e
to time, as their stomachs shrank with emptiness. And, when the drudgery
was done, it was not uncommon for the remorseless priests to seize one
of the miserable builders and sacrifice him to the idol of the
place."[109]

[109] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 13 _sq._

Temples of this sort were found scattered over the islands in every
situation--on hill-tops, on jutting headlands, and in the recesses of
groves.[110] They varied greatly in size: some were small and built in
the rudest manner, mere squares of ill-shapen and ill-piled stones. In
the island of Borabora the missionaries found not less than two hundred
and twenty of these structures crowded within an area only ten miles in
circumference.[111] The trees that grew within the sacred enclosure were
sacred. They comprised particularly the tall cypress-like casuarina and
the broader-leaved and more exuberant callophyllum, thespesia, and
cardia. Their interlacing boughs formed a thick umbrageous covert, which
often excluded the rays of the sun; and the contrast between the bright
glare of a tropical day outside and the sombre gloom in the depths of
the grove, combined with the sight of the gnarled trunks and twisted
boughs of the aged trees, and the sighing of the wind in the branches,
to strike a religious horror into the mind of the beholder.[112] The
ground which surrounded the temples (_morais_) was sacred and afforded a
sanctuary for criminals. Thither they fled on any apprehension of
danger, especially when many human sacrifices were expected, and thence
they might not be torn by violence, though they were sometimes seduced
from their asylum by guile.[113]

[110] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 341.

[111] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ ii. 13.

[112] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 341 _sq._

[113] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 351.

These remarkable sanctuaries were at once temples for the worship of the
gods and burial-places for the human dead. On this combination of
functions I have already adduced some evidence;[114] but as the point is
important, I will cite further testimonies as to the custom of burying
the dead in these enclosures.

[114] Above, pp. 116 _sqq._

Thus Captain Cook writes: "I must more explicitly observe that there are
two places in which the dead are deposited: one a kind of shed, where
the flesh is suffered to putrefy; the other an enclosure, with erections
of stones, where the bones are afterwards buried