The sky may be imagined as another and better 'earth' high above, a storehouse full of riches. The word ra'i was (according to Henry) used for 'palace' and 'prince'. Churchill mentions 'paradise' as one of the meanings.

Remarkably we find ragi used with a very similar meaning among the Modoc Indians:

Modoc, a language used on the northwest coast of North America: 'A single word, lagi, was used both for the chief and for a rich man who possessed several wives, horses, armour made of leather or wooden slats, well-filled quivers and precious firs. In addition to owning these material assets, the chief had to win military victories, possess exceptional spiritual powers and display a gift for oratory.' (The Naked Man)

The riches in the sky were reachable, it seems, at winter solstice, when the old year was left behind and a new year was being born. With the proper rites these riches could be expected, in the coming year, to be returned to earth (from which they once must have originated). The Hawaiians give us a good example:

"... the renewal of kingship at the climax of the Makahiki coincides with the rebirth of nature. For in the ideal ritual calendar, the kali'i battle follows the autumnal appearance of the Pleiades, by thirty-three days - thus precisely, in the late eighteenth century, 21 December, the winter solstice. The king returns to power with the sun.

Whereas, over the next two days, Lono plays the part of the sacrifice. The Makahiki effigy is dismantled and hidden away in a rite watched over by the king's 'living god', Kahoali'i or 'The-Companion-of-the-King', the one who is also known as 'Death-is-Near' (Koke-na-make). Close kinsman of the king as his ceremonial double, Kahoali'i swallows the eye of the victim in ceremonies of human sacrifice (condensed symbolic trace of the cannibalistic 'stranger-king').  

The 'living god', moreover, passes the night prior to the dismemberment of Lono in a temporary house called 'the net house of Kahoali'i', set up before the temple structure where the image sleeps. In the myth pertinent to these rites, the trickster hero - whose father has the same name (Kuuka'ohi'alaki) as the Kuu-image of the temple - uses a certain 'net of Maoloha' to encircle a house, entrapping the goddess Haumea; whereas, Haumea (or Papa) is also a version of La'ila'i, the archetypal fertile woman, and the net used to entangle her had belonged to one Makali'i, 'Pleiades'.

Just so, the succeeding Makahiki ceremony, following upon the putting away of the god, is called 'the net of Maoloha', and represents the gains in fertility accruing to the people from the victory over Lono.  A large, loose-mesh net, filled with all kinds of food, is shaken at a priest's command. Fallen to earth, and to man's lot, the food is the augury of the coming year. The fertility of nature thus taken by humanity, a tribute-canoe of offerings to Lono is set adrift for Kahiki, homeland of the gods ..." (Islands of History)

The form of the sky hemisphere is not easy to follow when building with timbers.