of the coral rocks.

"This mount stood in a kind of grove open only on the side which fronted
the high road, and the green on which the people were seated. At this
green or open place, was a junction of five roads, two or three of which
appeared to be very public ones. The groves were composed of several
sorts of trees. Among others was the _Etoa_ tree, as it is called at
Otaheite, of which are made clubs, etc., and a kind of low palm, which
is very common in the northern parts of New Holland.

"After we had done examining this place of worship, which in their
language is called _a-fiat-tou-ca_, we desired to return."[135]

[135] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 182-184.

A little farther on, still speaking of his first visit to Tonga, Captain
Cook observes: "So little do we know of their religion, that I hardly
dare mention it. The buildings called _afiatoucas_, before mentioned,
are undoubtedly set apart for this purpose. Some of our gentlemen were
of opinion, that they were merely burying-places. I can only say, from
my own knowledge, that they are places to which particular persons
directed set speeches, which I understood to be prayers, as hath been
already related. Joining my opinion with that of others, I was inclined
to think that they are set apart to be both temples and burying-places,
as at Otaheite, or even in Europe. But I have no idea of the images
being idols; not only from what I saw myself, but from Mr. Wales's
informing me that they set one of them up, for him and others to shoot
at."[136]

[136] Captain James Cook, _op. cit._ iii. 206.

Thus Captain Cook and his party were divided in opinion as to whether
the house on the mound, within its walled enclosure built of great
stones, was a temple or a tomb. Captain Cook himself called it simply a
"house of worship" and a "place of worship," but he inclined to the view
that it was both a temple and a burying-place, and in this opinion he
was probably right. The native name which he applied to it, _afiatouca_,
means a burial-place; for it is doubtless equivalent to _fytoca_, a word
which Mariner explains to mean "a burying-place, including the grave,
the mount in which it is sunk, and a sort of shed over it."[137]
Moreover, the oblong square of blue pebbles, which Captain Cook observed
on the floor of the house on the mound, and which he regarded as the
altar, speaks also in favour of the house being a tomb; for Mariner has
described how th