POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
289 
instruments of music with them^ but all remained 
quiet until the games began. Six or ten^ perhaps, 
from each side, entered the ring at once, wearing 
nothing but the maro or girdle, and having their 
limbs sometimes anointed with oil. 
The fame of a celebrated wrestler was usually spread 
throughout the islands, and those who were considered 
good wrestlers, priding themselves upon their strength 
or skill, were desirous of engaging only with those 
they regarded as their equals. Hence, when a chief 
was expected, in whose train were any distin¬ 
guished wrestlers, those among the adherents of the 
chief, by whom the party was to be entertained, 
who wished to engage, were accustomed to send 
a challenge previous to their arrival. If this, 
which was called tipaopao, had been the case when 
they entered the ring, they closed at once, without 
ceremony. But if no such arrangement had been 
made, the wrestlers of one party, or perhaps their 
champion, walked around and across the ring, 
having the left arm bent, with the hand on the 
breast; and striking the right hand violently against 
the left, and the left against the side, produced a loud 
hollow sound, which was challenging any one to 
the trial of his skill. The strokes on the arm were 
sometimes so violent, as not only to bruise the flesh, 
but to cause the blood to gush out. 
When the challenge was accepted, the antagonists 
closed, and the most intense interest was manifested 
by the parties to which they respectively belonged. 
Several were sometimes engaged at once, but more 
frequently only two. They grasped each other by the 
shoulders, and exerted all their strength and art, each 
2p 
