supported what appeared to be offerings
in the shape of provisions of all sorts, as well as whole hogs and many
skulls of hogs and dogs.[107]

[107] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 157-159. The great pyramid was
afterwards visited and described by the first missionaries.
Their measurements confirm, while slightly exceeding, those of
Captain Cook. They speak, however, of ten steps instead of
eleven, and say that the lowest step was six feet high and the
rest about five. See J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 207 _sq._, with
the plate.

The pyramids within the sacred enclosure were not usually so large or so
lofty. In the island of Huahine the pyramid of the chief god Tani or
Tane was a hundred and twenty-four feet long by sixteen feet broad, and
it had only two steps or stories. The lower step or story was about ten
feet high and faced with blocks of coral, set on their edges: some of
these blocks were as high as the step itself. The upper step or story
was similarly faced with coral, but was not more than three feet high.
The interior of both stories was filled with earth. In the centre of the
principal front stood the god's bed, a stone platform twenty-four feet
long by thirteen feet wide, but only eighteen inches high. The style and
masonry of this pyramid, as well as its dimensions, appear to have been
very inferior to those of the great one in Tahiti. The blocks were
apparently unhewn and unpolished, the angles ill formed, and the walls
not straight. Venerable and magnificent trees overshadowed the
sanctuary. One of them measured fifteen yards in girth above the roots.
It is said that the god often wished to fly away, but that his long tail
always caught in the boughs of this giant tree and dragged him down to
earth again.[108]

[108] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 265 _sq._

These sacred pyramids "were erected in any place, and at any time, when
the priests required, by the slavish people. On such occasions the
former overlooked the latter at their work, and denounced the most
terrible judgments upon those who were remiss at it. The poor wretches
were thus compelled to finish their tasks (burthensome as they often
were, in heaving blocks from the sea, dragging them ashore, and heaping
them one upon another) without eating, which would have desecrated the
intended sanctuary. To restrain the gnawings of hunger they bound
girdles of bark round their bodies, tightening the ligatures from tim