92 Transactions . — Miscclla mo us. 



more tlian one place Lamont noticed remains which did not 

 appear to have been the liandiwork of the present inhabitants, 

 but belonged to a bygone age. He says, " Some distance 

 beyond this were what appeared to be the foundations of stone 

 walls, many of them intersecting our path. I afterwards saw- 

 similar erections in other parts of the island, but could never 

 get a proper explanation of them, the natives merely saying 

 that they had been houses, but apparently knowing nothing 

 more of them than I did. These remains, like the huge stones 

 of the viaraes that are evidently made of composition — though 

 the natives believe them to have come out of the sea — led me 

 to believe that another race must have at one time inhabited 

 this little portion of the globe." In another place he says, 

 " I observed that the mound was hollowed out like a cave, and 

 intersected with paths of large flat stones, some lines of which 

 crossed over the summit and descended to the water's edge. 

 The place had at one time been used for some peculiar cere- 

 monies, but of what nature I could never learn." 



The viarae, or temple, is common in some form or other in 

 most of the islands of eastern Polynesia. Cook's description 

 of them at Tahiti will be remembered. They appear always 

 to be connected with the superstitious observances of the 

 people, and are the depositories of the visible incarnation of 

 their gods, and the place where the priests performed their 

 incantations and offered uj) sacrifices, frequently of human 

 victims. The term marae in Maori was formerly applied to 

 a sacred enclosure, but latterly to the open space in a pa and 

 to the courtyard in front of their houses. The viaraes of 

 Tongarewa were held to be very sacred : no women or children 

 were ever admitted within their precincts except on the 

 occasion of the death of a husband, when the wife or wives 

 were allowed to follow the body and be present when the in- 

 cantations of the priest were recited. 



Personal Appear.^nce and Customs. 



The men are described as tall, stout fellows, with brown 

 skins and handsome bushy beards, generally black, but some- 

 times tinged with auburn, the hair generally long and straight, 

 but sometimes curly. The women were much smaller, with 

 delicate fingers and beautifully-formed hands, and very pleas- 

 ing in appearance up to twenty years of age. More than one 

 woman is described as having auburn hair and a fair skin, 

 answering to the urukehw or reddish-coloured hair sometimes 

 seen amongst the Maoris. Both sexes were virtuous whilst 

 young, in which they differ materially from the usual custom 

 of the Polynesians. 



In their habits they were cleanly, bathing every morning 

 in baths formed at the edge of the lagoon, and subsequently in 



