State Library of NSW
[Page 488]
Manners & Customs of the South Sea Islands
on each others heads these however are in no degree the objects of adoration every prayer & sacrafise being here offerd to the Invisible deities
Near or even within the Marai are one or more large altars raisd upon high posts 10 or 12 feet above the ground which are calld Whatterow on these are laid the offerings Hogs dogs fowls fruits or what ever else the piety or superfluity of the owner thinks proper to dedicate to the gods
Both these places are reverencd in the highest degree no man aproaches them without taking his Cloths from off his shoulders & no woman is on any account permitted to enter them The women however have Marais of their own where they worship & sacrifice to their female Godesses.
Of these Marais each family of Consequence has one which serves him & his dependants as each family values itself
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