Image: Wooden idols of Polynesia (1830)

Description: Wooden idols of Polynesia. The figure in the centre, No. 1. exhibits a correct front view of Taaroa, the supreme deity of Polynesia; who is generally regarded as the creator of the world, and the parent of gods and men. The image from which this was taken, is nearly four feet high, and twelve or fifteen inches broad, carved out of a solid piece of close, white, durable wood. In addition to the number of images or demigods forming the features of his face, and studding the outside of his body, and which were designed to shew the multitudes of gods that had proceeded from him; his body is hollow, and when taken from the temple at Rurutu, in which for many generations he had been worshipped, a number of small idols were found in the cavity. They had perhaps been deposited there, to imbibe his supernatural powers, prior to their being removed to a distance, to receive, as his representatives, divine honours. The opening to the cavity was at the back; the whole of which, might be removed. No. 2. is Terongo, one of the principal gods, and his three sons. No. 3. is an image of Tebuakina, three sons of Rongo, a principal deity in the Hervey Islands. The name is probably analogous to Orono in Hawaii, though distinct from Oro in Tahiti. No. 4. exhibits a sacred ornament of a canoe from the island of Huahine. The two figures at the top, are images worshipped by fishermen, or those frequenting the sea. The two small idols at the lower corners of the plate, No. 5. are images of oramatuas, or demons. The gods of Rarotogna were some of them much larger; Mr. Bourne, in 1825, saw fourteen about twenty feet long, and six feet wide.
Title: Wooden idols of Polynesia (1830)
Credit: William Ellis (1833) Polynesian researches, during a residence of nearly six years in the South Sea Islands, Volume 1, Fisher, Son & Jackson
Author: not given
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No