324 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
in the presence of the gods, they were solemnly anointed, 
the forehead of each person being sprinkled with 
fragrant oil. The sacred pig, clothed or wrapped in the 
haio or cloth of the order, was next put into his hand, 
and offered to the god. Each individual was then 
declared, by the person officiating on the occasion, to be 
an Areoi of the order to which he was thus raised. If 
the pig wrapped in the sacred cloth was killed, which 
was sometimes done, it was buried in the temple; but if 
alive, its ears were ornamented with the orooro, or sacred 
braid and tassel, of cocoa-nut fibre. It was then libe¬ 
rated, and being regarded as sacred, or considered as 
belonging to the god to whom it had been offered, it was 
allowed to range the district uncontrolled till it died. 
The artist or priest of the tatau was now employed 
to imprint, in his unfading marks, the distinctive badges 
of the rank or class to which the individuals had been 
raised. As this operation was attended with consider¬ 
able suffering to the parties invested with these insignia 
of rank, it was usually deferred till the termination of 
the festival which followed the ceremony. This was 
generally furnished with an extravagant profusion: every 
kind of food was prepared, and large bales of native 
cloth were also provided, as presents to the Areois, 
among whom it was divided. The greatest peculiarity, 
however, connected with this entertainment was, that the 
restrictions of tabu, which prohibited females, on pain of 
death, from eating the flesh of the animals offered in 
sacrifice to the gods, were removed, and they partook, 
with the men, of the pigs, and other kinds of food con¬ 
sidered sacred, which had been provided for the occasion. 
Music, dancing, and pantomime exhibitions, followed, 
and were sometimes continued for several days. 
