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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Iman Ghanizada is a founder, author, and cloud computing

authority residing in Los Angeles. At 28, he’s an accomplished young
technology leader, providing executive vision and strategy around
industry-wide security challenges as a Security Solutions Manager at
Google Cloud. Previously, he helped Fortune 50 global business
executives transform their organizations securely in the cloud at
Google Cloud, Capital One, and more. He has 10+ years of
experience in the cloud and holds 14 technical certifications,
including the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, Professional
Security Engineer, CISSP, and several more.
Iman is the founder of TheCertsGuy.com—a blog site intended to
provide technologists easy insight into achieving certificates and
growing in their careers. He is a proud Hokie, holding a B.S. in
Business Information Technology at Virginia Tech.
As a first-generation Afghan-American, Iman seeks to amplify and
accelerate the growth of underrepresented communities in their
professional lives. He strongly believes that helping others grow and
provide for their families is the ultimate form of fulfillment.
He is also an avid gamer and, in his own words, if he were to hit
the jackpot and retire, he’d probably start retirement by drinking
energy drinks, eating donuts and pizza, and playing all the games he
wishes he had time for now.

About the Technical Editor

Richard Foltak is VP, Head of Cloud for Dito (ditoweb.com, a
Google Premier Partner). Richard focuses on enriching Dito clients’
business value streams in embracing and optimizing leading cloud
technologies within their practices. Richard holds a Bachelor of
Engineering degree and an MBA, along with numerous industry
certifications, including those in Infrastructure Architecture, Data
Engineering, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, DevOps, Networking,
Cyber Security, IT Governance, and ITIL 4. His professional
background includes being chief architect at Deloitte Consulting,
distinguished architect at Verizon Data, and senior tech leader at
Cisco Systems.
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 To my mom and dad, Nahid and Basir, refugees who escaped a
brutal war and sacrificed every ounce of their lives for their children
to have a better life than them. No matter the achievement, it pales
in comparison to your sacrifices. You are my inspiration for success.
My sister, Marwa, who has been a shining beacon of light and
optimism every time I am challenged in life. I love you, and I hope I
can give you the world in return.
My brothers, Sajad and Iraj, who are the OG technology nerds and
my mentors through life. If it weren’t for you hacking those
payphones when we were 5 and modding Quake 3 Arena, we
wouldn’t be here.
My best friend, Sami Ullah, who passed on during college. His
infectious positivity inspired me to smile more and look ahead. He
dreamed of landing a job at Oracle after college. I wish you were
here to see this.
Finally, my Number 0, who has challenged me to grow in every
aspect of my life. You mean the world to me.
 CONTENTS AT A GLANCE

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Professional Cloud Architect

Certification
Chapter 2 Overview of Cloud Computing and Google Cloud
Chapter 3 Cloud Identity
Chapter 4 Resource Management
Chapter 5 Cloud Identity and Access Management
Chapter 6 Networking
Chapter 7 Compute and Containers
Chapter 8 Storage, Databases, and Data Analytics
Chapter 9 DevOps
Chapter 10 Cloud Operations
Chapter 11 Security
Chapter 12 Billing, Migration, and Support
Appendix A Objective Map
Appendix B About the Online Content
Glossary
Index
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction to the Professional Cloud Architect
Certification
Reasons to Take the Professional Cloud Architect Exam
Prerequisite Knowledge
Case Studies
Mountkirk Games
Dress4Win
TerramEarth
General Tips on Taking Technical Certification Exams
How to Use the Supplementary Resources
Chapter Review
Questions
Answers
Chapter 2 Overview of Cloud Computing and Google Cloud
Overview of Cloud Computing
Google Cloud vs. Other Clouds
Security First
Open Cloud
Analytics and Artificial Intelligence
Global Data Centers and Network
Principles of System Design
A 10,000-Foot Overview of GCP
Compute Solutions
 Storage Solutions
Database Solutions
Data Analytics
Networking Solutions
Operations Solutions
Developer Tools
Hybrid Cloud and Multi-Cloud Solutions
Migration Solutions
Security and Identity Solutions
Interacting with the GCP
Google Cloud Console
Command-Line Interface
Exercise 2-1: CLI Example
Client Libraries
Business and Technical Context for the Google Cloud
Architect
Assessing Business Requirements
Assessing Technical Requirements
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 3 Cloud Identity
Setting Up a Cloud Identity and Admin Account
Security Principles in the Cloud
The AAA Security Model
Least Privilege and Separation of Duties
Cloud Identity Overview
Managing Users in Cloud Identity
How Users Authenticate to GCP
2-Step Verification
Security Auditing
 Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 4 Resource Management
Cloud Resource Manager Overview
Organization Hierarchy
Organization, Folders, Projects, and Resources
Organization Policies
Best Practices
Exercise 4-1: Creating a Project
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 5 Cloud Identity and Access Management
Cloud IAM Overview
Members, Roles, and Policies
Google Accounts
Groups
Service Accounts
IAM Roles
IAM Policies
IAM Conditions
Accounting and Technical Compliance
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 6 Networking
Networking Deep Dive
 Google’s Global Network
Network Tiers
Virtual Private Cloud, Subnets, Regions, and Zones
Subnet Ranges and IP Addressing
Routes and Firewall Rules
Private Access
Cross-Project Communication
Cloud DNS
Connectivity to Your Cloud
Cloud Router
Cloud VPN
Cloud Interconnect
Cloud Load Balancing
Overview
Cloud CDN
Network Security
Network Security Principles
Google Front End
Firewalls
Cloud Armor
Cloud NAT
VPC Service Controls
Identity-Aware Proxy
Network Logging
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 7 Compute and Containers
Google Compute Engine
Virtual Machine Instances
Images
 Instance Templates and Instance Groups
Storage Options
OS Login
Google App Engine
App Engine Flex vs. App Engine Standard
Google Kubernetes Engine
Cluster Architecture
Configuration
Node Upgrades
Cloud Functions
Cloud Run
API Management
Apigee
Cloud Endpoints
Secure Your APIs
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 8 Storage, Databases, and Data Analytics
Storage
Google Cloud Storage
Cloud Filestore
Persistent Disk
Local SSD
Databases
Cloud SQL
Cloud Spanner
Cloud Bigtable
Cloud Firestore
Cloud Memorystore
Data Analytics
 BigQuery
Cloud Dataproc
Cloud Dataflow
Cloud Pub/Sub
Data Security
Data Classification
Cloud DLP
Encryption
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 9 DevOps
The DevOps Philosophy
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
Continuous Integration
Continuous Deployment
Infrastructure as Code
Deployment Strategies
Blue-Green Deployment
Rolling Deployment
Canary Deployment
A/B Deployment
Deployment Tools
Google Cloud Deployment Manager
Cloud Build
Cloud Source Repositories
Container Registry
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 10 Cloud Operations
Cloud Logging
Log Types
Cloud Trace, Cloud Profiler, and Cloud Debugger
Cloud Monitoring
Workspaces
Monitoring Agent
Uptime Checks
Metrics and Alerts
Dashboards
The Importance of Resilience
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 11 Security
Security Fundamentals
CIA Triad
Control Categories
Control Functions
Asset × Threat × Vulnerability = Risk
Security Modernization
Compliance
Infrastructure Security Highlights
Identity Security
Resource Management Security
IAM Security
Network Security
Application Layer Security
Data Security
DevOps Security
Security Operations
 Cloud Asset Inventory
Security Command Center
Chapter Review
Additional References
Questions
Answers
Chapter 12 Billing, Migration, and Support
Billing Fundamentals
Cost Control
Migration Planning
Resource Quotas vs. Capacity
Transferring Applications and Data
Training and Enablement
Google Cloud Support
Chapter Review
Questions
Answers
Closing Thoughts
Appendix A Objective Map
Appendix B About the Online Content
System Requirements
Your Total Seminars Training Hub Account
Privacy Notice
Single User License Terms and Conditions
TotalTester Online
Technical Support

Glossary

Index
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Throughout my journey, countless individuals have played significant

roles in my life. Nothing is achieved alone, so I’d love to
acknowledge a very tiny subset of people who’ve made their mark
on my career, knowing that there are so many more not mentioned.
There were four women who’ve played significant roles in my
career by embracing my potential and letting me shine. Thank you
Emily Markmann, Lourdes Caballero, Jessica Rihani, and Ann
Wallace.
When I was eager to move to my dream city of Los Angeles, I
cold-messaged hundreds of people in LA; Nick Reva was the only
one who responded. That call meant a lot to me, and now he’s a
great friend—thank you Nick.
I will never forget that it was a small introduction by Shawn
Horton to Toby Velte that led me to McGraw Hill and this book—
thank you Shawn and Toby.
Thank you to the Google team, Rochana Golani, Brian Rice, Jason
Martin, Joanie Norwood, Matt Dauphinee, and Michael Zuo, for your
support in this effort.
Thank you to the publishing team, Lisa McLain and Emily Walters,
for trusting my voice and empowering it through the process.
And thank you Rich Foltak—you’ve been an incredible colleague,
mentor, and friend since we met. Having your expertise and your
insight has been incredible through the projects we’ve worked on
together, through every bit of this book, and through our
philosophical conversations about life.
To everyone else who has impacted me positively, even in the
slightest of ways, you know who you are and I want to thank you.
 INTRODUCTION

First and foremost, thank you for purchasing this book. I am truly
humbled that you are joining this learning journey by reading this
content. Second, you owe yourself thanks for even getting this far in
investing in your future. If you’re reading this page, you’ve already
set the intention of gaining knowledge in exchange for a better
future for yourself and your loved ones. Now you just need to follow
through with your decision and spend an hour a day on this
investment. Everything you want to achieve in life takes work, and
although there are failures along the way, great things never come
easy.
Whether you’re reading this book because you’ve been tasked
with passing the Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect
certification for your job or for your personal objectives, you should
know that having a certification is not the end all, be all. There is a
lot more to being a cloud architect than carrying the badge on your
belt. But the badge itself can open up so many high-paying doors in
a market that is significantly growing for GCP architects. So our
focus here is to help you pass the Google Cloud Professional Cloud
Architecture exam and also to help you understand Google Cloud
architecture from a more pragmatic point of view. This will make
more of an impact in your meetings, day-to-day work, and job
interviews.
One thing you’ll notice about this book is that it doesn’t read like
a traditional technical certification book. One of the biggest issues I
have with certification books is that they prepare you to take an
exam, but leave you struggling to identify and articulate concepts in
the real world. In this book, you’ll find quite a few elements of
philosophy, academia, on-the-job scenarios, and humor scattered
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Psyche's task
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Psyche's task

A discourse concerning the influence of superstition on the
growth of institutions

Author: James George Frazer

Release date: October 30, 2023 [eBook #71985]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1913

Credits: an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHE'S

TASK ***
 PSYCHE’S TASK
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING
THE INFLUENCE OF SUPERSTITION ON
THE GROWTH OF INSTITUTIONS

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

TO WHICH IS ADDED
THE SCOPE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
AN INAUGURAL LECTURE

BY
J. G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
LIVERPOOL

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1913
 [EPIGRAPHS]
Good and evil we know in the field of this world grow up together
almost inseparably; and the knowledge of good is so involved and
interwoven with the knowledge of evil and in so many cunning
resemblances hardly to be discerned, that those confused seeds,
which were imposed on Psyche as an incessant labour to cull out
and sort asunder, were not more intermixt.
Milton, Areopagitica.

Il ne faut pas croire cependant qu’un mauvais principe vicie

radicalement une institution, ni même qu’il y fasse tout le mal qu’il
porte dans son sein. Rien ne fausse plus l’histoire que la logique:
quand l’esprit humain s’est arrêté sur une idée, il en tire toutes les
conséquences possibles, lui fait produire tout ce qu’en effet elle
pourrait produire, et puis se la représente dans l’histoire avec tout ce
cortège. Il n’en arrive point ainsi; les événements ne sont pas aussi
prompts dans leur déductions que l’esprit humain. Il y a dans toutes
choses un mélange de bien et de mal si profond, si invincible que,
quelque part que vous pénétriez, quand vous descendrez dans les
derniers éléments de la société ou de l’âme, vous y trouverez ces
deux ordres de faits coexistant, se développant l’un à côté de l’autre
et se combattant, mais sans s’exterminer. La nature humaine ne va
jamais jusqu’aux dernières limites, ni du mal ni du bien; elle passe
sans cesse de l’un à l’autre, se redressant au moment où elle
semble le plus près de la chute, faiblissant au moment où elle
semble marcher le plus droit.
Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation dans l’Europe, Cinquième
Leçon.
 [DEDICATION]
TO
ALL WHO ARE ENGAGED
IN PSYCHE’S TASK
OF SORTING OUT THE SEEDS OF GOOD
FROM THE SEEDS OF EVIL
I DEDICATE THIS DISCOURSE
 PREFACE
The substance of the following discourse was lately read at an
evening meeting of the Royal Institution in London, and most of it
was afterwards delivered in the form of lectures to my class at
Liverpool. It is now published in the hope that it may call attention to
a neglected side of superstition and stimulate enquiry into the early
history of those great institutions which still form the framework of
modern society. If it should turn out that these institutions have
sometimes been built on rotten foundations, it would be rash to
conclude that they must all come down. Man is a very curious
animal, and the more we know of his habits the more curious does
he appear. He may be the most rational of the beasts, but certainly
he is the most absurd. Even the saturnine wit of Swift, unaided by a
knowledge of savages, fell far short of the reality in his attempt to set
human folly in a strong light. Yet the odd thing is that in spite, or
perhaps by virtue, of his absurdities man moves steadily upwards;
the more we learn of his past history the more groundless does the
old theory of his degeneracy prove to be. From false premises he
often arrives at sound conclusions: from a chimerical theory he
deduces a salutary practice. This discourse will have served a useful
purpose if it illustrates a few of the ways in which folly mysteriously
deviates into wisdom, and good comes out of evil. It is a mere sketch
of a vast subject. Whether I shall ever fill in these bald outlines with
finer strokes and deeper shadows must be left to the future to
determine. The materials for such a picture exist in abundance; and
if the colours are dark, they are yet illuminated, as I have tried in this
essay to point out, by a ray of consolation and hope.
J. G. FRAZER.

Cambridge, February 1909.

 NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In this edition Psyche’s Task has been enlarged by fresh illustrative
examples and by the discussion of a curious point of savage
etiquette, but the substance and the form of the discourse remain
unchanged. I have added The Scope of Social Anthropology, an
inaugural lecture intended to mark out roughly the boundaries of the
general study of which Psyche’s Task aims at setting forth some
particular results. There is therefore a certain appropriateness in
presenting the two discourses together to the reader.
J. G. F.

Cambridge, 6th June 1913.

 CONTENTS
Preface

PSYCHE’S TASK

I. Introduction

The dark and the bright side of Superstition: a plea for the accused:
four propositions to be proved by the defence 3-5

II. Government

Superstition has been a prop of Government by inculcating a deep

veneration for governors: evidence of this veneration collected
from Melanesia, Polynesia, Africa, the Malay region, and
America: evidence of similar veneration among Aryan peoples
from India to Scotland 6-19

III. Private Property

Superstition has been a prop of Private Property by inculcating a

deep fear of its violation: evidence of this fear collected from
Polynesia, Melanesia, the Malay Archipelago, Europe, Asia,
Africa, and America 20-43

IV. Marriage

Superstition has been a prop of Marriage by inculcating a deep fear

of disregarding the traditionary rules of sexual morality:
evidence of this fear collected from South-Eastern Asia, the
Malay Archipelago, Africa, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the
Romans, and the Irish: extreme severity with which breaches of
 the sexual code have been punished in India, Babylon,
Palestine, Africa, the East Indies, Australia, America, and
Europe: the avoidance of the wife’s mother and of a man’s own
mother, sisters, daughters, and female cousins, based on the
fear of incest: the origin of the fear of incest unknown: belief that
adultery and fornication inflict physical injury not only on the
culprits but on their innocent relations: evidence of the belief
collected from Africa, America, Sumatra, and New Britain 44-
110

V. Respect for Human Life

Superstition has been a prop for the Security of Human Life by

inculcating a deep fear of the ghosts of the murdered dead:
evidence of the fear collected from ancient Greece, modern
Africa, America, India, New Guinea, Celebes, the Bismarck
Archipelago, and Fiji: deep fear of ghosts in general: evidence
collected from America, Africa, India, Burma, the Indian
Archipelago, Australia, New Guinea, and China: influence of the
fear in restraining men from murder 111-153

VI. Conclusion

Summing up for the defence: by serving as a prop for government,

private property, marriage, and human life, Superstition has
rendered a great service to humanity: Superstition at the bar:
sentence of death 154-156

THE SCOPE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology, or the Science of Man, a new study: Social

Anthropology restricted to the rudimentary phases of human
society: not concerned with the practical application of its
results: all forms of human society either savage or evolved out
of savagery: hence Social Anthropology deals primarily with
savagery and secondarily with those survivals of savagery in
civilization which are commonly known as folklore: importance
of the study of savagery for an understanding of the evolution of
 the human mind: existing savages primitive only in a relative
sense by comparison with civilized peoples: in reality the
savages of the present day probably stand at a high level of
culture compared with their remote predecessors: for example,
the present systems of marriage and consanguinity among
savages appear to have been preceded by a period, not
necessarily primitive, of sexual communism: survivals of
savagery in civilization due to the natural and ineradicable
inequality of men: mankind ultimately led by an intellectual
aristocracy: superstition the creed of the laggards in the march
of intellect: the wide prevalence of superstition under the surface
of society a standing menace to civilization: the lowest forms of
superstition the most tenacious of life: function of the
Comparative Method in reconstructing the early history of
human thought and institutions: its legitimacy based on the
ascertained similarity of the human mind in all races: the need of
studying savages only of late years understood: urgent
importance of the study in consequence of the rapid
disappearance of savagery: the duty of our generation to
preserve a record of it for posterity: the duty of the Universities
and of the State 157-176

INDEX 177-186

ENDNOTES
PSYCHE’S TASK
 I.
INTRODUCTION

We are apt to think of superstition as an

The dark side of unmitigated evil, false in itself and pernicious in its
superstition.
consequences. That it has done much harm in the
world, cannot be denied. It has sacrificed countless lives, wasted
untold treasures, embroiled nations, severed friends, parted
husbands and wives, parents and children, putting swords, and
worse than swords between them: it has filled gaols and madhouses
with its innocent or deluded victims: it has broken many hearts,
embittered the whole of many a life, and not content with persecuting
the living it has pursued the dead into the grave and beyond it,
gloating over the horrors which its foul imagination has conjured up
to appal and torture the survivors. It has done all this and more. Yet
the case of superstition, like that of Mr. Pickwick
The brighter side of after the revelations of poor Mr. Winkle in the
superstition.
witness-box, can perhaps afford to be placed in a
rather better light; and without posing as the Devil’s Advocate or
appearing before you in a blue flame and sulphureous fumes, I do
profess to make out what the charitable might call a plausible plea
for a very dubious client. For I propose to prove, or at least make
probable, by examples that among certain races and at certain
stages of evolution some social institutions which we all, or most of
us, believe to be beneficial have partially rested on a basis of
superstition. The institutions to which I refer are purely secular or
civil. Of religious or ecclesiastical institutions I shall say nothing. It
might perhaps be possible to shew that even religion has not wholly
escaped the taint or dispensed with the support of superstition; but I
prefer for to-night to confine myself to those civil institutions which
people commonly imagine to be bottomed on nothing but hard
common sense and the nature of things. While the institutions with
which I shall deal have all survived into civilized society and can no
doubt be defended by solid and weighty arguments, it is practically
certain that among savages, and even among peoples who have
risen above the level of savagery, these very same institutions have
derived much of their strength from beliefs which nowadays we
should condemn unreservedly as superstitious and absurd. The
institutions in regard to which I shall attempt to prove this are four,
namely, government, private property, marriage, and the respect for
human life. And what I have to say may be
Four propositions to summed up in four propositions as follows:—
be proved.
I. Among certain races and at certain times
superstition has strengthened the respect for government, especially
monarchical government, and has thereby contributed to the
establishment and maintenance of civil order.
II. Among certain races and at certain times superstition has
strengthened the respect for private property and has thereby
contributed to the security of its enjoyment.
III. Among certain races and at certain times superstition has
strengthened the respect for marriage and has thereby contributed to
a stricter observance of the rules of sexual morality both among the
married and the unmarried.
IV. Among certain races and at certain times superstition has
strengthened the respect for human life and has thereby contributed
to the security of its enjoyment.
Before proceeding to deal with these four
Preliminary propositions separately, I wish to make two
remarks.
remarks, which I beg you will bear in mind. First, in
what I have to say I shall confine myself to certain races of men and
to certain ages of history, because neither my time nor my
knowledge permits me to speak of all races of men and all ages of
history. How far the limited conclusions which I shall draw for some
races and for some ages are applicable to others must be left to
future enquiries to determine. That is my first remark. My second is
this. If it can be proved that in certain races and at certain times the
institutions in question have been based partly on superstition, it by
no means follows that even among these races they have never
been based on anything else. On the contrary, as all the institutions
which I shall consider have proved themselves stable and
permanent, there is a strong presumption that they rest mainly on
something much more solid than superstition. No institution founded
wholly on superstition, that is on falsehood, can be permanent. If it
does not answer to some real human need, if its foundations are not
laid broad and deep in the nature of things, it must perish, and the
sooner the better. That is my second remark.
 II.
GOVERNMENT

With these two cautions I address myself to my

Superstition as a first proposition, which is, that among certain races
prop of government.
and at certain times superstition has strengthened
the respect for government, especially monarchical government, and
has thereby contributed to the establishment and maintenance of
civil order.
Among many peoples the task of government
Superstitious has been greatly facilitated by a superstition that
respect for chiefs in
Melanesia. the governors belong to a superior order of beings
and possess certain supernatural or magical
powers to which the governed can make no claim and can offer no
resistance. Thus Dr. Codrington tells us that among the Melanesians
“the power of chiefs has hitherto rested upon the belief in their
supernatural power derived from the spirits or ghosts with which they
had intercourse. As this belief has failed, in the Banks’ Islands for
example some time ago, the position of a chief has tended to
become obscure; and as this belief is now being generally
undermined a new kind of chief must needs arise, unless a time of
anarchy is to begin.”6.1 According to a native Melanesian account,
the authority of chiefs rests entirely on the belief that they hold
communication with mighty ghosts and possess that supernatural
power or mana, as it is called, whereby they are able to bring the
influence of the ghosts to bear on human life. If a chief imposed a
fine, it was paid because the people firmly believed that he could
inflict calamity and sickness upon such as resisted him. As soon as
any considerable number of his subjects began to disbelieve in his
influence with the ghosts, his power to levy fines was shaken.7.1 It is
thus that in Melanesia religious scepticism tends to undermine the
foundations of civil society.
Similarly Mr. Basil Thomson tells us that “the key to the
Melanesian system of government is Ancestor-worship. Just as
 every act in a Fijian’s life was controlled by his fear
Superstitious of Unseen Powers, so was his conception of
respect for chiefs in
Fiji. human authority based upon religion.” The dead
chief was supposed still to watch jealously over his
people and to punish them with dearth, storms, and floods, if they
failed to bring their offerings to his tomb and to propitiate his spirit.
And the person of his descendant, the living chief, was sacred; it was
hedged in by a magic circle of taboo and might not even be touched
without incurring the wrath of the Unseen. “The first blow at the
power of the chiefs was struck unconsciously by the missionaries.
Neither they nor the chiefs themselves realized how closely the
government of the Fijians was bound up with their religion. No
sooner had a missionary gained a foothold in a chief village than the
tabu was doomed, and on the tabu depended half the people’s
reverence for rank. The tabu died hard, as such institutions should
do. The first-fruits were still presented to the chief, but they were no
longer carried from him to the temple, since their excuse—as an
offering to persuade the ancestors to grant abundant increase—had
passed away. No longer supported by the priests, the Sacred Chief
fell upon evil days”; for in Fiji, as in other places, the priest and the
chief, when they were not one and the same person, had played into
each other’s hands, both knowing that neither could stand firm
without the aid of the other.7.2
In Polynesia the state of things was similar.
Superstitious There, too, the power of chiefs depended largely
respect for chiefs in
Polynesia generally on a belief in their supernatural powers, in their
and in New Zealand relation to ancestral spirits, and in the magical
particularly. virtue of taboo, which pervaded their persons and
interposed between them and common folk an
invisible but formidable barrier, to pass which was death. In New
Zealand the Maori chiefs were deemed to be living atuas or gods.
Thus the Rev. Richard Taylor, who was for more than thirty years a
missionary in New Zealand, tells us that in speaking a Maori chief
“assumed a tone not natural to him, as a kind of court language; he
kept himself distinct from his inferiors, eating separately; his person
was sacred, he had the power of holding converse with the gods, in
fact laid claim to being one himself, making the tapu a powerful
adjunct to obtain control over his people and their goods. Every
means were used to acquire this dignity; a large person was thought
to be of the highest importance; to acquire this extra size, the child of
a chief was generally provided with many nurses, each contributing
to his support by robbing their own offspring of their natural
sustenance; thus, whilst they were half-starved, miserable-looking
little creatures, the chief’s child was the contrary, and early became
remarkable by its good appearance. Nor was this feeling confined to
the body; the chief was an atua, but there were powerful and
powerless gods; each naturally sought to make himself one of the
former; the plan therefore adopted, was to incorporate the spirits of
others with their own; thus, when a warrior slew a chief, he
immediately gouged out his eyes and swallowed them, the atua
tonga, or divinity, being supposed to reside in that organ; thus he not
only killed the body, but also possessed himself of the soul of his
enemy, and consequently the more chiefs he slew, the greater did
his divinity become.… Another great sign of a chief was oratory—a
good orator was compared to the korimako, the sweetest singing
bird in New Zealand; to enable the young chief to become one, he
was fed upon that bird, so that he might the better acquire its
qualities, and the successful orator was termed a korimako.”8.1
Again, another writer informs us that the opinions of Maori chiefs
“were held in more estimation than those of others, simply because
they were believed to give utterance to the thoughts of deified men.
No dazzling pageantry hedged them round, but their persons were
sacred.… Many of them believed themselves inspired; thus Te Heu
Heu, the great Taupo chief and priest, shortly before he was
swallowed up by a landslip, said to a European missionary: ‘Think
not that I am a man, that my origin is of the earth. I come from the
heavens; my ancestors are all there; they are gods, and I shall return
to them.’ ”9.1 So sacred was the person of a Maori chief that it was
not lawful to touch him, even to save his life. A chief has been seen
at the point of suffocation and in great agony with a fish bone
sticking in his throat, and yet not one of his people, who were
lamenting around him, dared to touch or even approach him, for it
would have been as much as their own life was worth to do so. A
missionary, who was passing, came to the rescue and saved the
chief’s life by extracting the bone. As soon as the rescued man
recovered the power of speech, which he did not do for half an hour,
the first use he made of it was to demand that the surgical
instruments with which the bone had been extracted should be given
to him as compensation for the injury done him by drawing his
sacred blood and touching his sacred head.9.2
Not only the person of a Maori chief but
Superstitious fear of everything that had come into contact with it was
contact with Maori
chiefs. sacred and would kill, so the Maoris thought, any
sacrilegious person who dared to meddle with it.
Cases have been known of Maoris dying of sheer fright on learning
that they had unwittingly eaten the remains of a chief’s dinner or
handled something that belonged to him. For example, a woman,
having partaken of some fine peaches from a basket, was told that
they had come from a tabooed place. Immediately the basket
dropped from her hands and she cried out in agony that the atua or
godhead of the chief, whose divinity had been thus profaned, would
kill her. That happened in the afternoon, and next day by twelve
o’clock she was dead.9.3 Similarly a chief’s tinder-box has proved
fatal to several men; for having found it and lighted their pipes with it
they actually expired of terror on learning to whom it belonged.10.1
Hence a considerate chief would throw away where it could not be
found any garment or mat for which he had no further use, lest one
of his subjects should find it and be struck dead by the shock of its
inherent divinity. For the same reason he would never blow a fire
with his mouth; for his sacred breath would communicate its sanctity
to the fire, and the fire would pass it on to the meat that might be
cooked on it, and the meat would carry it into the stomach of the
eater, and he would die.10.2 Thus the divinity which hedged a Maori
chief was a devouring flame which shrivelled up and consumed
whatever it touched. No wonder that such men were implicitly
obeyed.
In the rest of Polynesia the state of things was
Superstitious similar. For example, the natives of Tonga in like
respect for chiefs
and kings in Tonga manner believed that if any one fed himself with
and Tahiti. his own hands after touching the sacred person of
a superior chief, he would swell up and die; the