352 
CHIEFS. 
insured success. When lie went to fight he tried to make 
the enemy think he was the more powerful of the two ; if 
he succeeded, half the victory was gained before the first 
blow was struck. This was done by rendering his counte- 
nance as terrible as possible* with charcoal and red ochre, 
the face being marked with lines of the former, and the head 
and person smeared over with the latter, thus to give him 
a permament dignity the tattoo was invented, and the 
anointing with red ochre and oil became a sign of rank : 
in speaking he assumed a tone not natural to him, as a 
kind of court language, he kept himself distinct from his 
inferiors, eating separately ; his person was sacred, he had 
the power of holding converse with the gods, in fact laid 
claim to being one himself, making the tapu a powerful 
adjunct to obtain control over his people and their goods; 
every means were used to acquire this dignity ; a large 
person was thought to be of the highest importance ; to 
acquire this extra size, the child of a chief was generally 
provided with many nurses, each contributing to his support 
by robbing their own offspring of their natural sustenance ; 
thus, whilst they were half-starved, miserable-looking little 
creatures, the chieffs child was the contrary, and early 
became remarkable by its good appearance ; nor was this 
feeling confined to the body ; the chief was an atua, but 
there were powerful and powerless gods ; each naturally 
sought to make himself one of the former ; the plan there- 
fore adopted, was to incorporate the spirits of others with 
their own ; thus, when a warrior slew a chief, he immedi- 
ately gouged out his eyes and swallowed them, the atua 
tonga, or divinity, being supposed to reside in that organ; 
thus he not only killed the body, but also possessed him- 
self of the soul of his enemy, and consequently the more 
chiefs he slew, the greater did his divinity become ; the 
life of a chief was one of constant war ; feuds were per- 
* This plan was generally tried upon Europeans on their arrival ; a chief 
made the most extraordinary grimaces and noises to intimidate the author, 
when he found it was treated as a joke, he suddenly burst out into a laugh and 
gave him his hand. 
