OBEREA'S MORAL 485 



coral stone, which was neatly squared and polished ; the rest 

 of the mass, for there was no hollow within, consisted of 

 round pebbles, which, from the regularity of their figure, 

 seemed to have been wrought."* A very similar account of 

 this structure has been more recently given by Wilson,-)- who 

 makes the size and height a little greater; and when it is 

 considered that this was raised without the assistance of iron 

 tools to shape the stones, or of mortar to fasten them together, 

 it is impossible not to be struck with admiration at the mag- 

 nitude of the enterprize, and the skill with which it appears 

 to have been carried out. It is, perhaps, the most important 

 monument which is positively known to have been constructed 

 with stone tools only, and renders it the less unlikely that 

 some of the large tumuli and other ancient monuments of 

 Europe may belong to the Stone Age. When a chief died, 

 his relations and attendants cut and mangled themselves in a 

 dreadful manner. They ran spears through their thighs, arms, 

 and cheeks, and beat themselves about the head with clubs 

 " till the blood ran down in streams." They also frequently 

 cut off the little finger on these occasions ; a curious custom, 

 which is common also in the Friendly Islands. 



In Tiarrabou, Captain Cook saw a rude figure of a man, 

 made of basket-work and about seven feet high. This was 

 intended as a representation of one of the inferior gods, but 

 was said to be the only one on the island ; for the natives, 

 when first discovered, though they worshipped numerous 

 deities, to whom also human sacrifices were sometimes offered, 

 yet were not idolaters. At a later period, however, Ellis saw 



* Cook's Voyage round the World, a similar mausoleum built with 



vol. ii. p. 166. Similar "but some- blocks of stone, some of which were 



what smaller morais were observed twenty feet long, six or eight broad, 



in the Sandwich Islands (Third and two in height. They were 



Voyage, vol. iii. p. 6). In the neatly squared. 1. c. vol. iv. p. 106. 

 Friendly Islands, D'Urville saw t I c. p. 207. 



