Temples and places of sacrifice

Dances and songs are indispensable parts of divine service, especially at the feast of the breadfruit gathering. In this either they use dancing staves, or the operation consists only of harmonious movements of the arms and legs. Semper heard of loose dances practised by the women of Pelew, it was said on moonlight nights, in honour of a female deity, but he was kept in the dark on the subject. Dances are held to the accompaniment of songs recited by girls, in honour of fortunate head hunters. On these occasions it is usual to paint the legs and all the upper part of the body red, but a good part of the veneration of the gods consists in silence.

Sacred place in Dorey, New Guinea. (After Raffray.)

Gods who possess no temple must not be disturbed by, noisy movement or shouting. When Rongala descends upon the island of Fais, there must be neither talking nor noise. The inhabitants draw near to the forest only in festal garments and softly.

Various kinds of sacred places

Sacred places are of many kinds; one must not always expect buildings, the whole world is animate, and all Nature may be regarded as a temple. Places are sacred only by reason of the spirits that are dwelling in them; where the conditions were simple, the priest's house, in which the fire might never go out, was the locality for sacred transactions; every grave is holy of itself, and in all these places there was a right of asylum. The soul-worship, customary here, gave rise to places of adoration, where in course of time the cult of other spirits could also find a footing.

Graves as places of veneration

Places devoted exclusively to the adoration of the gods as a rule existed more in the eastern group of islands, but these also were originally only places of burial: Since, at the death of any eminent person, no new burial place was made, but the interment took place in the sanctuary of an ancestor, the sanctity attaching to a place mounted up.

Large octagonal stone buildings with steps were rare, and were devoted only to the most illustrious; while in more recent times they seemed to have ceased. More usually rectangular mounds of earth were erected, 10 to 14 feet in height, surrounded at the bottom with a low wall. The level top was often paved, and one or more pretty shrines stood upon it, their floors carefully laid with small pebbles; these covered the grave. On one of the longer sides, two or three high steps led to the level top, which was surrounded on the other three sides with a wall or a hedge. On it stood altars resembling high platforms, and also images of the gods, some of which were also usually fastened to the surrounding walls.

There were single houses for the priests, and even sacred trees. In those times, too, the images of the chief gods were not in the temples, only on solemn occasions they were brought from the priests' house into the temple by sacred bearers who were not allowed to carry on any other occupation.

In New Ireland, enclosures and buildings of wood and stone, frequently coinciding with burial places, serve as places of adoration, called Marae, and Amalau. Mausolea of this kind in the interior of Rotuma, consist of stone buildings like dolmens formerly used for graves; they are octagonal near Metalanim in Ponapé, made like three boxes, one inside another, or in cellar-like excavations filled with bones;^[1] there are similar buildings in Ualan. Other sacred stone erections take the form of a small step pyramid, ascended by a stair, and with a summit crowned by an upright stone. In the Pelew Islands, the Kalits dwell in octagonal wooden huts, inside of which a small partition of boards is set up, while the priest, through whom the spirit speaks to men, lives outside.

It is just the same in Fiji, but here the old fashion is giving way to modern times. Semper even saw Kalits dwelling in simple huts. Among the Melanesians, again, the sacred places are graves, spots where the skull and other remains of ancestors are preserved, and solitary places in forests on the shore, on mountain tops, in caves, which spirits like to visit. The nearest approach to temples are the common meeting-houses. In the Solomon Islands these are called sacred houses - the name "devil's house" is naturally the offspring of European fancy; but they are never used exclusively for religious purposes.

1. See also http://www.inquirewithin.biz/history/american_pacific/oceania/ruins.htm.