They were decked with green boughs and ornamented with a border
of yellow plantain leaves. The small altars, which were of round form,
rested on a single post firmly fixed in the ground. The enclosure also
contained the private dwellings of the priests and of the guardians of
the images. Trees, with large and sombre foliage, were planted in the
temple area and around its exterior walls to diffuse delightful shade
over the open space. The tabued trees planted in consecrated ground
were the cypress, the tamanu or Calophyllum inophyllum, the miro or
Thespesia populnea, the aito or Gasuarina equisitifolia, and the tou or
Cordia. The precincts of the temple were considered so sacred that
the profane mortal who approached too closely without express per-
mission was punished with death. The toos or images of the atuas,
before whom the priests deposited the offerings, were rudely cut or
carved of stone or wood. The stone image was frequently nothing
but a column or block of triangular form dressed up in characteristic
habiliments. The wooden idols were hollow, almost formless or pre-
senting a hideous caricature of the human figure. The maro uru
which was a girdle worked with red and other coloured feathers was
an object dedicated to the gods, and the king and the chiefs of the
areoi societies had alone the privilege of wearing it when first installed
in their office, and henceforth their person was considered sacred and
inviolable.
