For the Australian aboriginal, existence between birth and death is just a transient phase. A. P. Elkin, in his book the australian aborigines (1964), says, “Found by his parent in a spiritual experience, he is incarnated through his mother and so enters profane life. But a few years later, through the gate of initiation, he partially re-enters the sacred dreamtime or sky-world which he has left for a season. After passing farther and farther into it, so far as the necessities of profane life allow, he dies, and through another gate, the transition rite of burial, he returns completely to his sacred spirit state in the sky, the spirit-home . . . perhaps to repeat the cycle later” (Eliade 1967, p. 162).
Similar beliefs are found among the Ngaju Dayaks in nearby Borneo. Hans Schärer, in his book ngaju Religion: the Conception of God among a South Borneo People (1963), says, “Man originated from the godhead. The godhead has guided him through the various stages of life until his death, until he returns to the godhead and is given new life and a new existence in the Upperworld from which he once departed and from which there will be no more separation” (Eliade 1967, p. 170). Schärer adds: “This idea has nothing to do with any Christian influence; it is an ancient Dayak concept which is understandable in relation to the primeval sacred events and the mode of thought connected with them” (Eliade
1967, pp. 155–156).
Cosmology of the Easter islanders
The Polynesians of Easter Island regarded the Great God, Etua, as superior to other gods and goddesses. The particular personal name of Etua was Makemake. He rewarded good and punished evil, and spoke to people through male and female priests. Thunder was the expression of his anger. The Easter Islanders did not have in their system an equivalent to the Christian devil. Makemake was seen as the creator of the heavens and earth. The Easter Islanders offered Makemake the first products of the land. He was honored in the form of wooden images, but was not directly worshiped (Métraux 1940, p. 312).
Métraux (1940, pp. 312–313) records an account of the appearance of Makemake from a skulclass="underline" “There was a priestess watching over a skull on a rock in the bay of Tonga-riki . . . One day a wave came and took the skull that was watched on the rock in front of the bay of Tonga-riki. The wave swept away the skull from above; it floated. The eyes of the priestess saw the skull. She leaped to take it, she swam behind the skull which floated ahead. She arrived in the middle of the sea, she was tired, she landed on the island of Matiro-hiva. Haua saw this woman who was a priestess. He asked: ‘where do you come from?’ ‘I am pursuing my skull.’ Haua said: ‘It is not a skull, but the god Makemake.’ The priestess stayed.” Later, at the suggestion of Makemake, all three (Haua, Makemake, and the priestess) went back to the people of the priestess and taught them to utter the names of Haua before taking food.
Makemake did not have a female consort, but other gods did have consorts and children. By the will of Makemake, the first man and first woman sprang up from the earth like plants. They were known as Tive and Hiva. They and their offspring had souls that lived forever. These souls could travel outside the body during dreams, and could be victimized by evil spirits (Métraux 1940, p. 312, 315; Routledge 1919, p. 238).
The lesser gods of the Easter Islanders were known collectively as akuaku. They had residences at various places on the island, and existed in relationship to the local residents. The gods were of different kinds. Métraux (1940, pp. 316–317) says: “They were supernatural beings who belonged to a certain district or family. A few of them were real gods, others were demons or nature spirits, and others were spirits of deified dead. All lesser gods are now grouped under the general term akuaku, which is applied also to the spirits of the dead when they appear as ghosts. . . . it is difficult to distinguish between minor gods who were worshipped and legendary characters who were endowed with superhuman power but who never functioned as actual gods. . . . akuaku were both male and female. They were often represented as human beings, who might have been mistaken for ordinary creatures had the story teller not classified them as akuaku or tatane. They married ordinary men or women, had children by them and died. They could even be killed if their adversary was strong enough or sly enough. At times their supernatural power manifested itself in the ability to fly through the air and change rapidly from one place to another. Some akuaku were embodied in animals, in natural or artificial things, or in phenomena. . . . Spirits embodied in things or phenomena bear the names of their material representation. . . . Thus, Te Emu is a ‘Landslide’; Mata-vara-vara ‘the Rain-withheavy-drops’. Men are indebted to the minor gods or demons for many important discoveries and improvements in their culture. The art of tattooing was introduced by the sons of two akuaku—Vie Moko (The Lizard Woman) and Vie Kena (The Gannet Woman). The female akuaku, in the form of birds, taught men to extract dye from turmeric (Curcuma longa). The first bone fishhooks were made by Ure, a capricious and strange character of Easter Island folklore. An akuaku bird (the frigate) brought a new kind of yam as a gift to a man called Rapu.”
Some of the akuaku were inimical to humans, functioning as demons. A legendary man named Raraku killed thirty of these demons long ago, but some survived and continued to trouble the people (Métraux
1940, p. 317). Occasionally, a demon would help a human. Métraux (1940, p. 317) says: “Paepae-a-Tari-vera (Stone-house-of-Tari-vera) saved a famous warrior (matatoa), whose soul (kuhane) was kidnapped by another spirit.”
Easter Islanders worshiped the akuaku by offering them portions of food cooked in their houses. Sometimes the akuaku appeared to favored persons and spoke with them. In these communications, some times they revealed the future and other secret things. Métraux (1940, p. 317) says, “I was told by Viriamo’s son that in her youth Viriamo had been seen at night speaking familiarly with the two spirits, Tare and Rapahango. The voices of these spirits were always high-pitched and recognizable.”
The rain god was Hiro. In times of drought, the people would ask the king for help. The king would then send a priest (ariki-paka) to conduct a ceremony and make prayers to Hiro. The king of Easter Island was called ariki man. This divine chief traced his lineage to the gods Tangaroa and Rongo (Métraux 1940, p. 330). The king possessed supernatural power (mana). The concept of mana is found throughout Polynesia. In his publication Polynesian Religion (1927), E. S. Craighill Handy says: “mana was thought to come into individuals or objects only through the medium of gods or spirits. . . . The primal mana was not merely power or energy, but procreative power, derived from an ultimate source and diffused, transmitted, and manifested throughout the universe. This was the original mana which was believed to be continuously passed down through the gods, the mana atua” (Lessa and Vogt 1965, p. 258). A Maori teacher explained to Handy that the mana atua were “godlike powers” that originally came “from Io, the Supreme God” (Lessa and Vogt 1965, p. 258).