h any of the sacred edifices under pain of
death, which was instantly inflicted by whoever witnessed the sacrilege.
Even if the wives and children of the priests themselves came within a
certain distance, while some particular services were going on, they
were murdered on the spot by their husbands and fathers with the utmost
ferocity.[144]

[139] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 224; J. R. Forster, _Observations
made during a Voyage round the World_, p. 547; J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 469. Elsewhere (vi. 149) Captain Cook mentions
that the baring of the body on the approach to a temple was
especially incumbent on women, who otherwise had to make a
considerable circuit to avoid the sacred edifice.

[140] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 469 _sq._; A. Baessler,
_Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 126 _sq._

[141] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 536 _sq._

[142] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 271 _sq._

[143] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 558.

[144] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 267 _sq._

Some of these sacred edifices are still impressive in their ruins and
deserve the name of megalithic monuments. Thus the temple (_marae_,
_morai_) of Oro at Opoa, which was the holiest temple in the island of
Raiatea and perhaps in the Society Islands generally,[145] is about a
hundred and thirty-eight feet long by twenty-six feet broad. It is
enclosed by a wall of gigantic coral blocks standing side by side to a
height of about six feet seven inches. The blocks have been hewn from
the inner reef; the outer surfaces were smoothed, the inner left rough.
One of the blocks stands over eleven feet high, without reckoning the
part concealed by the soil; it is twelve feet wide, by two and a half
feet thick. Another block is about ten feet long by eight feet broad and
one foot thick.[146] In the ruined temple of Tainuu, situated in the
district of Tevaitoa, one block is about eleven and a half feet high by
eleven feet wide, with a thickness varying from twenty inches to two and
a half feet.[147]

[145] A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 124, 141; D.
Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 529 _sq._

[146] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 142.

[147] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ p. 146.

The idols or images of the gods were usually made of wood, but sometimes
of stone. Some were rudely carved in human shape; others were rough
unpolished logs, wrapped in many folds of cloth or co