t of
November. For then offerings of yams, coco-nuts, and other vegetable
products were offered to him in particular, as well as to all the other
gods in general, for the purpose of ensuring a continuation of
favourable weather and consequent fertility. The offering was
accompanied by prayers to Alo Alo and the other gods, beseeching them to
extend their bounty and make the land fruitful. Wrestling and boxing
matches formed part of the ceremony, which was repeated eight times at
intervals of ten days. The time for the rite was fixed by the priest of
Alo Alo, and a curious feature of the ceremony was the presence of a
girl of noble family, some seven or eight years old, who represented the
wife of Alo Alo and resided in his consecrated house during the eighty
days that the festal season lasted.[59]

[58] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 108.

[59] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 205-208; compare _id._ 7,
note *, 108.

Another god named Moooi was believed to support the earth on his
prostrate body. In person he was bigger than any other of the gods; but
he never inspired anybody, and had no house dedicated to his service.
Indeed, it was supposed that this Atlas of the Pacific never budged from
his painful and burdensome post beneath the earth. Only when he felt
more than usually uneasy, he tried to turn himself about under his heavy
load; and the movement was felt as an earthquake by the Tongans, who
endeavoured to make him lie still by shouting and beating the ground
with sticks.[60] Similar attempts to stop an earthquake are common in
many parts of the world.[61]

[60] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 112 _sq._ Compare Captain James
Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean_
(London, 1799), pp. 277 _sq._ Moooi is the Polynesian god or
hero whose name is usually spelled Maui. See Horatio Hale,
_United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_,
p. 23; E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_,
pp. 233 _sqq._ _s.v._ "Maui."

[61] _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, i. 197 _sqq._

Tangaloa was the god of artificers and the arts. He had several priests,
who in Mariner's time were all carpenters. It was he who was said to
have brought up the Tonga islands from the bottom of the sea at the end
of his fishing line;[62] though in some accounts of Tongan tradition
this feat is attributed to Maui.[63] The very hook on which he hauled
up the islands was said to