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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHP:S. 
the crowd assembled round the house in which the actors 
or dancers were performings and, leaping into the circle, 
joined with seeming frantic wildness in the dance or 
pantomime. He continued in the midst of the per¬ 
formers until the exhibition closed. This was consider¬ 
ed an indication of his desire to join their company; 
and if approved, he was appointed to wait, as a servant, 
on the principal Areois. After a considerable trial of 
his natural disposition, docility, and devotedness, in 
this occupation, if he persevered in his determination 
to join himself with them, he was inaugurated with 
all the attendant rites and observances. 
This ceremony took place at some taupiti, or other 
great meeting of the body, when the principal Areoi 
brought him forth arrayed in the ahu haio, a curiously 
stained sort of native cloth, the badge of their order, and 
presented him to the members who were convened in 
full assembly. The areois, as such, had distinct names, 
and, at his introduction, the candidate received from 
the chief of the body, the name by which in future he 
was to be known among them. He was now directed, 
in the first instance, to murder his children; a deed of 
horrid barbarity, which he was in general too ready to 
perpetrate. He was then instructed to bend his left arm, 
and strike his right hand upon the bend of the left 
elbow, which at the same time he struck against his 
side, whilst he repeated the song or invocation for the 
occasion; of which the following is a translation. 
‘^The mountain above, mouna tabu,^ sacred moun¬ 
tain. The floor beneath Tamapua^’\ projecting point of 
* The conical mountain near the lake of Maeva. 
t The central district on the borders of the lake, lying at the foot of the 
mountain. 
