PLATE 45 a, The "Sacrifice Stones," looking northwest[ToList]
PLATE 45 b, The "Sacrifice Stones," looking south[ToList]
As it now remains, this heiau consists of flat stones placed on edge to make an inclosure 30½ by 20½ feet across the center, the length of the walls being 27½ feet on the north, 31½ feet on the south, 19 feet on the east, and 23½ feet on the west. At the middle is a minor inclosure, similarly formed, 5 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 8 inches, longest north and south. This is a kind of "altar" or "praying place." From it a narrow passage, 12 to 18 inches wide, extends to the middle of each side. In each of the four divisions thus formed other stones were placed to form box-like spaces of diverse shapes and dimensions from 9 by 15 to 20 by 28 and 15 by 45 inches. All the stones were set on the surface, braced against one another; no excavation was made to hold them. They have been somewhat displaced so that the exact number of the boxes can not now be ascertained, but there are somewhere between 110 and 120 of them.
Partial views are shown in plates 42 and 43.
THE SACRIFICE STONES
On the south side of a ravine with steep slopes and bowlder-strewn bottom, half a mile from the "Rain Heiau," is a pile of stones, most of them the natural outcrop, but some of them intentionally placed. The entire mass measures about 27 feet across each way. The highest stone is a weather-worn slab, with the upper surface somewhat convex, 6 feet 9 inches long, 2 feet 3 inches wide on the bottom, 1 foot 3 inches wide on top, 1 foot 4 inches thick. It lies nearly east and west, the upper end on the ground, the lower end on a large bowlder, beyond which it projects for 28 inches. Beneath this, with a space of 8 inches between them, is another stone, 5 feet long, 2 feet 4 inches wide, and 10 inches thick. Its upper surface is concave, the entire margin being higher than the central portion. It lies north and south, the southern end being supported by three small superposed slabs.
These two are supposed to be sacrificial stones, on which victims were extended at full length, face downward. In this position they were easily slain by being decapitated or the neck or head being broken with a club or a stone. That they were utilized for some definite purpose is evident from the fact that the projecting ends of both have been broken off square, the spalls splitting back along the under-surface.
Views are given in plates 44 and 45.