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 die 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.
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