THE COMPLETED ATOLL. 235 



(p. 135). The grove of cocoanut-trees contains the sacred 

 or public house ot the island — a well-made structure measuring 

 fifty feet by thirty-five in length and breadth, and twenty 

 feet in height. In front of the building stands the deity of 

 the place, consisting of a block of stone fourteen feet high, 

 enveloped in mats ; and also near by, a smaller idol, partially 

 covered with matting. In the left corner there is a young 

 cocoanut palm — usually a more beautiful object than the full- 

 crown tree. 



F/.KAAFO,. OR BOWDITGH LSI ANOv 



This island and the two others near it were among the few, 

 perhaps the last, examples that remained until 1840, ot 

 Pacific lands never before visited, by the white man. The 

 people therefore were in that purely savage state which 

 Captain Cook found almost universal through the ocean in 

 the latter part of last century. A few words respecting our 

 reception at this coral island may not, therefore, be an im- 

 proper digression. 



