214 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
plantain leaf, and handed it to the king, who raised it to 
his mouth as if desirous to eat it, hut passed it to one of 
the priests or attendants, stationed near him for the 
purpose of receiving it. At intervals during the prayers 
some of the hair was plucked off, and placed before the 
god I and when the ceremony was over, the body was 
wrapped in the basket of cocoa-nut leaves, and fre¬ 
quently deposited on the branches of an adjacent tree. 
After remaining a considerable time, it was taken down, 
and the bones buried beneath the rude pavement of the 
marae. These horrid rites were not unfrequent, and 
the number offered at their great festivals was truly 
appalling. 
The seasons of worship were both stated and occa¬ 
sional. The latter were those in which the gods were 
sought under national calamities, as the desolation of 
war, or the alarming illness of the king or chiefs. In 
addition to the rites connected with actual war, there 
were two that followed its termination. The principal 
of these, IRau ma ta vehi raa^ was designed to purify the 
land from the defilement occasioned by the incursions 
or devastations of an enemy, who had perhaps ravaged 
the country, demolished the temples, destroyed or muti¬ 
lated the idols, broken down the altars, and used as fuel 
the unus, or curiously carved pieces of wood, marking 
the sacred places of interment, and emblematical of their 
tii's or spirits. Preparatory to this ceremony, the tem¬ 
ples were rebuilt, new altars reared, new images, inspired 
or inhabited by the gods, placed in the maraes, and fresh 
unus erected. 
At the close of the rites in the new temples, the parties 
repaired to the sea-beach, where the chief priest offered 
a short prayer, and the people dragged a small net of 
