{"id":"01KG8AM56V7501XBXTW95Q618N","cid":"bafkreiemzhomedzzafk3ewddlyyvblyik24gyiu2lsduft6bqh5skyw5ae","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7884,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":7821,"text":"rather 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\nBut in sober seriousness, I hardly knew what to make of the religion\r\nof the valley. There was nothing that so much perplexed the illustrious\r\nCook, in his intercourse with the South Sea islanders, as their sacred\r\nrites. Although this prince of navigators was in many instances assisted\r\nby interpreters in the prosecution of his researches, he still frankly\r\nacknowledges that he was at a loss to obtain anything like a clear\r\ninsight into the puzzling arcana of their faith. A similar admission has\r\nbeen made by other eminent voyagers: by Carteret, Byron, Kotzebue, and\r\nVancouver.\r\n\r\nFor my own part, although hardly a day passed while I remained upon the\r\nisland that I did not witness some religious ceremony or other, it was\r\nvery much like seeing a parcel of ‘Freemasons’ making secret signs to\r\neach other; I saw everything, but could comprehend nothing.\r\n\r\nOn the whole, I am inclined to believe, that the islanders in the\r\nPacific have no fixed and definite ideas whatever on the subject of\r\nreligion. I am persuaded that Kolory himself would be effectually posed\r\nwere he called upon to draw up the articles of his faith and pronounce\r\nthe creed by which he hoped to be saved. In truth, the Typees, so far\r\nas their actions evince, submitted to no laws human or divine--always\r\nexcepting the thrice mysterious Taboo. The ‘independent electors’ of the\r\nvalley were not to be brow-beaten by chiefs, priests, idol or devils.\r\nAs for the luckless idols, they received more hard knocks than\r\nsupplications. I do not wonder that some of them looked so grim, and\r\nstood so bolt upright as if fearful of looking to the right or the left\r\nlest they should give any one offence. The fact is, they had to\r\ncarry themselves ‘PRETTY STRAIGHT,’ or suffer the consequences. Their\r\nworshippers were such a precious set of fickle-minded and irreverent\r\nheathens, that there was no telling when they might topple one of them\r\nover, break it to pieces, and making a fire with it on the very altar\r\nitself, fall to roasting the offerings of bread-fruit, and at them in\r\nspite of its teeth.\r\n\r\nIn how little reverence these unfortunate deities were held by the\r\nnatives was on one occasion most convincingly proved to me.--Walking\r\nwith Kory-Kory through the deepest recesses of the groves, I perceived\r\na curious looking image, about six feet in height which originally had\r\nbeen placed upright against a low pi-pi, surmounted by a ruinous bamboo\r\ntemple, but having become fatigued and weak in the knees, was now\r\ncarelessly leaning against it. The idol was partly concealed by the\r\nfoliage of a tree which stood near, and whose leafy boughs drooped over\r\nthe pile of stones, as if to protect the rude fane from the decay to\r\nwhich it was rapidly hastening. The image itself was nothing more than\r\na grotesquely shaped log, carved in the likeness of a portly naked man\r\nwith the arms clasped over the head, the jaws thrown wide apart, and its\r\nthick shapeless legs bowed into an arch. It was much decayed. The\r\nlower part was overgrown with a bright silky moss. Thin spears of grass\r\nsprouted from the distended mouth, and fringed the outline of the head\r\nand arms. His godship had literally attained a green old age. All its\r\nprominent points were bruised and battered, or entirely rotted away.\r\nThe nose had taken its departure, and from the general appearance of the\r\nhead it might have, been supposed that the wooden divinity, in despair\r\nat the neglect of its worshippers, had been trying to beat its own\r\nbrains out against the surrounding trees.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR250Y3B8PH384FGZ4CM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56K0JJQF1FXVEQYVNBY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM56V08PXCS7T394R38QE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.867Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.848Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}