Tattooing, among certain races, is a phallic rite, and in the Tahitians the priapic origin of this procedure has been preserved in an interesting myth. Hinæreeremonoi was the daughter of the god and goddess Taaroa and Apouvaru. "As she grew up, in order to preserve her chasity, she was made _pahio_, or kept in a kind of inclosure, and constantly attended by her mother. Intent on her seduction, her brothers invented tattooing, and marked each other with the figure called Taomaro. Thus ornamented, they appeared before their sister, who admired the figures, and, in order to be tattooed herself, eluding the care of her mother, broke the inclosure that had been erected for her preservation, was tattooed, and became, also, the victim to the designs of her brothers. Tattooing thus originated among the gods, and was first practiced by the children of Taaroa, their principle deity. _In imitation of their example, and for the accomplishment of the same purposes it was practiced among men._"[W][66] [W] After the ceremony of tattooing had been performed, the candidates were admitted to a religious society called _Areois_, which had for its object an "unrestrained and public abandonment to amorous pleasures." Letourneau: _The Evolution of Marriage_, p. 61. [66] Ellis: _Polynesian Researches_, vol. i, p. 262; quoted, also, by Westermarck, _op. cit. ante._, p. 179. With very few exceptions, primitive peoples, wherever found, have given or still give unmistakable evidence of a knowledge of phallic worship in some form or other. Many of them still practice it, generally combined with the religion from which it was evolved, _i. e._, sun worship. The Ainu of Japan is a notable example of a race whose religion shows the presence of the elements of both worships. The religion of this remarkable people, notwithstanding the fact that it has become decidedly ethical (they having arrived at a knowledge of the good and evil principles), shows its sun birth.[X] Until very recently the _couvade_ existed in full force and vigor. "As soon as a child was born, the father had to consider himself very ill, and had, therefore, to stay at home, wrapped up, by the fire. But the wife, poor creature! had to stir about as much and as quickly as possible. The idea seems to have been that _life was passing from the father into his child_."[67] [X] Herodotus gives an interesting instance of the evolution of phallic worship from nature worship. See _Clio_, 131. [67] Batchelor: _The Ainu of Japan_, p. 44.