110 



porter's journal. 



trees with which 1 am not acquainted, situated at the foot 

 of a steep mountain by the side of a rivulet, and on a plat- 

 form made after the usual manner, is a deity formed of 

 hard stone, about the common height of a man, but larger 

 proportioned every other way. It is in a squatting pos- 

 ture, and not badly executed. His ears and eyes are 

 large, his mouth wide, his arms and legs short and small ; 

 and, on the whole, is such a figure as a person would ex- 

 pect to meet among a people where the art of sculpture is 

 in its infancy. Arranged on each side of him, as well as in 

 the rear and front, are several others, of nearly equal size^ 

 formed of the wood of the bread-fruit tree. They are not 

 more perfect in their proportions than the other, and ap- 

 pear to be made on the same model. Probably they are 

 copies, and the stone god may serve as the model of per- 

 fection for all the sculptures of the Island, as their house- 

 hold gods, their ornaments for the handles of their fans, 

 their stilts, and, in fact, every representation of the figure of 

 a man is made on the same plan. To the right and left of 

 those gods are two obelisks, formed very fancifully and 

 neatly of bamboos and the leaves of the palm and cocoa-nut 

 trees interwoven. The whole is handsomely decorated 

 with streamers of white cloth, which give a picturesque 

 and elegant appearance. The obelisks are about thirty- 

 five feet in height, and about the base of them were hung 

 the heads of hogs and tortoises, as I was informed, as 

 offerings to their gods. On the right of this grove, distant 

 only a few paces, were four splendid war canoes, furnished 

 with their outriggers, and decorated with ornaments of 

 human hair, coral shells, &:c. with an abundance of white 

 streamers. Their heads were placed toward the moun- 

 tain, and in the stern of each was a figure of a man with a 

 paddle steering, in full dress, ornamented with plumes, 

 earrings made to represent those formed of whales' teeth, 

 and every other ornament of the fashion of the country. 

 One of the canoes was more splendid than the others, and 

 was situated nearer the grove. I inquired who the digni- 

 fied personage might be who was seated in her stern, and 

 was informed that this was the priest who had been killed, 

 not long since, by the Happahs. The stench here was in- 

 tolerable from the number of offerings which had been 

 made ; but. attracted by curiosity, I went to examine the 



