{"id":"01KG8AKT6RR1K3KFS09ESM9HXD","cid":"bafkreia4bzpfjuom6nln5ucbydd3ik2ptj4byhr4gpuquxwdgh4c53rgsq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7778,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":7730,"text":"trees were casting long shadows in the setting sun. Here, a piece of\r\nground some hundred feet square, covered with weeds and brambles, and\r\nsounding hollow to the tread, was inclosed by a ruinous wall of stones.\r\nTonoi said it was an almost forgotten burial-place, of great antiquity,\r\nwhere no one had been interred since the islanders had been Christians.\r\nSealed up in dry, deep vaults, many a dead heathen was lying here.\r\n\r\nCurious to prove the old man’s statement, I was anxious to get a peep\r\nat the catacombs; but hermetically overgrown with vegetation as they\r\nwere, no aperture was visible.\r\n\r\nBefore gaining the level of the valley, we passed by the site of a\r\nvillage, near a watercourse, long since deserted. There was nothing but\r\nstone walls, and rude dismantled foundations of houses, constructed of\r\nthe same material. Large trees and brushwood were growing rankly among\r\nthem.\r\n\r\nI asked Tonoi how long it was since anyone had lived here. “Me,\r\ntammaree (boy)—plenty kannaker (men) Martair,” he replied. “Now, only\r\npoor pehe kannaka (fishermen) left—me born here.”\r\n\r\nGoing down the valley, vegetation of every kind presented a different\r\naspect from that of the high land.\r\n\r\nChief among the trees of the plain on this island is the “Ati,” large\r\nand lofty, with a massive trunk, and broad, laurel-shaped leaves. The\r\nwood is splendid. In Tahiti, I was shown a narrow, polished plank fit\r\nto make a cabinet for a king. Taken from the heart of the tree, it was\r\nof a deep, rich scarlet, traced with yellow veins, and in some places\r\nclouded with hazel.\r\n\r\nIn the same grove with the regal “AH” you may see the beautiful\r\nflowering “Hotoo”; its pyramid of shining leaves diversified with\r\nnumberless small, white blossoms.\r\n\r\nPlanted with trees as the valley is almost throughout its entire\r\nlength, I was astonished to observe so very few which were useful to\r\nthe natives: not one in a hundred was a cocoa-nut or bread-fruit tree.\r\n\r\nBut here Tonoi again enlightened me. In the sanguinary religious\r\nhostilities which ensued upon the conversion of Christianity of the\r\nfirst Pomaree, a war-party from Tahiti destroyed (by “girdling” the\r\nbark) entire groves of these invaluable trees. For some time afterwards\r\nthey stood stark and leafless in the sun; sad monuments of the fate\r\nwhich befell the inhabitants of the valley.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM0X5X1TW97VPMKQ49XM","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT6R2VFX1MNZFTJ3VH3F","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.600Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.213Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}