworthy vessel of about 80 tons burden, 60
feet in length, and 18 in breadth. To test her sailing powers, she was
to make a preliminary trip to Aitutaki, distant about 170 miles. Before
they had gone six miles, the natives let slip the foresail, which,
straining in the wind, broke the foremast, and with some difficulty they
returned to land. Having repaired the damage, they started again,
reached Aitutaki, and returned thence to Rarotonga with a cargo of pigs,
cats, and cocoa-nuts. The two first, but especially the pigs, were
invaluable in ridding the island of rats; but a cargo of cocoa-nuts
suggests coals to Newcastle, till we learn that in native warfare the
cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees were invariably destroyed, so that the
fruitful isles were utterly ravaged.
The Messenger of Peace being now proven seaworthy, sailed for Tahiti,
whence she was despatched to the Marquesas, and on several other mission
expeditions, ere starting on that for which she had been designed. It
was not till the year 1830, that Mr Williams, taking Mr Barff as his
colleague, and seven Tahitian teachers with their wives and children,
actually sailed in search of the almost unknown Navigator’s Isles. They
touched at the Hervey Isles on their way, and these likewise contributed
several teachers, eager to carry to Samoa the Word of Peace, which had
so recently gladdened themselves.
Passing on thence to Tonga they received warm welcome from King George,
who had long been a zealous Christian, and whose energetic nature had
thrown itself heart and soul into the work of converting his people.
Never did finer material exist. The Tongans have ever been noted for
their strong, self-reliant, earnest character; and the same
determination which in old days made them dreaded as the most daring
pirates of the South Seas, was now called into play in quite a new
manner, and the pushing ambitious men who were ever coming to the front
in deeds of aggression, were henceforth the champions of the Christian
faith and its most zealous pioneers.
At Tonga Mr Williams was the guest of Messrs Nathaniel Turner and Cross.
The name of the latter is familiar to us, as having shared, with the
Rev. David Cargill, the danger and honour of founding the Wesleyan
Mission in Fiji. From them they heard with joy that Taufaahau, the chief
of the Happai group,—a man of indomitable courage and determination,—had
recently visited King George at Tongatabu, in order to judge for himself
of the new religion. He then returned to his own dominions accompanied
by Tongan native teachers, and proceeded to destroy all the idols and
altars, exhorting the chiefs to follow his example. Many were naturally
indignant at this proceeding, and determined to celebrate a great
festival in honour of the gods. Turtle and other sacred fish had to be
caught for the offerings; so the highhanded chief, Taufaahau, profited
by the delay to desecrate the temple by driving a herd of pigs into the
sacred enclosure, and converting the temple itself into a sleeping-room
for his women-servants—the presence of a woman being considered
pollution to a _marae_.
So utterly obnoxious to the gods was the female sex, that it was certain
death for any woman to set foot in a temple—and when victims were about
to be seized for sacrifice, the greatest care was taken to prevent the
approach of any female relation, lest she should touch the corpse, and
so render it unfit to be offered at the _marae_. When the worshippers
arrived with their offerings of turtle, they found the poor gods all
disrobed, hanging by the neck from the rafters; and knowing the stern
resolution of their chief, they retired, discomfited. Having given this
proof of his sincerity, Taufaahau next sent his best canoe to Tonga, to
bring Mr Thomas, the missionary whose teaching had so impressed him; and
who, in answer to this summons, started with his wife to make the
journey of 200 miles in this open canoe, in order to follow up the work
thus begun on Happai.
At Vavau, the third group, the work seemed to have little prospect of
success, so virulent was the opposition of Finau the high chief, who
threatened death to any of his people who listened to the teachers. Yet
within two years he was himself a zealous convert, and upwards of 2000
of his followers were in the habit of assembling for the Sunday
services.
The teachers of the Tonga _lotu_—_i.e._, the Wesleyans—continued
steadily working, and their influence spread as a leaven of good from
isle to isle. At Tonga the Samoan party received an unlooked-for
reinforcement in the person of Fauea, a Samoan chief, who had for some
time been living in Tonga, and had there become a Christian. He
requested Mr Williams to give him a passage in his ship, and proved an
invaluable helper, directing him to steer for Savaii, the principal
isle, of which he himself proved to be a high chief, and related to
Malietoa, the greatest chief of all.
Fauea was a man of sound judgment and of most persuasive eloquence. But
he was greatly troubled lest they should meet with violent opposition
from Tamafainga, whom the people obeyed with trembling, believing that
in him dwelt the spirit of the gods. It was therefore with unmixed
relief that he heard, on his arrival, that this dreaded opponent had
been killed a few days previously, and that there had not yet been time
for the chiefs of all the isles to meet and elect his successor in the
office of spiritual ruler.
So the Messenger of Peace was found to have arrived in the very nick of
time, and all the people received Fauea and his _papalangi_[26] friends
with open arms. Malietoa, indeed, declared that he was engaged in a war
of vengeance, in which he could not stay his hand, but that it should be
the last; and that when peace was restored he would himself _lotu_—that
is, become a Christian—and encourage all his people to do likewise. He
and his brother Tamalelangi, or “Son of the Sky,” each promised to
protect the native teachers and their wives, and gave them a hearty
welcome as they landed; nevertheless, the old order passed away in
flames and bloodshed, all to avenge the murder of the rapacious tyrant,
who had actually been worshipped as a god, till the people could no
longer endure his outrages and oppressions, and so waylaid and slew him.
Even at the moment when the teachers were landing on the island of
Savaii, the mountains of Upolu, on the other side of the straits, were
enveloped in flames and smoke, which told that a battle had been fought
that very morning, and that not only were the plantations being
destroyed, but that the women, children, and infirm people were all
being murdered, and their bodies burnt in their villages. This
sanguinary war continued for several months, and the country was so
desolated that for miles together not a house was left standing; and
even the villages which escaped were full of the sound of wailing and
mourning for the dead, in whose honour the living lacerated their own
flesh with broken shells and sharks’ teeth. When, finally, one party
triumphed, they made huge bonfires, into which they threw many of the
vanquished. Though the Samoans were never guilty of cannibalism, still
there was enough of barbarous cruelty in their warfare to make a
residence among them a very anxious experiment. Having done what they
could to smooth the way for the teachers, Mr Williams and his colleague
were obliged to leave them, in devout trust that their work might
prosper.
Twenty months elapsed ere they were again able to return to Samoa, and
marvellous, far beyond their highest hopes, was the change they found.
On their first visit they had only touched at Savaii and Upolu, the most
westerly of the Navigator group. Now the first land they sighted was
Manua, the most easterly, about 250 miles distant from that on which the
teachers were established. To their astonishment a number of canoes came
out to meet them, and as they neared the vessel several natives stood up
and declared themselves to be Christians, and that they were waiting for
a _falu lotu_—a religion-ship—to bring them a teacher who could tell
them about Jesus Christ. Great was their disappointment when they heard
that Mr Williams had only been able to secure one teacher, whom he had
promised to leave on another isle.
These people had received such knowledge as they possessed from a canoe
which had drifted all the way from Rairavae, an island upwards of 300
miles to the south of Tahiti, and fully 2000 miles from that where it at
length arrived, after a three months’ voyage, in the course of which
twenty of the party died of the hardships they underwent. But the
survivors had carefully preserved their copy of the Tahitian translation
of the Scriptures; and on reaching the unknown isle they built a
reed-hut for their chapel, and there met daily for worship. Thus, among
the strange and precious treasures which from time to time are cast up
by the ocean on far-away isles, did the people of Manua receive the Word
of Life.
Among those who had heard it gladly was a fine young fellow, a native of
Leone, in the Isle Tutuila, to which he begged to be conveyed in the
foreign ship, that he might teach his brethren what he had learnt.
Thither they sailed, touching at the Isles Orosenga and Ofu, where as
yet no rumour of the new teaching had been heard.
As they approached Tutuila, they were surrounded by a vast number of
canoes filled with excessively wild-looking men, clamouring for powder
and muskets, as they were on the eve of a great war with a neighbouring
chief. No sign there of any leaven of good—in fact, the presence among
them of a resident Englishman of the “beach-combing” fraternity, was
anything but a hopeful indication. The amount of mischief done by even
the average specimens of this class has been incalculable; but many have
been miscreants of the deepest dye, whose crimes have aroused the horror
of even the vilest heathen. Many of them were desperadoes—convicts
escaped from New South Wales in stolen vessels, which they scuttled on
reaching any desirable isle, where they generally contrived to make
themselves useful in war, and so secure the protection of some chief.
One of these men, who made his way to Samoa, was said to have shot 200
persons with his musket, smearing himself with charcoal and oil to
enable him to creep within range undetected. His delight at the end of
such a day’s sport was to seat himself on a sort of litter, smeared with
blood, surrounded by the heads of his victims, and so be carried home by
his followers, yelling savage songs of triumph. Such men as these were
not exactly calculated to improve the morals of the Pacific!
Passing on to beautiful Leone, which bore an evil character for savage
cruelty and treachery, and the massacre of various boats’ crews, the
mission party beheld the people drawn up on the beach, in what appeared
a formidable array. They, however, lowered the boat and neared the
shore, when the chief, bidding his people sit down, waded up to his neck
till he reached the strangers, and explained that he and his followers
were no longer savage, but “sons of the word;” and went on to tell how,
twenty moons previously, some of his people had been at Savaii when the
white chief Williams had arrived there with some _tama-fai-lotu_,
“workers of religion,” and having learnt a little, they had returned
home with the news, and already fifty of the people had become
Christians. Pointing to a group who sat somewhat apart, under the shade
of the bread-fruit trees, and who each wore a strip of white native
cloth tied round one arm, he said that those were the Christians, who
had adopted that badge to distinguish them from the heathen; that they
had built a place for prayer, in a thicket of bananas; and that one of
their number from time to time crossed over to Savaii in his little
canoe, to “get some more religion” from the teachers[27] to bring back
to his own people.
On learning that the man he was addressing was the identical “white
chief” who had visited Savaii, he made a sign to his people, who rushed
into the sea, and carried the boat and all who were in it high and dry
on the beach in their enthusiastic welcome; but when they learnt that
the religion-ship had brought no teacher for them, their disappointment
was unbounded; and so, we may well believe, was that of the zealous
apostle who had discovered these isles “white to the harvest,” but had
failed to find reapers.
So eager was the desire to know about the better way, that there were
many places in the isles where the people, having only heard a dim
rumour of what others had learnt, had actually built places for the
worship of the unknown God, and, having prepared their food on the
Saturday, assembled there at six o’clock each Sabbath morning, and again
twice in the day, not for service, because none knew what to say, but to
sit together in reverent silence, waiting for some revelation of His
will. It seemed a strangely literal illustration of the words of the
Hebrew prophet, “The isles shall wait for His law.”
Passing on to the beautiful little isle of Manono, and the great isles
of Savaii and Upolu, the missionaries were received with extravagant joy
by teachers and people; and by the high chiefs with more nose-rubbing
than was agreeable! They heard with delight that all the principal
chiefs and many of the people had already declared themselves
Christians, and had proved themselves in earnest by truly consistent
conduct; and that the majority of the people had resolved to follow
their good example. Upwards of a thousand sat breathlessly to hear the
white man’s words, spoken in Tahitian, and interpreted by one of the
teachers. Then Makea, the king of Rarotonga, a man of magnificent
stature, who had accompanied Mr Williams, addressed the people, and
explained how wonderful had been the change wrought in his own isles
since they embraced the _lotu_;[28] how, in old days, they had been for
ever fighting and murdering one another, till at length they had
hearkened to the voice of the teachers, and, in fear and trembling, had
brought their idols to be burnt, and had watched from afar while those
daring men had cooked their bananas on the embers.
Here, in Samoa, there were very few idols, and no blood-stained
_maraes_, altars, or temples; human sacrifice, or indeed any sort of
sacrifice, was not required; hence the expression, “Godless as a
Samoan,” by which the men of other groups described any one who
neglected the service of the temples. The Samoans, however, were
diligent in the worship of their own ancestors, and, moreover, supposed
that the spirit of their gods animated divers birds, fishes, or
reptiles. As certain Indian tribes have adopted different animals as
their _totem-god_, so in Samoa and the Hervey Isles, each chief had his
_etu_—_i.e._, some living creature, which to him and to his people was
sacred; and foreigners, ignorant of this matter, sometimes incurred
serious danger from accidentally killing some revered reptile, or even
insect. The man who found a dead body of his representative deity, say
an owl, a heron, or a bat, would stop and wail piteously, beating his
own forehead with stones till it bled; then wrapping up the poor dead
creature with all reverence, he would solemnly bury it, with as much
care as if it had been a near relation. This was supposed to be pleasing
to the gods. When, therefore, any Samoan resolved to declare himself a
Christian, he commenced by killing and eating the familiar spirit of his
tribe, whether grasshopper, centipede, octopus, vampire-bat, snake, eel,
lizard, parrot, or other creature.[29]
There was one chief who reverenced as his _etu_ the fractured, but
carefully mended, skull of a white man, whose firearms had won his
admiration, though the man’s crimes had led to his being clubbed. An
amusing story is told of the terror with which these simple folk first
beheld a talking cockatoo in the cabin of a vessel. With a cry of dismay
they rushed on deck and leapt overboard, declaring that the captain had
his _etu_ in the cabin, and that they had heard it talking to him.
The story of the conversion of these much tattooed but little clothed
warriors abounds in picturesque detail. Thus, when the great chief
Malietoa promised Mr Williams that he would become a Christian so soon
as he had fully avenged the death of Tamafainga, “in whom was the spirit
of the evil gods,” before himself going forth to battle, he sent one of
his sons to help the teachers to build their chapel. On his return, when
the chapel was to be opened, he called his sons together and announced
his intention of fulfilling his promise to the white chief. With one
accord they replied that what was good for their father was good for
them, and that they too would _lotu_. This, however, he forbade,
declaring that if they obstinately insisted on so doing, he would
continue in the faith of his ancestors. “Do you not know,” he said,
“that the gods will be enraged with me and seek to destroy me? and
perhaps Jehovah may not be strong enough to protect me against them! I
purpose, therefore, to try the experiment. If He can protect me, you may
safely follow my example; but if not, then I only shall perish.”
The young men were reluctant to obey, and asked how long they must allow
for this test. Malietoa suggested a month or six weeks; and intense was
the interest with which all his people waited and watched, lest sickness
or other evil should befall him. But when, at the end of three weeks,
all went on prosperously, it was felt that the supremacy of the
Christian’s God was established, and the sons of Malietoa would wait no
longer. So, calling together a great company of friends and kinsmen,
they proceeded solemnly to cook a large quantity of _anae_, a silvery
fish, which was the _etu_ of their tribe. These being laid on freshly
gathered leaves, were placed before each person, and the teachers
solemnly offered a prayer, ere, with fear and trembling, these young
converts nerved themselves to swallow a few morsels of the sacred fish,
hitherto held in such reverence. So intense, however, was the hold of
the old superstition, that the young men, unable to conquer their fear
lest the _etu_ should gnaw their vitals and destroy them, immediately
retired to swallow a large dose of cocoa-nut oil and salt water, which,
acting as a powerful emetic, greatly tended to counteract any malignant
influence of the offended gods.
Soon after this, a great meeting of chiefs was convened to consult on
the fate of Papo, the venerable god of war. This renowned relic was
nothing but a strip of rotten old matting, about three yards long and
four inches wide, which was always attached to the war-canoe of the
highest chief when he went forth to battle. Now an impious voice
suggested that this venerated rag should be thrown in the fire, but a
burst of disapprobation silenced this cruel suggestion. However, all
agreed that Papo must be exterminated; so as drowning was a less
horrible death than burning, they resolved to launch a new canoe, in
which a number of high chiefs should row out to sea, and, having
fastened Papo to a heavy stone, should commit him to the deep. They had
actually started on this errand, with great ceremony, when the teachers
hurried after them in another canoe, to beg that the old war-god might
be presented to Mr Williams. The chiefs were immensely relieved by the
suggestion; and the venerable strip of matting is now to be seen in the
museum of the London Mission.
I cannot solve the mystery of this Samoan reverence for certain ancient
mats; but I well remember our astonishment, when the Samoan chiefs came
to Fiji to consult Sir Arthur Gordon on the question of British
protection, to see with what infinite solemnity these fine stately men
presented him with a very dirty and exceedingly unfragrant and tattered
old mat, which, I believe, was to be offered to her Majesty Queenie
Vikatoria, but has, I think, found an asylum in the British Museum. What
makes this so very strange is, that the mats worn by the Samoan chiefs
and ladies are beautifully fine and glossy, of most delicate
straw-colour, and edged with handsome grass-fringe.
Whatever may have been the origin of this form of antiquarian lunacy,
its existence is an unmistakable reality. The Samoan chief treasures
the dirty and ragged old mat of some revered ancestor as a British
regiment does the tattered colours which find their honoured rest in
some grey sanctuary. The old mat, which from generation to generation
has been jealously guarded by his clan, is his patent of nobility, and
the title-deed which proves his right to broad acres. Some of these
strips of dirty old matting, which no rag-man would pick off a
dust-heap, are known throughout the group by special names. There is
one, which is known to be upwards of 200 years old, during which
period its successive guardians have all been duly enrolled. It is
called _Moe-e-fui-fui_—_i.e._, the mat which slept beneath the
vines—in allusion to its having lain hidden for several years among
the lilac ipomeas which twine in matted tangles all along the
sea-beach. No money would induce a Samoan to sell one of these
unsavoury treasures: it is said that £100 might be offered in vain,
though I certainly cannot imagine any sane person offering 100 pence.
However, it is simply a form of relic-worship,—and probably no whit more
foolish than the adoration of dirty clothes and kindred objects,
supposed to have been hallowed by the touch of Christian or Buddhist
saints. Indeed I am far more inclined to sympathise with the heathen
Tahitian, who wore as an amulet the toe-nail of the father whom he had
loved, than I can do with the multitudinous Christians who sanctify
their altars by the presence of some splinter of saintly bone.
Amongst the many touching incidents of these early days, was that of one
large village in which, contrary to the general course, all the women
became Christians before any of the men did so. Mr Williams had reached
a town called Amoa, the people of which had all accepted the _lotu_,
when a party of seventy women approached in single file, each bearing a
gift. At their head walked a tall handsome woman, with a mat, dyed red,
folded about her loins, and the upper part of her body freely anointed
with sweet-oil, tinged with turmeric. On her neck and arms she wore a
necklace and bracelets of large blue beads; but her hair, alas! was all
cut off, except one little lock falling over the left cheek. Her
companions were equally picturesque,—the unmarried women being
distinguished by their wearing a white mat, and no oil and turmeric, and
by their retaining a profusion of graceful curls on one side of their
head, while the other was shaven and shorn. The poorest girls wore only
fringes of large leaves and wreaths of flowers.
It appeared that the leader was a chiefess of high rank, who, some time
previously, had come to Amoa, and there remained for a month, diligently
attending to the instructions of the teachers. Then, returning to her
own district, she had collected all the women, and told them all she had
learnt, and so interested them in the subject, that a large number had
agreed to renounce heathen worship. They built a leaf-hut for their
church; and here the teacher from Amoa occasionally came to conduct
service. At other times the chiefess herself did so, making frequent
pilgrimages through the week to learn new lessons from the teacher, and
returning to impart this wisdom to her companions.
Thus, within the short space of twenty moons, was Mr Williams allowed to
see the beginning of an abundant harvest, where he had but scattered the
seed; and a true grief saddened his heart when compelled to refuse the
entreaties of chiefs and people that he would fetch his family and come
to live and die among them, to teach them how to love Jesus Christ. But
when he reminded them that there were eight isles in the group, and that
he must return to England to fetch other teachers, they bade him
Godspeed,—only praying that he would hasten back, because assuredly many
of them would be dead ere his return.
This true apostle went on his way, carrying the light to many a region
of darkness, till, in the year 1839, he reached the ill-fated shores of
Eromanga, in the New Hebrides, which was the scene of his martyrdom.
With his loved friend, James Harris, he had succeeded in obtaining a
friendly reception on the neighbouring isle of Tanna, and there left
three Samoan teachers to begin work among its hideous savages. Twenty
miles further lies Eromanga, whose people are the most hopeless
cannibals of the Pacific. As the brave men landed on the inhospitable
isle, a host of armed savages rushed out from the bushes in which they
were concealed. In an instant both were clubbed, and the bodies of the
grand apostle of the South Seas and his young disciple became food for
the miserable cannibals whom they longed to reclaim. It was the usual
tale of revenge. These Eromangans had, shortly before, been cruelly
ill-treated by a party of sandal-wood traders, who wantonly killed
several natives on their attempting to defend their women, and to save
their plantations from indiscriminate plunder. Naturally enough, these
poor savages, seeing another foreign boat land at the same spot as their
enemies had done, failed to discriminate friend from foe.
It is impossible to overstate the amount of hindrance to mission work
and to all civilising influences which has been occasioned by the
lawless proceedings of unprincipled white men, too many of whom have
proved themselves truly white barbarians. In their greedy craving for
gain, they have so thoroughly quenched every spark of justice and honour
in their dealings with the dark-skinned races, that on some of the
Papuan Isles, the name by which the natives describe a white man means
literally “a sailing profligate.”
The vessels employed in the labour trade—_i.e._, in “engaging” or
_securing_ men to work on plantations in Fiji or Australia—were by no
means the only culprits, though the horrible cruelties practised by many
of these in former years have been a disgrace to humanity. Nearly as
much harm was done by men engaged in the sandal-wood trade, who gloried
in defrauding the natives by every means in their power—promising
certain articles in exchange for a given amount of sandal-wood, and on
its receipt sailing away, to be no more heard of. Or perhaps they
inveigled a chief on board, and there kept him as a hostage till his
people brought large quantities of sandal-wood as his ransom; and having
secured all they could get at that particular isle, they still refused
to give up the chief—probably secured some of his followers, and carried
them to another isle, where they forced them to work for months in
cutting the coveted wood, and finally sold them to the natives, in
exchange for yams and pigs—a man fetching from five to ten live pigs,
according to his size. It is almost needless to say that the hostile
natives merely purchased the strangers as food for the cannibal oven.
Occasionally some of these unfortunates contrived to escape, and got on
board whaling-ships, where they were kindly treated, and some were even
taken back to their own isles. There were ships which fired
unscrupulously on any village which failed to bring them sandal-wood. On
one occasion three vessels engaged in this trade anchored off one of the
New Hebrides. Their men plundered the yam-gardens and stole all the
pigs, numbering several hundreds. Of course the owners resisted, and
were ruthlessly shot. Finally, many took refuge in a cave, when the
white barbarians proceeded to pull down the houses and heap up the dry
thatch and rafters at the mouth of the cave as fuel for a great bonfire.
Of course all the inmates were suffocated. Such deeds as these, of
course, led to reprisals; and Dr Turner says that, to his own knowledge,
upwards of 320 men engaged in the sandal-wood traffic perished between
the years 1839 and 1848. Such facts as these should be borne in mind, as
affording the clue to many an unprovoked outrage by brown men on white.
The tradition of past wrongs lingers long in savage races.
Within a year of John Williams’s murder, the Rev. George Turner and Rev.
H. Nisbet attempted to commence work in the same field, but found it
impossible. Even while they were struggling to maintain their position
on the isle of Tanna, a whaling-ship touched there for water, and her
men immediately fell to quarrelling with the natives, whereupon the
vessel weighed anchor and sailed along the coast, firing promiscuously
into all the villages she passed. There would not have been much cause
for wonder if the savages (who had seen Mr Turner directing these men
where to find water) had at once turned on him and his companions and
murdered them all. As it was, they continued to brave the perils of
their position for some months ere they were compelled to fly.
When Mr Turner revisited Eromanga in 1859, the Rev. —— Gordon, who was
then settled there, told them that a few months previously another
sandal-wood trader had got into serious trouble, and three of his men
had been killed by the natives; but he himself acknowledged that they
had earned their fate. On that occasion the Eromangans had the
discrimination to spare the righteous; but not long afterwards Mr Gordon
and his wife were cruelly murdered.
Eleven years passed, when a message reached the Rev. J. D. Gordon
(brother of the above) praying him to come and heal some sick children
at Eromanga. As a medical missionary he at once complied, only to hear
on his arrival that the children were dead; and their father could find
no solace for his blind, ungrateful grief, but to slay the medicine-man
who had arrived too late. One blow from his tomahawk added yet another
to the grievous list of the martyrs of Eromanga.
At the mission station at Apia, on the isle of Upolu, on the very spot
where John Williams first landed in Samoa, and where he stood to bid
what proved to be his last farewell to the people—two graves lying side
by side contain some bones brought to Samoa in 1840 by H.M.S. Favourite,
in the belief that they were those of the martyrs. It is now, however,
known that they were bones taken at random by the natives from a cave
where they are wont to deposit their own dead, under the impression that
the foreign ship wished to purchase human bones. The skull of John
Williams is buried beneath a palm-tree on Eromanga, which is doubtless
as quiet a resting-place as a foreign grave in turbulent Apia. Near it,
was buried a small bit of red sealing-wax, about an inch and a half in
length, which was found by the natives in his pocket, and supposed to be
a foreign idol. This relic was afterwards disinterred and sent home to
his children.
I think the attempt to recover the remains of the dead from their savage
murderers is at best very unsatisfactory. We had a fair example of it in
Fiji, where great efforts were made to recover the bones of the Rev. ——
Baker, who was there killed and eaten. So successful was this endeavour
that one mission station alone has received three skulls, all positively
declared to be his!
While both the London Mission and the Wesleyans have done such excellent
work in Samoa, it is to be regretted that a corner of rivalry should
have contrived to creep in—a rootlet of bitterness—not very serious
perhaps, but still a corner of contention. It appears that at the time
when Mr Williams first landed in Samoa, in 1830, several native teachers
from the Wesleyan Mission in Tonga had already begun to work there, and
the promise of white teachers had already been made to expectant
congregations. When, therefore, in 1835, the Rev. Peter Turner, of the
Wesleyan Mission, reached the isle of Manono, he was received with open
arms by a zealous flock; and when, shortly afterwards, he travelled
round the isles of Savaii and Upolu, he found more than 2000 persons who
were members of the Tonga _lotu_, and 40 persons who were acting as
teachers.
At that time the Tahiti _lotu_—_i.e._, the London Mission—was only
represented by five or six Tahitian teachers, who were located at
certain towns, and confined their labours to their immediate
neighbourhood. On Mr Turner’s arrival he commenced diligently seeking
the people in all parts of the isles, with such marked result that
within twenty months upwards of 13,000 persons had joined the Tonga
_lotu_.
The Wesleyans specially note that Mr Turner was the first resident white
missionary in Samoa. Some months after his arrival came a trading ship,
which brought Mr Pratt, as representative of the London Mission; and in
1836, six missionaries of the London Society arrived and held a public
meeting in the Tahitian chapel at Manono, when it was clearly proved
that a considerable number of Samoans had adopted the Tonga _lotu_
before the arrival of Mr Williams, though they only met for worship
quietly in their own homes. The Tahitian teachers were the first who
began to conduct public services, but their adherents were found to be
numerically fewer than those of the Tongans.
Stress is laid on these details, because it was alleged by the London
Mission that Messrs N. Turner and Cross had agreed with Mr Williams to
devote their efforts to the Fijian group, and leave the Navigator’s
Isles to the London Mission. Messrs Turner and Cross, on the other hand,
entirely repudiate any such compact, and state that the first they heard
of it was when the London missionaries arrived in Samoa, where their
agent was already established, in accordance with their promise to the
friendly chiefs.
As neither party were inclined to yield, both missions continued to work
simultaneously, each acknowledging the good work done by the other, yet
regretting the division, which might so easily have been avoided.
However, it has been a sacrifice of uniformity rather than of unity; and
I suppose the Church militant must always be made up of divers
regiments.
I believe the London Mission has at present seven congregational
ministers in Samoa, and seventy-five native teachers. Their nominal
adherents number about 30,000. The Australasian Wesleyan Mission has two
white missionaries and one native minister. These superintend the work
of 50 teachers and 85 local preachers. There are 47 chapels, with 1200
church members, and congregations numbering altogether about 5000.
The Roman Catholics number about 4000.
As has been the case throughout Polynesia, many of the new converts have
become earnest missionaries; and not only have several Samoan teachers
found their way to Fiji, but when in its turn the infant Church in that
group determined to commence a mission among the savage races of New
Britain, two Samoan teachers volunteered to accompany their Fijian
brethren on this noble but dangerous enterprise. Others have gone to
settle in the very uninviting Gilbert and Kingsmill groups, close to the
equator, amongst hideous tribes of the lowest type, whose barren isles
fail to yield any manner of crop; so that for lack of better diet, the
unpalatable fruit of the pandanus, which in Samoa is only used for
stringing into necklaces, is accounted an important item of food. For
love of these poor souls these self-denying men give up their own most
lovely homes, and bid a lifelong farewell to parents and kindred. Many a
bitter scene has been enacted on these shores, when aged relatives,
clinging to these dear ones with all the demonstrative love of the warm
southern temperament, follow the mission-boat as it pushes off, and wade
up to the shoulders, weeping and wailing for those who may never come
back to them, and knowing full well how many have already fallen in the
hard-fought battle. Certainly these Samoan teachers have given good
proof of their zeal and willingness to endure hardship, as good soldiers
of the Cross.
NOTE ON ETU OR TOTEM WORSHIP.
We are so much in the habit of considering this strange worship of
representative animals, in connection with the simple superstitions of
such utterly uncivilised races as these poor savages of the Pacific
Isles, or the Indian tribes of America, that it is startling to
recollect how large a place it held in the intricate mythology of so
wise and learned a people as the ancient Egyptians, who not only
excelled in all arts of peace and war, but seem to have mastered many
of those mysteries of science which still perplex the learned men of
the nineteenth century. Long ere the Greeks and Israelites had learnt
their earliest lessons from the sages from Egypt, and while Rome was
but a village of mud-huts, the banks of the Nile were graced with
buildings, which, in their stately beauty, rivalled the marvels of
Babel. Prominent among these was the temple of the sacred bull Mnevis.
The patron god of Memphis was the golden bull Apis, to whom pure white
bulls were sacrificed; while in his honour jet-black bulls were
worshipped during life, and after death were embalmed, and preserved
in sarcophagi of polished black basalt. Only their bones were
preserved, swathed in linen, and tied up so as to resemble an animal
lying down. A full-grown bull thus prepared was no bigger than a calf,
while a calf was the size of a dog. Thirty-three of these sacred
bull-mummies were found in the catacombs, each in its own sarcophagus.
Other catacombs were entirely devoted to the mummies of sacred dogs
and cats, beetles and mice, hawks and ibis, each neatly strapped up in
linen and sealed up in a red earthenware jar. These are found packed
like the contents of some vast wine-cellar—tier behind tier, and in
layers reaching to the roof of the catacombs, some of which are large
caves, with endless ramifications; yet chamber after chamber of these
vast storehouses are all alike closely packed with this vast multitude
of mummy-jars, accumulated by countless generations of reverent
worshippers.
Strangest of all these sepulchres of sacred creatures, are the
crocodile mummy-pits, in which are stored a vast assemblage of
crocodiles of all sizes, from the patriarch measuring twelve or
fourteen feet in length, to the poor baby only five inches long, each
wrapped up in palm-leaves. Thousands of these little demigods, about
eighteen inches long, are tied together in bundles of eight or ten,
and swathed in coarse cloth. True believers in the crocodile-headed
god Savak, kept these creatures tame in a great crocodile city near
the artificial lake Mœris, where they were fed with cake and roast
meat, washed down by draughts of mulled wine; their fore-feet were
adorned with golden bracelets, and their ears were pierced and
enriched with precious gems. But the worshippers had to fight the
battles of their gods against various irreverent neighbours, notably
against the people of Elephantine, who, so far from worshipping the
crocodile, considered it a dainty dish, to be eaten as often as it
could be captured.
So well known to their contemporaries was this Egyptian reverence for
certain birds, beasts, and insects, that on at least one occasion it
proved a valuable aid to their foes, as when Cambyses captured a city,
by forming a vanguard of all manner of animals—cats and dogs, bulls
and goats—assured that one or other must be held sacred by the
besieged; and so it proved, for the latter dared not throw a dart lest
they should injure their “bleating gods.”
Each of these had their especial sacred city, where their precious
remains were embalmed and their mummies stored. Dogs and ichneumons
might indeed be buried in their own cities, but hawks and shrew-mice
were generally conveyed to Buto, and ibises to Hermopolis. Onuphis was
the city specially dedicated to the worship of the asp; but all manner
of serpents were worshipped in gorgeous temples over the length and
breadth of the land, and the reptiles were fed with flour and honey by
their appointed priests, and their bodies eventually embalmed with all
possible reverence. Cat-mummies were stored in the sacred city of
Bubastis; goats at Mendes; wolves were preserved in pits near Sioux;
while the ram, sacred to the sun, was worshipped at Thebes, the sun
city.
The death of a cat was considered so dire a misfortune, that if a
house were to take fire the Egyptians would let it burn to the ground,
if only they could rescue the cats, which, however, had an awkward
trick of jumping into the flames. Should one of these perish, all the
inmates of the house shaved their eyebrows. Should a dog die, the head
and beard were also shaved. Each species of animal had its appointed
guardians to feed and tend them, the office being hereditary. A heavy
fine attended any accident which befell these precious creatures; and
should one perish through carelessness, the life of the keeper was
forfeit, more especially if the victim were an ibis or a hawk, for
whose death there was no forgiveness.
The hawk, whose piercing eye can so fearlessly gaze upon the sun, was
the special type of that great source of light. It was worshipped in
Heliopolis and the other sun temples, where living birds were kept in
cages, and pictures of sacred hawks, seated amidst lotus-plants,
adorned the walls. With such reverence were they treated, that when
the Egyptian hosts went forth to battle, they carried their hawks with
their armies; and should some chance to die in foreign lands, their
bodies were embalmed, and brought to Egypt to be buried in consecrated
tombs. Thus numerous hawk-mummies have been discovered at Thebes and
elsewhere.
Hence it would appear that each of these creatures was the _totem_, or
representative animal of some tribe, which bestowed thereon all due
veneration in life and in death. Probably the _totem_ of one tribe
would receive no honour from the next. Hence the battles already
alluded to between the cities which worshipped crocodiles and those
which ate them! and the still more deadly civil wars that raged
between the worshippers of the Oxyrinchus fish and the dog-worshippers
of Cynopolis, when the latter were guilty of fishing in the Nile, and
not only capturing the holy fish, but also eating them.
No salmon commissioners could be more wrathful at the wilful
destruction of salmon-fry than were these fish-adoring Egyptians when
tidings of the crime reached their city. Swift vengeance followed; for
the deified dogs, worshipped by the gluttonous offenders, were caught
and sacrificed to appease the wrath of the fish-gods, their flesh
affording a delicious feast for the priests. This of course led to a
prolonged civil war, and the sacking of towns and bloodshed were only
checked by the arrival of the Roman legions, who punished both
parties, and reduced them to order. Such wars continued from time to
time, even so late as the fourth century after Christ, by which time,
however, various cities (notably that of Oxyrinchus) had adopted the
new faith, and the cells set apart for sacred animals were tenanted by
the monks.
If we follow out this subject, it may perhaps bring us nearer home
than we imagine; for just as the Australian blacks are divided into
clans bearing the name of the animal, or even the plant, from which
they believe themselves to be descended, and which they must on no
account eat or gather—and are thus known as “The Black Snakes,” “The
Swans,” “The Turtles,” “The Kangaroos,” &c.,—so our antiquarians tell
us, that many of our tattooed or painted Anglo-Saxon ancestors bore
the names of animals or plants, which doubtless were in truth the
_totem_ of their family. Thus the Bercings and Thornings traced their
descent from the birch and thorn, and the Bockings from the beech; and
the homes of these families still bear such names as Bocking,
Birchington, and Thornington. Elmington and Oakington are supposed to
have been peopled by sons of the elm and of the oak; while Ashendon
recalls the Ashings or Æscings, who bore the name of the sacred
ash-tree; and the Fearnings of Farningham were supposed to descend
from a humble fern.
Buckingham and Berrington are said to have derived their names from
the Buccings and Berings, sons of the buck and of the bear; while the
followers of the wolf did him honour by bestowing on their children
such names as Wulfing, Eadwulf, Beowulf, or Ethelwulf. The sacred
white horse (whose image remains to this day on the downs of Westbury
and Wantage, as clearly defined as when first our Saxon ancestors
scraped the green grass from off the chalk hillside) was the symbol
reverenced by all Aryan races, and Hengest and Horsa, the leaders of
the early English, bore names which entitled them to command their
fellows. They have left their mark in such territorial names as
Hengestesdun, Horstead, Horsington, and many more. The Otterings of
Otterington owed allegiance to the otter.
The snake was as much revered in Britain as in all other corners of
the world, and no disrespect was implied in describing him as a worm.
Hence the family of Wyrmings, and such geographical traces as
Wormington, Wormingford, and even Ormskirk and Great Orm’s (or Worm’s)
Head. The Earnings were adherents of the earn or eagle; the Everings
or Eoferings of _Eofer_, the wild boar, whose home was at Eversley.
Raveningham and Cockington are said to bear the name of the old lords
of the soil, the sons of the raven and of the cock; while the Fincings
of Finchingfield and the Thryscings of Thrushington, are said to
represent the families who adopted the Thrush and the Finch as their
_totem_.
Altogether there appears good reason to infer that the reverence for
birds and beasts, fishes and reptiles, which excites our compassionate
wonder in reading of poor untutored savages, such as these Samoans,
was once a powerful influence in our own British Isles.[30]