{"id":"01KG8AKYRKBJQQFE9AJWMDWKCA","cid":"bafkreia6ex5gdzbnpbkuryeq5m3fysunyvxirsa5ndufwupc6iy3h6qjsq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6066,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":5990,"text":"CHAPTER XLIV.\r\nCATHEDRAL OF PAPOAR—THE CHURCH OF THE COCOA-NUTS\r\n\r\n\r\nOn Sundays I always attended the principal native church, on the\r\noutskirts of the village of Papeetee, and not far from the Calabooza\r\nBeretanee. It was esteemed the best specimen of architecture in Tahiti.\r\n\r\nOf late, they have built their places of worship with more reference to\r\ndurability than formerly. At one time, there were no less than\r\nthirty-six on the island—mere barns, tied together with thongs, which\r\nwent to destruction in a very few years.\r\n\r\nOne, built many years ago in this style, was a most remarkable\r\nstructure. It was erected by Pomaree II., who, on this occasion, showed\r\nall the zeal of a royal proselyte. The building was over seven hundred\r\nfeet in length, and of a proportionate width; the vast ridge-pole was\r\nat intervals supported by a row of thirty-six cylindrical trunks of the\r\nbread-fruit tree; and, all round, the wall-plates rested on shafts of\r\nthe palm. The roof—steeply inclining to within a man’s height of the\r\nground—was thatched with leaves, and the sides of the edifice were\r\nopen. Thus spacious was the Royal Mission Chapel of Papoar.\r\n\r\nAt its dedication, three distinct sermons were, from different pulpits,\r\npreached to an immense concourse gathered from all parts of the island.\r\n\r\nAs the chapel was built by the king’s command, nearly as great a\r\nmultitude was employed in its construction as swarmed over the\r\nscaffolding of the great temple of the Jews. Much less time, however,\r\nwas expended. In less than three weeks from planting the first post,\r\nthe last tier of palmetto-leaves drooped from the eaves, and the work\r\nwas done.\r\n\r\nApportioned to the several chiefs and their dependants, the labour,\r\nthough immense, was greatly facilitated by everyone’s bringing his\r\npost, or his rafter, or his pole strung with thatching, ready for\r\ninstant use. The materials thus prepared being afterwards secured\r\ntogether by thongs, there was literally “neither hammer, nor axe, nor\r\nany tool of iron heard in the house while it was building.”\r\n\r\nBut the most singular circumstance connected with this South Sea\r\ncathedral remains to be related. As well for the beauty as the\r\nadvantages of such a site, the islanders love to dwell near the\r\nmountain streams; and so, a considerable brook, after descending from\r\nthe hills and watering the valley, was bridged over in three places,\r\nand swept clean through the chapel.\r\n\r\nFlowing waters! what an accompaniment to the songs of the sanctuary;\r\nmingling with them the praises and thanksgivings of the green solitudes\r\ninland.\r\n\r\nBut the chapel of the Polynesian Solomon has long since been deserted.\r\nIts thousand rafters of habiscus have decayed, and fallen to the\r\nground; and now, the stream murmurs over them in its bed.\r\n\r\nThe present metropolitan church of Tahiti is very unlike the one just\r\ndescribed. It is of moderate dimensions, boarded over, and painted\r\nwhite. It is furnished also with blinds, but no sashes; indeed, were it\r\nnot for the rustic thatch, it would remind one of a plain chapel at\r\nhome.\r\n\r\nThe woodwork was all done by foreign carpenters, of whom there are\r\nalways several about Papeetee.\r\n\r\nWithin, its aspect is unique, and cannot fail to interest a stranger.\r\nThe rafters overhead are bound round with fine matting of variegated\r\ndyes; and all along the ridge-pole these trappings hang pendent, in\r\nalternate bunches of tassels and deep fringes of stained grass. The\r\nfloor is composed of rude planks. Regular aisles run between ranges of\r\nnative settees, bottomed with crossed braids of the cocoa-nut fibre,\r\nand furnished with backs.\r\n\r\nBut the pulpit, made of a dark, lustrous wood, and standing at one end,\r\nis by far the most striking object. It is preposterously lofty; indeed,\r\na capital bird’s-eye view of the congregation ought to be had from its\r\nsummit.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJK7HSRQYKTR9AQ3B6S2Z","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKYRK9B8DHWYDREKWWSC4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.267Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.695Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}