s to some extent, in function as well as in form, these pyramidical
temples of Tahiti and the Marquesas islands corresponded to the
megalithic monuments of the Tooitongas or sacred chiefs of Tonga; in
fact, they were mausoleums as well as temples. We are not at liberty to
assume, with one authority on the Polynesians, that they were mausoleums
first and foremost, and that they only developed into temples at a later
time.[171] It is possible, on the contrary, that from the outset they
were temples dedicated to the worship of the high gods, and that the
custom of depositing the dead in them was a later practice adopted for
the sake of the protection which these holy places might be expected to
afford against the efforts of enemies to carry off and desecrate the
remains of the departed. Dr. Rivers propounded a theory that the custom
of building these megalithic monuments in the form of pyramids was
introduced into the Pacific by a people who brought with them a secret
worship of the sun, and he apparently inclined to regard the monuments
themselves as at least associated with that worship.[172] The theory can
hardly apply to the megalithic monuments of the Tooitongas in
Tongataboo; for the evidence which I have adduced seems to render it
certain that these monuments were erected primarily as tombs to receive
the bodies of the sacred chiefs. It is true that these tombs enjoyed a
sacred character and were the scene of worship which justly entitles
them to rank as temples; but so far as they were temples, they were
devoted to the worship, not of the sun, but of the dead.

[171] C. E. Meinicke, _Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans_, ii. 180.

[172] W. H. R. Rivers, "Sun-cult and Megaliths in Oceania,"
_American Anthropologist_, N.S. xvii. (1915) pp. 431 _sqq._

Thus our enquiry into the meaning and origin of these interesting
monuments entirely confirms the view of the shrewd and observant Captain
Cook that the _fiatookas_, as the Tongans called them, were both places
of burial and places of worship.

Finally, the evidence which I have cited appears to render it highly
probable that these imposing monuments were built, not by a prehistoric
people, predecessors of the Tongans in the islands, but by the Tongans
themselves; for not only do the people affirm that the tombs were
erected by their ancestors, but they have definite traditions of some of
the chiefs who built them, and are buried in them; and they still
profess