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 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