t 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 cocoa-nuts, 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, elevated 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 cocoa-nut trees, planted at intervals along a
level area of a hundred yards. At the farther 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 grove.

In its vicinity was another remarkable edifice,