POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
301 
to those below. When they fell short, they held down 
their flags, but lifted up their foot, exclaiming, ua 
pauy beaten. 
This was a sport in the highest esteem, the king 
and chiefs usually attending to witness the exercise. 
As soon as the game was finished, the bow, with the 
quiver of arrows, was delivered to the charge of a 
proper person: the archers repaired to the marae, 
and were obliged to exchange their dress, and bathe 
their persons, before they could take any refreshment, 
or even enter their dwellings. It is astonishing to 
notice how intimately their system of religion was 
interwoven with every pursuit of their lives. Their 
wars, their labours, and their amusements, were all 
under the control of their gods. 
The arrows they employed were sometimes beauti¬ 
fully stained and variegated. The bows were plain, 
but the quivers were often truly elegant in shape and 
appearance. They were usually made with the single 
joint of a bamboo cane, three feet six or nine inches 
long, and about two inches in diameter. The outside 
was sometimes handsomely stained, and finely polished 
at the top and the bottom; they were adorned with 
finely braided cinet, and plaited human hair. The 
cap or cover of the quiver was usually a small, hand¬ 
some, well-formed cocoa-nut, of a dark brown choco¬ 
late colour, highly polished, and attached to the quiver 
by a braided cinet passing up the inner side of the 
quiver, and fastened near the bottom. 
The bow and arrow were never used by the Society 
Islanders, excepting in their amusements; hence, perhaps, 
their arrows, though pointed, were not barbed, and they 
did not shoot at a mark. In throwing the spear. 
