542 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



The priesthood was hereditary, descending from father to son. Under 

 the laws of Tonga the high-priests could marry only the daughters of 

 the king. Their sons became priests, and the daughters occupied a 

 position analogous to that of the Vestal Virgins and were not permitted 

 to marry. This long line is now extinct, the last of the Tui-Tongas hav- 

 ing been laid with his fathers in 1863. 



About 6 miles beyond these tombs, on the eastern shore, stands an 

 ancient cromlech, or more properly speaking a dolmen. This interesting 

 monument is composed of three blocks of coral concrete. The two up- 

 rights are 14 feet high, 8 feet wide and nearly 4 feet thick, and weigh 

 over 15 tons each, while the cross-piece is somewhat smaller and weighs 

 about 10 tons. The native tradition is that these larger masses of stone 

 were cut from the coral reef about 2 miles distant, aud that the vertex 

 was brought by one of their large canoes from Wallis Island. While it 

 is possible for this legend to be founded upon fact, there is room for 

 strong doubt, since the same formation exists upon both islands ; but 

 the difficulty of handling a stone of that size aud weight, and of carrying 

 it a distance of 600 miles by sea, would hardly be warranted when it 

 could be quarried on their own shores. Viewed, however, as a trophy, 

 and the cromlech as a sort of triumphal arch to commemorate a victory, 

 (for the Tongans were perhaps the most successful of the ocean rovers 

 of the Pacific) the legend of the stone seems entitled to greater credence 

 than the neglected pile would at first warrant. The traditions do not 

 go back far enough to tell us by whom this cromlech was erected, but 

 simply assert its erection by one of the early kings on the advent of his 

 dynasty, a fact which the disintegration of the stone, due to age, would 

 seem to corroborate. The Samoans formerly erected stone pillars to the 

 memory of their chiefs, but the most interesting relic of former ages, in 

 this group, is the ruins of a heathen temple located in the mountains 

 near the center of the island of Opolu. Secreted in an almost in- 

 accessible gully, this temple was built in the form of an ellipse, meas- 

 uring 57 feet one way by 39 feet the other. The roof was evidently 

 thatched with pandanus leaves, as is the custom to the present day, but 

 three large columns of basaltic rock formed the center supports, while 

 the eaves rested upon the pillars of the same stone placed at intervals 

 of 3 feet apart arouud the ellipse. Many of these stones are still stand- 

 ing, but the site has been almost obscured by a dense tropical growth. 



Within a few feet of the old temple is an ancient tomb covered with 

 a large block of stone and marked by an upright basaltic column. Sa- 

 moau legends do not give much information about this ruiu, but the 

 Tongan traditions hold that the temple was built by them, after they had 

 conquered the Samoans, aud that the tomb is that of one of the Tui- 

 Tongas who accompanied the successful expedition, aud who died and 

 was buried alongside of tlie temple. This conquest took place at least 

 eight hundred years ago, for it was about this time that Malietoa I. was 



