THE CHURCH AT OTAKE, ON THE MANGANUI A TE AO. 
CHAPTER Y. 
WHARE-KURA. 
Although the natives had no places particularly devoted to 
religious purposes, there are still traditions of a temple having 
once existed amongst them. The wahi-tapu or sacred grove 
was not a place of assembly for worship; it was only entered 
by the priest, and merely contained the tombs of chiefs, of¬ 
ferings to the gods and sacrifices, together with food baskets 
and fragments unconsumed by sacred persons, rags, and the 
old garments of chiefs; their hair, when it had been cut, and 
such things; they were rather places to put things out of the 
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