.UTTER XV.] 



A HEATHEN TEMPLE. 



145 



■Hawaiian commerce. But ah ! how soft and mild a blue the 

 fcky was, looking inland, where, for the first time, I saw far 

 laloft, above solid masses of white cloud, sky hung, strangely 

 ■uplifted, the great volcanic domes of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, 

 Kind Hualalai, looking as if they had all passed into an endless 

 ■repose. 



Shortly before we arrived I found that the sailing of the 

 ■San Francisco steamer is put off for a week, so I took advan- 

 tage of a kind invitation I received some time ago to visit 

 IWaimea, and go from thence to Waimanu, a wonderful valley 

 ■beyond Waipio, very little visited by foreigners. A gentleman 

 Kind lady rode up here with me, and I got a horse on the beach 

 ■with a native bullock saddle on him, an uncouth contrivance of 

 ■wood not covered with hide, and a strong lassoing horn. The 

 ■great wooden stirrups could not be shortened, but I soon found 

 ■myself able, in true savage fashion, to gallop up and down hill 

 without any. 



The chief object of interest on this ride is the great heian, 

 which stands on a bare, steep hill above the sea, not easy of 

 access. It was the last heathen temple built on Hawaii. On 

 entering the huge pile, which stood gaunt and desolate in the 

 thin red air, the story of the old bloody heathenism of the 

 islands returned to my memory. The entrance is by a narrow 

 passage between two high walls, and it was by this that the 

 sacrificing priests dragged the human victims into the presence 

 of Tairi, a hideous wooden idol, crowned with a helmet, and 

 covered with red feathers, the favourite war-god of Kame- 

 hameha the Great, by whom this temple was built, before he 

 proceeded to the conquest of Oahu. 



The shape is an irregular parallelogram, 224 feet long, and 

 100 wide. At each end, and on the mauka side, the walls, 

 which are very solid and compact, though built of lava stones 

 without mortar, are twenty feet high, and twelve feet wide at 

 the bottom, but narrow gradually towards the top, where they 

 are finished with a course of smooth stones six feet broad. On 

 the sea side, the wall, which has been partly thrown down, was 

 not more than six or seven feet high, and there were paved 

 platforms for the accommodation of the alii, or chiefs, and the 

 people in their orders. The upper terrace is spacious, and 

 paved with flat smooth stones which were. brought from a con- 

 siderable distance, the greater part of the population of the 

 island having been employed on the building. At the south 

 end there was an inner court, where the principal idol stood, 



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