Note 18 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
In the Hervey Islands a marae seems to have been a sacred grove. So it is described by W. W. Gill (Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 14), who adds in a note: "These maraes were planted with callophylla inophylla, etc., etc., which, untouched by the hand of man from generation to generation, threw a sacred gloom over the mysteries of idol-worship. The trees were accounted sacred, not for their own sake, but on account of the place where they grew."