only appropriated to the first purpose; but
these were small, and, in every other respect, inferior to the
others."[139] Again, in another passage he describes one of the more
stately of these temple-tombs. He says: "Some of us, accompanied by a
few of the king's attendants, and Omai as our interpreter, walked out to
take a view of a _fiatooka_, or burying-place, which we had observed to
be almost close by the house, and was much more extensive, and seemingly
of more consequence, than any we had seen at the other islands. We were
told, that it belonged to the king. It consisted of three pretty large
houses, situated upon a rising ground, or rather just by the brink of
it, with a small one, at some distance, all ranged longitudinally. The
middle house of the three first, was by much the largest, and placed in
a square, twenty-four paces by twenty-eight, raised about three feet.
The other houses were placed on little mounts, raised artificially to
the same height. The floors of these houses, as also the tops of the
mounts round them, were covered with loose, fine pebbles, and the whole
was inclosed by large flat stones of hard coral rock, properly hewn,
placed on their edges; one of which stones measured twelve feet in
length, two in breadth, and above one in thickness. One of the houses,
contrary to what we had seen before, was open on one side; and within it
were two rude, wooden busts of men; one near the entrance, and the other
farther in. On inquiring of the natives, who had followed us to the
ground, but durst not enter here, What these images were intended for?
they made us as sensible as we could wish, that they were merely
memorials of some chiefs who had been buried there, and not the
representations of any deity. Such monuments, it should seem, are seldom
raised; for these had probably been erected several ages ago. We were
told, that the dead had been buried in each of these houses; but no
marks of this appeared. In one of them, was the carved head of an
Otaheite canoe, which had been driven ashore on their coast, and
deposited here. At the foot of the rising ground was a large area, or
grass-plot, with different trees planted about it; amongst which were
several of those called _etoa_, very large. These, as they resemble the
cypresses, had a fine effect in such a place. There was also a row of
low palms near one of the houses, and behind it a ditch, in which lay a
great number of old baskets."[140]

[139