{"id":"01KG8AM56K0JJQF1FXVEQYVNBY","cid":"bafkreicdculgddyfndt4nitpfimu7d3s7lpnwbxta5sq5skw6ivnd7dxni","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7828,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":7765,"text":"is so desirous his conduct should meet with unqualified approbation,\r\nthat he inquires of each individual separately whether under existing\r\ncircumstances he has not done perfectly right in shutting up Moa Artua.\r\nThe invariable response is ‘Aa, Aa’ (yes, yes), repeated over again\r\nand again in a manner which ought to quiet the scruples of the most\r\nconscientious. After a few moments Kolory brings forth his doll again,\r\nand while arraying it very carefully in the tappa and red cloth,\r\nalternately fondles and chides it. The toilet being completed, he once\r\nmore speaks to it aloud. The whole company hereupon show the greatest\r\ninterest; while the priest holding Moa Artua to his ear interprets to\r\nthem what he pretends the god is confidentially communicating to him.\r\nSome items intelligence appear to tickle all present amazingly; for one\r\nclaps his hands in a rapture; another shouts with merriment; and a third\r\nleaps to his feet and capers about like a madman.\r\n\r\nWhat under the sun Moa Artua on these occasions had to say to Kolory\r\nI never could find out; but I could not help thinking that the former\r\nshowed a sad want of spirit in being disciplined into making those\r\ndisclosures, which at first he seemed bent on withholding. Whether the\r\npriest honestly interpreted what he believed the divinity said to him,\r\nor whether he was not all the while guilty of a vile humbug, I shall\r\nnot presume to decide. At any rate, whatever as coming from the god\r\nwas imparted to those present seemed to be generally of a complimentary\r\nnature: a fact which illustrates the sagacity of Kolory, or else the\r\ntimeserving disposition of this hardly used deity.\r\n\r\nMoa Artua having nothing more to say, his bearer goes to nursing\r\nhim again, in which occupation, however, he is soon interrupted by a\r\nquestion put by one of the warriors to the god. Kolory hereupon snatches\r\nit up to his ear again, and after listening attentively, once more\r\nofficiates as the organ of communication. A multitude of questions and\r\nanswers having passed between the parties, much to the satisfaction of\r\nthose who propose them, the god is put tenderly to bed in the trough,\r\nand the whole company unite in a long chant, led off by Kolory. This\r\nended, the ceremony is over; the chiefs rise to their feet in high good\r\nhumour, and my Lord Archbishop, after chatting awhile, and regaling\r\nhimself with a whiff or two from a pipe of tobacco, tucks the canoe\r\nunder his arm and marches off with it.\r\n\r\nThe whole of these proceedings were like those of a parcel of children\r\nplaying with dolls and baby houses.\r\n\r\nFor a youngster scarcely ten inches high, and with so few early\r\nadvantages as he doubtless had had, Moa Artua was certainly a precocious\r\nlittle fellow if he really said all that was imputed to him; but for\r\nwhat reason this poor devil of a deity, thus cuffed about, cajoled, and\r\nshut up in a box, was held in greater estimation than the full-grown\r\nand dignified personages of the Taboo Groves, I cannot divine. And yet\r\nMehevi, and other chiefs of unquestionable veracity--to say nothing of\r\nthe Primate himself--assured me over and over again that Moa Artua was\r\nthe tutelary deity of Typee, and was more to be held in honour than a\r\nwhole battalion of the clumsy idols in the Hoolah Hoolah grounds.\r\n\r\nKory-Kory--who seemed to have devoted considerable attention to the\r\nstudy of theology, as he knew the names of all the graven images in the\r\nvalley, and often repeated them over to me--likewise entertained some\r\nrather enlarged ideas with regard to the character and pretensions of\r\nMoa Artua. He once gave me to understand, with a gesture there was no\r\nmisconceiving, that if he (Moa Artua) were so minded he could cause a\r\ncocoanut tree to sprout out of his (Kory-Kory’s) head; and that it\r\nwould be the easiest thing in life for him (Moa Artua) to take the whole\r\nisland of Nukuheva in his mouth and dive down to the bottom of the sea\r\nwith it.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR250Y3B8PH384FGZ4CM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56KBZQ6ACMKNCV6GXQX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56V7501XBXTW95Q618N","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.859Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.825Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}