cit._ i. 471. According to Ellis, the wooden images were made
from the durable timber of the _aito_ or casuarina tree, and the
stone images were mostly rude uncarved angular columns of
basalt, of various sizes, though some were of calcareous or
siliceous stone. Some stone images, however, were rudely carved
in human form. See A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 128
_sq._

[149] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 354.

[150] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 338 _sq._; J. A. Moerenhout, _op.
cit._ i. 471 _sqq._

[151] J. A. Moerenhout, _op. cit._ i. 473 _sq._

Sec. 5. _The Sacrifices, Priests, and Sacred Recorders_

The offerings presented to the gods included every kind of valuable
property, such as birds, fish, beasts, the fruits of the earth and the
choicest native manufactures. The fruits and other eatables were
generally, but not always, dressed. Portions of the fowls, pigs, or
fish, cooked with sacred fire in the temple, were presented to the
deity; the remainder furnished a banquet for the priests and other
sacred persons, who were privileged to eat of the sacrifices. The
portions appropriated to the gods were placed on the altar and left
there till they decayed. In the public temples the great altars were
wooden stages, some eight or ten feet high, supported on a number of
wooden posts, which were sometimes curiously carved and polished. But
there were also smaller altars in the temples; some of them were like
round tables, resting on a single post. Domestic altars and such as were
erected near the bodies of dead friends were small square structures of
wicker-work. In sacrificing pigs they were very anxious not to break a
bone or disfigure the animal. Hence they used to strangle the animal or
bleed it to death.[152]

[152] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ i. 344 _sq._

Human victims were sacrificed on many occasions, as in time of war, at
great national festivals, during the illness of their rulers, and at
the building of a temple. William Ellis was told that the foundations of
some of their sacred edifices were laid in human sacrifices, and that at
least the central pillar, which supported the roof of one of the sacred
houses at Maeva, had been planted on the body of a man. The victims were
either captives taken in war or persons who had rendered themselves
obnoxious to the chiefs or the priests. In the technical language of the
priests they were called "fish." When once a man had