and stones which is a shrine where the
gods are worshipped, and most of the gods are spirits of the great
and wise who died long ago. Offerings to these took the form of food
and of anointing for their altars, but human sacrifices were no doubt
demanded at times, when the priests had been specially venturesome
in asking favors. When a man died his soul sprang out, went below
the earth, and found felicity in the west. This belief resembles
the Indian faith in the happy hunting-ground, and incidentally it
points the course of empire. The spirit could return once in a while,
and ghostly visitations were sorely dreaded. The institution of the
taboo was and is connected with the native religions of the Pacific
islands. We have adopted the word and use it in its true meaning
of forbidden. If an article were dedicated to a god, or used in his
worship, or had been touched by him, or claimed by a chief or a priest,
no commoner dared lay finger on it, for it was as sacred as the ark of
the covenant. Some canny planters kept boys out of their orchards and
palm groves by offering the fruit to certain gods until it was ripe,
for a sign of taboo kept out all marauders till the crop was ready for
gathering, when the owner changed his mind and claimed it himself. To
break a taboo was not only to incur the wrath of the priests, but of
the gods to whom the gift was offered, and who would surely reward
the blasphemer for his sin by illness, accident, loss, or death.

As soon as the Spaniards had occupied the Ladrones--afterward named the
Marianas, in honor of Maria Anna, queen of Philip IV. of Spain--they
proceeded to slaughter the natives. In seventy years they had slain
with sword, rack, toil, grief, and new diseases about fifty thousand
people, reducing the populace to eighteen hundred. Of this aboriginal
race, the Chamorros, nearly all have perished. In their original
estate these were the most advanced of the Pacific islanders; they
had more arts, more refinement, more kindliness, and more morality
than the others. Under an age of oppression and abuse they naturally
deteriorated, and have cared little to advantage themselves by the
few schools and chapels that the Spaniards established in Guam and
thereabout. It may be that the Chamorros shared with the people
of the Carolines in the suffering caused by the great irruption of
savages from the south under Icho-Kalakal. These warriors, in their
wooden navies, destroyed the great tombs