532 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION E. 



both cases I stould have been in error. We know too little at present 

 of the importance attached to the large carved figures in the temples 

 of Le ua Niua, or of the worship which is paid them, to enable me to 

 say definitely whether they are regarded as idols and have worship paid 

 to them as such. But certainly the impression on our minds was that 

 they were so regarded and treated. We looked in at the temple, or, 

 as most of our party called it, the " devil house," but we were not 

 allowed in this case to go inside. The chief priest and his attendants 

 were seated inside, and did not come out to see us. The building was 

 not in good repair at all. It was about 50ft. in length by about 20ft. 

 wide. At one end there were two large rudely carved figures, con- 

 siderably over life-size. One, we were told, was a male devil or god, 

 and the other one a female of the same genus. On a low platform at 

 the feet of tlie figures were two child idols — male and female — to com- 

 plete the family. The house was full of carved representations of every 

 kind of fish and all the animals with which the people had any acquaint- 

 ance. So far as we could gather, the principal functions of the priests 

 were to make spells for the cure of sickness, avert misfortune, control 

 the winds and weather, and generally to do everything which the people 

 wished them to do. It was a pretty large order, but from all I could 

 hear the people had full confidence in their powers, and, as I heard 

 afterwards, the priest attributed the misfortune which we had at a 

 later date on our return from the Tasman Group, when the schooner 

 was nearly wrecked, to the fact that we had not engaged the power of 

 the priest to protect us in that voyage. He, I believe, firmly declares 

 now, and has informed all subsequent visitors, that he himself was the 

 cause of our narrow escape from shipwreck. 



LARGE GENERAL CEMETERIES. 

 During our visit we inspected what I consider to be the most 

 interesting places which I had visited in any of those groups. The 

 general custom of burial in the Polynesian groups is for the dead to- 

 be buried near to the houses in which they lived, whilst in Melanesia 

 they are either exposed on platforms on uninhabited islands or in man- 

 grove swamps, cast into the sea, or, in some cases, cremated. In Tonga 

 chiefs of importance have family " faitokas," or family burying-grounds, 

 for their respective families ; but this was the only case I had ever seen 

 where the dead were buried in large general cemeteries. The cemeteries 

 at Le ua Niua, of which I succeeded in getting some very good photo- 

 graphs, were in open clear spaces, covered with white sand, and they 

 were kept most scrupulously clean, not a leaf or piece of dirt being 

 allowed to remain upon them. Every grave was marked by a large 

 upright coral slab, which, in many instances, was highly colored, and 

 the top of the slab was also frequently covered with pandanus leaves. 

 It was a most affecting sight to see some of the mourners for a child 

 (which had been dead some months) sitting over the grave with heads 

 bowed down and in complete silence. They had erected a small, rude 

 hut close to the grave, and in this they lived for at least a year, most 

 of which time was spent in sitting or lying on the grave by day and 



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