l briefly describe the
construction of a _Nanga_ or sacred stone enclosure, as it used to exist
in Fiji. At the present day only ruins of these structures are to be
seen, but by an observation of the ruins and a comparison of the
traditions which still survive among the natives on the subject it is
possible to reconstruct one of them with a fair degree of exactness. A
_Nanga_ has been described as an open-air temple, and the description is
just. It consisted of a rough parallelogram enclosed by flat stones set
upright and embedded endwise in the earth. The length of the enclosure
thus formed was about one hundred feet and its breadth about fifty feet.
The upright stones which form the outer walls are from eighteen inches
to three feet high, but as they do not always touch they may be
described as alignments rather than walls. The long walls or alignments
run east and west, the short ones north and south; but the orientation
is not very exact. At the eastern end are two pyramidal heaps of stones,
about five feet high, with square sloping sides and flat tops. The
narrow passage between them is the main entrance into the sacred
enclosure. Internally the structure was divided into three separate
enclosures or compartments by two cross-walls of stone running north and
south. These compartments, taking them from east to west, were called
respectively the Little Nanga, the Great Nanga, and the Sacred Nanga or
Holy of Holies (_Nanga tambu-tambu_). The partition walls between them
were built solid of stones, with battering sides, to a height of five
feet, and in the middle of each there was an opening to allow the
worshippers to pass from one compartment to another. Trees, such as the
candlenut and the red-leaved dracaena, and odoriferous shrubs were
planted round the enclosure; and outside of it, to the west of the Holy
of Holies, was a bell-roofed hut called _Vale tambu_, the Sacred House
or Temple. The sacred _kava_ bowl stood in the Holy of Holies.[697] It
is said that when the two traditionary founders of the _Nanga_ in Fiji
were about to erect the first structure of that name in their new home,
the chief priest poured a libation of _kava_ to the ancestral gods,
"and, calling upon those who died long, long ago by name, he prayed that
the people of the tribe, both old and young, might live before
them."[698]

[Sidenote: Comparison of the _Nanga_ with the cromlechs and other
megalithic monuments of Europe.]

The sacred encl