y a strong fence, leaving
a paved area in front and at the two ends. Several rudely carved male
and female images of wood were placed on the outside of the enclosure,
some on low pedestals under the shade of a tree, others on high posts
planted on the jutting rocks which overhung the edge of the water. A
number of effigies stood on the fence at unequal distances all around;
but the principal assemblage of idols was at the south-east end of the
enclosed space, where twelve of them stood in a semicircle on a
crescent-shaped basement of stone raised about two feet above the
pavement. Some of them rested on small pedestals, others on pillars
eight or ten feet high. The principal idol, distinguished by the
variety and superiority of the carving on its body and especially
on its head, stood in the middle, the others on either side of it,
"as if perpetual guardians of 'the mighty dead' reposing in the house
adjoining."[154]

[154] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, iv. 164 _sq._

When a death had taken place, the house in which it occurred, was deemed
defiled, and continued in that state until after the burial. But if the
deceased was a chief, the whole land was polluted, and the heirs sought
a residence in another part of the country, until the corpse was
dissected and the bones tied in a bundle; for when that was done the
season of defilement terminated. Hence on the death of King Kamehameha,
his son and successor, Liholiho, had to retire for a time to another
district.[155]

[155] J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ p. 191; H. Bingham, _Residence of
Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands_, pp. 71 _sq._; J.
Remy, _op. cit._ pp. 127, 129.

Sec. 10. _Fate of the Soul after Death_

The Hawaiians in general believed that the human soul exists after
death, but their notions on the subject were, as usual, vague, confused,
and contradictory. Some said that all the souls of the departed went to
the Po, or place of night, and were there annihilated or eaten by the
gods.[156] According to another account, the souls of the dead that had
no claim to divinity fluttered about their old homes till the moment
arrived when they became the food of the gods. It is not certain, adds
de Freycinet, that they recognised the immortality of the soul in the
case of persons of the lowest class.[157] Others said that some souls
went to the regions of Akea (Wakea) and Miru (Milu), two ancient kings
of Hawaii. Of these two, Akea was report