rrative of Missionary Enterprises in the
South Sea Islands_, pp. 183 _sq._

The kings were sacred men, being regarded as priests and mouthpieces of
the great tutelary divinities.[15] In Mangaia they were the priests or
mouthpieces of the great god Rongo. So sacred were their royal persons
that no part of their body might be tattooed: they might not take part
in dances or in actual warfare. Peace could not be proclaimed nor blood
spilt lawfully without the consent of the king speaking in the name of
the god Rongo. Quite distinct from, and subordinate to, the sacred king
was the "lord of Mangaia," a warrior chief who gained his lordship by a
decisive victory. He represented the civil power, while the king
represented the spiritual power; but while the office of the king was
hereditary, the office of the civil lord was not. It sometimes happened
that the civil lord was at enmity with the king of his day. In that
case the king would refuse to complete the ceremonies necessary for his
formal investiture; life would remain unsafe; the soil could not be
cultivated, and famine soon ensued. This state of turbulence and misery
might last for years, till the obnoxious chief had been in his turn
despatched, and a more agreeable successor appointed.[16] Thus the
sacred king and the civil lord corresponded to the Tooitonga or sacred
chief and the civil king of Tonga.[17]

[15] W. W. Gill, "Mangaia (Hervey Islands)," _op. cit._ p. 335.

[16] W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, p.
293.

[17] See above, pp. 62 _sq._

Sec. 4. _Religion, the Gods, Traces of Totemism_

Yet though the king of Mangaia ranked above the civil or temporal lord,
it devolved on that lord to install a new king in office by formally
seating him on "the sacred sandstone" (_te kea inamoa_) in the sanctuary
or sacred grove (_marae_)[18] of Rongo on the sea-shore facing the
setting sun. The ceremony took place in presence of the leading
under-chiefs. The special duty of the king was by offering rhythmical
and very ancient prayers to Great Rongo to keep away evil-minded spirits
who might otherwise injure the island. For this end the principal king
(_te ariki pa uta_) lived in the interior of the island in the sacred
and fertile district of Keia. His prayers were thought to avert evil
spirits coming from the east. On the barren sea-shore at O-rongo (the
seat of the temple or grove of Rongo) lived the secondary king (_te
arik