78 Concerning South Sea Islands iv 



hundred yards wide, covered with cocos, bread-fruit, 

 and iron trees. There was a very remarkable 

 Cyclopean causeway along the edge of this lagoon, 

 said to have been built by a large tribe in a single 

 night, in order to procure a famous beauty for their 

 chief — it being supposed that it was the right thing 

 to do something heroical and beyond the common 

 on such occasions. On the land side were many 

 " morals," generally formed of immense slabs of coral 

 rock tilted up on end, and sustaining thick walls and 

 terraces of smaller stones. They seem to have been 

 partly places of sacrifice, and partly places of assembly. 

 Pigs were sacrificed on the big upper ones, but the 

 chiefs had human sacrifices on the smaller and 

 lower : one quite rejected with disgust and disdain 

 the idea that these human sacrifices were ever eaten. 

 Out over the waters of the lagoon there was built a 

 village on piles. The huts were very large ; the 

 walls formed of hibiscus, with plenty of room 

 between the sticks, as the people like fresh air ; the 

 floors covered with dry grass and pretty mats, all 

 very clean and tidy. Coming home in a canoe, a 

 strange thing happened : suddenly a flight of gar- 

 fishes, some two or three feet long, rose from the 

 surface of the water and sprang right across the 

 canoe like flashes of green flame ; one of them, how- 

 ever, catching our little padre a sounding thwack in 

 the ribs, plentifully covering his coat with scales, and 

 then falling stunned among our legs, was made a 

 prize of. The native said that had it caught him 



