504 MYSTIC ISLES 



ing with my mind deeply impressed by the esoteric sug- 

 gestiveness of the scene. 



On a level spot, under five ponderous mape-trees, 

 eight or ten men of Tautira and of Pueu and Afaahiti 

 were completing the oven. They had dug a pit twenty- 

 five feet long, eighteen wide, and five deep, with straight 

 sides. It had been done with exactitude at the direc- 

 tion of the tahua, who was staying alone in a hut near by. 

 The earth from the pit formed a rampart about it, but 

 was leveled to not more than a foot's height. At the 

 bottom of the umu had been laid fagots of purau- and 

 guava-wood, and on them huge trunks of the tropical 

 chestnut, the mape. On the trunks were laid basaltic 

 rocks, or lumps of lava, boulders, and the stones about, 

 as big as a man's head. The oven was completed for 

 the lighting. 



To the north stood a giant phallus of stone, buried 

 in the earth, but protruding six feet, and inclined toward 

 the north. It was a foot in diameter, and was carved 

 au naturel as the IMaori lingam and yoni throughout 

 Polynesia, and in India, where doubtless the cult origin- 

 ated. Before the break-down of their culture, this stone 

 had been sprinkled with water, or anointed with co- 

 coanut-oil, and covered with a black cloth, as in Hawaii. 

 The Greeks called their similar god, Priapus, the Black- 

 Cloaked. 



A trench had been made on the west side of the pit 

 from which to ignite the fuel, a torch lit by fire struck 

 from wood by friction. I did not see the lighting, 

 which occurred Friday morning, thirty-six hours before 

 the ceremony. The ordinance was set for eight o'clock. 

 I swam in the river at five on Saturday, and lay down 



