444 MYSTIC ISLES 



the earth. Not impossibly, insects would render ex- 

 tinct all other beings, and then the cockroach could pro- 

 claim that creation had its apotheosis in it. 



The marae was the cathedral of the Tahitians. 

 About it focused all the ceremonies of the worship of 

 divinity, of consecration of priests and warriors to their 

 gods and their chiefs. The oldest marae was that of 

 Opoa, on the island of Raiatea, the source of the relig- 

 ion of these groups. It was built by Hiro, the first 

 king of Raiatea, who, deified after death, became the 

 god of thieves. The Papara marae was made of coral, 

 but the quarried mountain rock was laid at the founda- 

 tion, and these ponderous, uneven stones being patched 

 with coral, in time the blocks had become tightly ce- 

 mented together. A lime-kiln was along the land side 

 of this marae of Oberea, and for years had furnished 

 the cement, plaster, and whitewash of the district. 



In the rear of the marae was the ossary where the 

 bones of the victims were thrown. In Manila I had 

 viewed immense heaps of these discarded skeletons of 

 humans dragged from niches in a wall and flung indis- 

 criminately on the ground by the monks, who owned 

 the Paco cemetery, because the rent for the niches was 

 past due. Tetuanui said that in his grandfather's day 

 there was a bad odor about the ossary, as there was in 

 Paco until the American Government abohshed the in- 

 iquity. 



The altar itself was called Fatarau. Here were laid 

 the offerings of fruit and meat, but human victims were 

 not exposed on it. Their bodies were thrown into the 

 ossary after the ceremony was completed. The altar 

 was always bare except at these times, and none 



