200 
VOYAGE TO THE 
trees, stood. The exterior appearance of the building itself 
does not differ from that of the grass houses of the native 
chiefs. It is surrounded by a palisade formed of the trunks 
of palm-trees, and the court within the palisade is filled with 
rude wooden images of all shapes and dimensions, whose 
grotesque forms and horrible countenances present a most 
/ 
extraordinary spectacle. Most of these idols are placed in 
the same attitude; one, however, was distinguished by a 
greater degree of skill in the carving: it had a child in its 
arms. There were also a number of poles with carved heads 
in various parts of the court, and, immediately in front of 
the morai, and outside of the palisades, there was a kind of 
sentinel deity of a very grotesque shape. On entering the 
morai we saw on one hand a line of deities made of wicker¬ 
work, clothed in fine tapa, now nearly destroyed by time, 
and adorned with feathered helmets and masks, made more 
hideous by rows of sharks' teeth, and tufts of human hair; 
each differing a little from the other, but all preserving a 
strong family likeness. Under these the bones of the an¬ 
cient kings of the Island are said to be deposited; and near 
them the favourite weapons of deceased chiefs and heroes, 
their ornaments, and whatever else might have been pleasing 
to them while alive. 
As the idolatrous worship of these things is now at an 
