28 The Aticient Haivaiian House. 



fleshless arms. It is even probable that there are houses of this description still standing at the 

 present day. At the root of this horrible practice we may doubtless recognize the once widespread 

 superstition that the sacrifice of a human victim, when a foundation was being laid, propitiated the 

 gods and secured the stability of the building. 



When the house timber was cut and ready for hauling from the forest, then also men were 

 slain who were called Yara-ninduru or "draggers of the post"; the setting up of the first pair of 

 rafters was celebrated by a cannibal feast, whose victims were called Lala^va-ni-sa, or "rafter tiers", 

 and when the building was finished other unfortunate wretches were killed and eaten. These were 

 known as \'aka-i'oii-voti , a word whose etymology I am unable to explain. 



In another place Mr. Fison tells of an old chief in a corner of whose dwelling 

 were buried some fifteen of his children, most of them mnrdered by their father, so it 

 wonld seem unlikely that these people had arrived at the luxitry of a hatmted house ! 

 It will be noticed that with exception of the post viAims, the offerings were eaten, not 

 simplj' offered to the gods. 



Lest this custom of the Pacific Islanders, which shocks the modern feelings, 

 should be considered a mark of especial depravity or hardness of heart, let me state 

 that even in Christian countries and in the case of Christian churches the survival of 

 this human sacrifice is a matter of histor}^, and modern histor}' at that. I quote from 

 S. Baring-Gould's "Strange Survivals", 1895, p. 13: 



In 18S5, Holsworthy parish church was restored, and in the course of restoration the south- 

 west angle wall of the church was taken down. In it, embedded in the mortar and stone, was found 

 a skeleton. The wall of this portion of the church was faulty, and had settled. According to the 

 account of the masons who found the ghastly remains, there was no trace of a tomb, but every appear- 

 ance of the person having been buried alive and hurriedlj'. A mass of mortar was over the mouth, 

 and the stones were huddled about the corpse as though hastily heaped about it, then the walls were 

 leisurely proceeded with. 



The tradition of the ramparts of Copenhagen given by Thiele in his "Danish 

 Folk-tales" is, there can be no doubt, founded on fact. As the walls of the ramparts 

 would not stand firm on the poor foundation, the btiilders took a little girl, placed her 

 in a chair b}' a table on which were sweetmeats and plaj-things to amuse her, and then 

 a dozen masons rapidl}' built a vatilt over her, covering it with earth, and drowning 

 the innocent child's cries with drums and trumpets. Baring Gould tells us that a few 

 years ago, when the Bridge Gate in the Bremen walls was demolished, the skeleton of 

 a child-was actually fotmd imbedded in the foundation. The same author we quote: 



In the walls of the ancient castle of Henneberg, the seat of a line of powerful counts, is a re- 

 lieving arch, and the story goes that a mason engaged on the castle was induced by the offer of a sum 

 of money to yield his child to be built into it. The child was given a cake, and the father stood on 

 a ladder superintending the building. When the last stone was put in the child screamed in the 

 wall, and the man overwhelmed with self-reproach, lost his hold, fell from the ladder, and broke his 



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