entirely spiritual; for they were neither married nor were their
embraces supposed to be like those of corporeal beings.[230]

[230] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vi. 150 _sq._

In general the situation of _po_ or the land of the dead seems to have
been left vague and indefinite by the Society Islanders; apparently they
did not, like the Western Polynesians, imagine it to be in some far
western isle, to reach which the souls of the departed had to cross a
wide expanse of sea.[231] However, the natives of Raiatea had very
definite ideas on this mysterious subject. They thought that _po_ was
situated in a mysterious and unexplored cavern at the top of the highest
mountain in the island. This cavern, perhaps the crater of a volcano,
was said to communicate, by subterranean passages, with a cave on the
coast, the opening of which is so small that a child of two years could
hardly creep into it. Here an evil spirit (_varu iino_) was said to lurk
and, pouncing out on careless passers-by, to drag them into the darkest
recesses of his den and devour them. After the conversion of the natives
to Christianity the missionaries were shown the spot. Near it were the
ruins of a temple of the war god, where multitudes of the corpses of
warriors slain in battle had been either buried or left to rot on the
ground. The missionaries saw many mouldering fragments of skeletons. Not
far off a cape jutted into the sea, up the lofty and precipitous face of
which the souls of the dead were said to climb on their way to their
long home in the cavern at the top of the mountain. A native informant
assured the missionaries that he had often seen them scaling the dizzy
crag, both men and women.[232]

[231] See above, pp. 87 _sq._, 214 _sqq._, 238 _sqq._

[232] D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 537 _sq._

In the island of Borabora the fate even of kings after death was
believed to be a melancholy one. Their souls were converted into a piece
of furniture resembling an English hat-stand; only in Borabora the
corresponding utensil was the branch of a tree with the lateral forks
cut short, on which bonnets, garments, baskets, and so forth were
suspended. The natives very naturally concluded that in the other world
a similar stand was wanted for the convenience of the ghosts, to hang
their hats and coats on. Kings who shrank from the prospect of being
converted into a hat-stand after death made interest with the priest to
save them from such a