In the rear of the marae was the ossary where the bones of the victims were thrown.  In Manila I had viewed immense heaps of these discarded skeletons of humans dragged from niches in a wall and flung indiscriminately on the ground by the monks, who owned the Paco cemetery, because the rent for the niches was past due.  Tetuanui said that in his grandfather’s day there was a bad odor about the ossary, as there was in Paco until the American Government abolished the iniquity.

The altar itself was called Fatarau.  Here were laid the offerings of fruit and meat, but human victims were not exposed on it.  Their bodies were thrown into the ossary after the ceremony was completed.  The altar was always bare except at these times, and none ascended it but priests, ecstatics, and the man who carried the god.  Only he and the high priest might touch this idol.  The demoniacs were usually in collusion with the priests, willy-nilly.

The idol was the king’s or prince’s god.  Each had his own.  A royal idol was wrapped in precious cloths and adorned with feathers, made usually of ironwood, and was about six feet long.  They diminished in size with the importance of the owner, and among the commoners might be put in a pocket or a piece of bamboo, like the pocket saints one buys in Rome.  Besides, every chief and little chief had his own marae, which might be very small indeed, as family shrines.  Of great religious events the royal maraes were the scenes, and the high priests were attached to these.  The personnel of the marae was: 

The king, chief, or master of the temple; all ceremonies were for his benefit.  The high priest and his assistants, the latter ordinary priests.  The high priests served only the maraes of the first rank.  The orero, who were preachers or poets; the oripou, or night runners; the guardian porters of the idol.  The sorcerers or demoniacs.

Thus there were six ranks in the service of the temple.  The high priest was supreme under the king, and decided when a human sacrifice was demanded by the gods.  He was a kind of cardinal or bishop, and his jurisdiction extended over the maraes in the territory of his master.  The priests’ functions were like those of the high priest except that they were subordinate, and they could not replace him in certain ceremonies.  The orero was the living book of the religion, the holy chants of tradition, of ancestry, and of state.  He must recite without hesitation these various records before the marae in the middle of an immense crowd.  The orero cultivated their memories marvelously.  They were usually sons of oreros or priests, and trained by years of study to retain volumes, as actors do parts.  The oripou or haerepo were youths, neophytes, intended for the priesthood, and assisted the ordinary priests; but their special duties were singular and interesting.  They were the couriers of the night, the spies of their districts upon neighboring clans.  In war-time their work was arduous and most important, and their calling very honorable.  Kings’ sons sometimes were oripou.  The idol-carriers were tabu.  Their persons might not be touched nor their food.