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