e they existed, the images of the gods served merely as
depositories for the proper representatives of the divinity. Each of
these was called a _maro aurou,_ and was a kind of girdle artistically
adorned with red, yellow, blue, and black feathers--the red feathers
being especially important--which were consecrated and kept as sacred
objects within the idols. They were worn by great personages on solemn
occasions, and conferred upon their wearers a sacred and almost divine
character. There is no distinct evidence that the _maro aurou_ was
supposed to have any special efficacy in divination, but one cannot fail
to see a certain parallelism between this holy girdle, which endowed its
wearer with a particular sanctity, and the ephod.

According to the Rev. R. Taylor, the New Zealanders formerly used the
word _karakia_ (now employed for "prayer") to signify a "spell, charm,
or incantation," and the utterance of these karakias constituted the
chief part of their cult. In the south, the officiating priest had a
small image, "about eighteen inches long, resembling a peg with a
carved head," which reminds one of the form commonly attributed to the
teraphim.

"The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under the
god's chin, which was called his pahau or beard; this bandage was made
of a certain kind of sennet, which was tied on in a peculiar way. When
this was done it was taken possession of by the Atua, whose spirit
entered it. The priest then either held it in the hand and vibrated it
in the air whilst the powerful karakia was repeated, or he tied a piece
of string (formed of the centre of a flax leaf) round the neck of the
image and stuck it in the ground. He sat at a little distance from it,
leaning against a tuahu, a short stone pillar stuck in the ground in a
slanting position and, holding the string in his hand, he gave the god a
jerk to arrest his attention, lest he should be otherwise engaged, like
Baal of old, either hunting, fishing, or sleeping, and therefore must
be awaked.... The god is supposed to make use of the priest's tongue in
giving a reply. Image-worship appears to have been confined to one part
of the island. The Atua was supposed only to enter the image for the
occasion. The natives declare they did not worship the image itself, but
only the Atua it represented, and that the image was merely used as a
way of approaching him." [22]

This is the excuse for image-worship which the more intell