AREOI HEAVED. 
245 
of all the sacred and mysterious influence the indi¬ 
vidual was supposed to have received from the 
god, when, in the presence of the idol, the per¬ 
fumed oil had been sprinkled upon him, and he 
had been raised to the order or rank in which he 
died. By this act it was imagined they were all 
returned to Oro, by whom they had been originally 
imparted. The body was then buried as the body 
of a common man, within the precincts of the 
temple, in which the bodies of chiefs were interred. 
This ceremony was not much unlike certain por¬ 
tions of the degrading rites performed on the person 
of a heretic, in connexion with an auto de fe, in the 
Romish church. 
The resources of the Areois were ample. They 
were, therefore, always enabled to employ the 
priest of Romatane, who was supposed to have the 
keys of Rohutu noanoa, the Tahitian’s paradise. 
This priest consequently succeeded the priest of 
Oro, in the funeral ceremonies : he stood by the 
dead body, and offered his petitions to Urutaetae, 
who was not altogether the Charon of their mytho¬ 
logy, but the god whose office it was to conduct 
the spirits of Areois and others, for whom the 
priest of Romatane was employed, to the place of 
happiness. 
This Rohutu noanoa, literally, (perfumed or fra¬ 
grant Rohutu,) was altogether a Mahomedan 
paradise. It was supposed to be near a lofty and 
stupendous mountain in Raiatea, situated in the 
vicinity of Hamaniino harbour, and called Tsme¬ 
lt cini unauna, splendid or glorious Temehani. It 
was, however, said to be invisible to mortal eyes, 
being in the reva , or aerial regions. The country 
was described as most lovely and enchanting in 
appearance, adorned with flowers of every form 
