POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
317 
especially, stained with the matiy or scarlet dye. Some¬ 
times they wore a girdle of the yellow ti leaves; which, 
in appearance, resembled the feather girdles of the Peru¬ 
vians, or other South American tribes. At other times 
they wore a vest of ripe yellow plantain leaves, and orna¬ 
mented their heads with wreaths of the bright yellow 
and scarlet leaves of the hutUy or Barringtonia \ but, in 
general, their appearance was far more repulsive than 
when they wore these partial coverings. 
Upaupa was the name of many of their exhibitions. 
In performing these, they sometimes sat in a circle on 
the ground, and recited, in concert, a legend or song 
in honour of their gods, or some distinguished Areoi. 
The leader of the party stood in the centre, and 
introduced the recitation with a sort of prologue, 
when, with a number of fantastic movements and 
attitudes, those that sat around, began their song 
in a low and measured tone and voice; which increased 
as they proceeded, till it became vociferous and unin¬ 
telligibly rapid. It was also accompanied by move¬ 
ments of the arms and hands, in exact keeping with the 
tones of the voice, until they were wrought to the 
highest pitch of excitement. This they continued, until, 
becoming breathless and exhausted, they were obliged to 
suspend the performance. 
Their public entertainments frequently consisted in 
delivering speeches, accompanied by every variety of 
gesture and action; and their representations, on these 
occasions, assumed something of the histrionic character. 
The priests, and others, were fearlessly ridiculed in 
these performances, in which allusion was ludicrously 
made to public events. In the taupiti, or oroa, they 
sometimes engaged in wrestling, but never in boxing; 
