th a wide circuit, the path wound along;--one moment
climbing over a sudden eminence smooth with continued wear, then
descending on the other side into a steep glen, and crossing the flinty
channel of a brook. Here it pursued the depths of a glade, occasionally
obliging you to stoop beneath vast horizontal branches; and now you
stepped over huge trunks and boughs that lay rotting across the track.

Such was the grand thoroughfare of Typee. After proceeding a little
distance along it--Kory-Kory panting and blowing with the weight of
his burden--I dismounted from his back, and grasping the long spear of
Mehevi in my hand, assisted my steps over the numerous obstacles of
the road; preferring this mode of advance to one which, from the
difficulties of the way, was equally painful to myself and my wearied
servitor.

Our journey was soon at an end; for, scaling a sudden height, we came
abruptly upon the place of our destination. I wish that it were possible
to sketch in words this spot as vividly as I recollect it.

Here were situated the Taboo groves of the valley--the scene of many a
prolonged feast, of many a horrid rite. Beneath the dark shadows of
the consecrated bread-fruit trees there reigned a solemn twilight--a
cathedral-like gloom. The frightful genius of pagan worship seemed to
brood in silence over the place, breathing its spell upon every object
around. Here and there, in the depths of these awful shades, half
screened from sight by masses of overhanging foliage, rose the
idolatrous altars of the savages, built of enormous blocks of black and
polished stone, placed one upon another, without cement, to the height
of twelve or fifteen feet, and surmounted by a rustic open temple,
enclosed with a low picket of canes, within which might be seen, in
various stages of decay, offerings of bread-fruit and cocoanuts, and the
putrefying relics of some recent sacrifice.

In the midst of the wood was the hallowed 'Hoolah Hoolah' ground--set
apart for the celebration of the fantastical religious ritual of these
people--comprising an extensive oblong pi-pi, terminating at either end
in a lofty terraced altar, guarded by ranks of hideous wooden idols, and
with the two remaining sides flanked by ranges of bamboo sheds, opening
towards the interior of the quadrangle thus formed. Vast trees, standing
in the middle of this space, and throwing over it an umbrageous shade,
had their massive trunks built round with slight stages, e