about the _marai_ (_morai_)
of Aheatua, at that time King of Tiarroboo, "were placed
perpendicularly, or nearly so, fifteen slender pieces of wood, some
about eighteen feet long, in which six or eight diminutive human figures
of a rude unnatural shape were carved, standing above each other, male
or female promiscuously, yet so that the uppermost was always a male.
All these figures faced the sea, and perfectly resembled some which are
carved on the sterns of their canoes, and which they call _e-tee_."[221]
To the same effect George Forster's father, J. R. Forster, observes that
"near the _marais_ are twenty or thirty single pieces of wood fixed into
the ground, carved all over on one side with figures about eighteen
inches long, rudely representing a man and a woman alternately, so that
often more than fifteen or twenty figures may be counted on one piece of
wood, called by them _Teehee_."[222] But the souls of the dead, though
they inhabited chiefly the wooden figures erected at the temples or
burial-grounds (_marais_, _morais_), were by no means confined to them,
and were dreaded by the natives, who believed that during the night
these unquiet spirits crept into people's houses and ate the heart and
entrails of the sleepers, thus causing their death.[223]

[216] J. Cook, _Voyages_, i. 222, vi. 150.

[217] J. Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 345.

[218] J. R. Forster, _Observations made during a Voyage round
the World_, pp. 552, 553; G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_,
ii. 151 _sq._

[219] J. R. Forster and G. Forster, _ll.cc._

[220] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 348, "the _unus_, or
curiously carved pieces of wood marking the sacred places of
interment, and emblematical of _tiis_ or spirits."

[221] G. Forster, _op. cit._ i. 267. Compare J. A. Moerenhout,
_op. cit._ i. 461, "_Les images des Tiis etaient placees aux
extremites des marais et gardaient l'enceinte des terres
sacrees_."

[222] J. R. Forster, _op. cit._ pp. 544 _sq._ In the southern
peninsula of Tahiti, both on the coast and inland, Captain Cook
saw many sepulchral buildings, and he described them as
"decorated with many carved boards, which were set upright, and
on the top of which were various figures of birds and men: on
one in particular there was the representation of a cock, which
was painted red and yellow, to imitate the feathers of that
animal, and rude ima