POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
8/ 
was as diversified as the forms in which it was employed; 
it was^ nevertheless^ only when empty^ that its irre¬ 
gularity and grotesque variety appeared. When well 
filled with respectably dressed and attentive worshippers, 
as it generally was on the Sabbath, the difference in the 
material or structure of the places they occupied, was 
not easily noticed. 
A remarkably ingenious and durable low fence, called 
by the natives aumoa^ was erected round it, and the area 
within the enclosure was covered with small fragments 
of white branching coral, called anaana^ and found on 
the northern shores of the bay. 
In the month of April, 1820, it was finished, and on 
the 3d of May I had the pleasure of opening it for Divine 
service. 
A distressing epidemic had raged for some time among 
the people, and still confined many to their habitations, 
yet there were not fewer than fifteen hundred present. 
Many of them were arrayed in light European dresses, 
and all evidently appeared to feel a high degree of 
satisfaction in assembling for the public adoration of the 
Almighty in a building, in many respects an object of 
astonishment through the island, and which their own 
toil and perseverance had enabled them to finish. 
Individuals in England, who have materially contri¬ 
buted by personal exertions or pecuniary aid to the 
erection or enlargement of a church or chapel, have, 
when the object of their solicitude and their toil has 
been accomplished, experienced emotions of satisfaction 
during the subsequent opportunities they have had of 
rendering divine homage there; but the satisfaction of 
the Tahitians, though the same in kind, I am disposed to 
believe is stronger in degree, when standing on the floor, 
