levated a few
feet above the ground, and railed in with canes, forming so many rustic
pulpits, from which the priests harangued their devotees.

This holiest of spots was defended from profanation by the strictest
edicts of the all-pervading 'taboo', which condemned to instant death
the sacrilegious female who should enter or touch its sacred precincts,
or even so much as press with her feet the ground made holy by the
shadows that it cast.

Access was had to the enclosure through an embowered entrance, on one
side, facing a number of towering cocoanut trees, planted at intervals
along a level area of a hundred yards. At the further extremity of this
space was to be seen a building of considerable size, reserved for the
habitation of the priests and religious attendants of the groves.

In its vicinity was another remarkable edifice, built as usual upon the
summit of a pi-pi, and at least two hundred feet in length, though not
more than twenty in breadth. The whole front of this latter structure
was completely open, and from one end to the other ran a narrow
verandah, fenced in on the edge of the pi-pi with a picket of canes.
Its interior presented the appearance of an immense lounging place, the
entire floor being strewn with successive layers of mats, lying between
parallel trunks of cocoanut trees, selected for the purpose from the
straightest and most symmetrical the vale afforded.

To this building, denominated in the language of the natives the 'Ti',
Mehevi now conducted us. Thus far we had been accompanied by a troop of
the natives of both sexes; but as soon as we approached its vicinity,
the females gradually separated themselves from the crowd, and standing
aloof, permitted us to pass on. The merciless prohibitions of the
taboo extended likewise to this edifice, and were enforced by the
same dreadful penalty that secured the Hoolah-Hoolah ground from the
imaginary pollution of a woman's presence.

On entering the house, I was surprised to see six muskets ranged against
the bamboo on one side, from the barrels of which depended as many small
canvas pouches, partly filled with powder.

Disposed about these muskets, like the cutlasses that decorate the
bulkhead of a man-of-war's cabin, were a great variety of rude spears
and paddles, javelins, and war-clubs. This then, said I to Toby, must be
the armoury of the tribe.

As we advanced further along the building, we were struck with the
aspect of four or five