POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
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classes sometimes engaged ; chiefs and priests were 
often among the most famous boxers and wrestlers. 
These games were not only dreadfully barbarous, 
but demoralizing in their influence on the people, 
who would set up a shriek of exultation, when the 
blood started, or the vanquished fell senseless on the 
sand. They were also often fatal. Metia^ a taura no 
Oro, priest of Oro, who resided at Matavai, was cele¬ 
brated for his prowess, and slew two antagonists, a 
father and a son, at one of these festivals, in Taiarapu. 
Considering the brutalizing tendency and the fatal re¬ 
sults of boxing and wrestling, we cannot but rejoice that 
they have ceased with that sj^stem of barbarism and 
cruelty with which they were associated, and by which 
they were supported. 
Connected with these athletic sports was another, less 
objectionable than either. This was the faatitiaihe- 
mo raa^ or foot-race, in which the young men of the 
opposite parties engaged. Great preparation was made 
for this trial of strength and agility. The bodies of the 
runners were anointed with oil; the maro, or girdle, the 
only garment they wore, was bound tight round the loins. 
A wreath of flowers adorned the brows, and a light white 
or coloured bandage of native cloth was sometimes bound 
like a turban round the head. A smooth line of sandy 
beach was usually selected for the course. Sometimes 
they returned to the place from which they had started, 
but in general they ran the prescribed distance in a 
straight line. One of these races took place at Afareaitu 
while we resided there. It was between one of the 
king’s servants, and a young man recently arrived from 
the Pearl Islands. The stranger was a tall, thin, handsome 
young man 5 and, as they walked past my house to the 
