POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
223 
to engage the enemy, they animated each other to the work 
in the following terms, Clear away well, that we may 
kill and eat, and have a good feast to-day.” To ^Hiill 
and eat,” was the haughty warrior’s threat; and to be 
‘^killed and eaten,” the dread of the vanquished and 
the exile. In the island of Rarotogna, they cut off the 
heads of the slain, piled them in heaps within the tem¬ 
ple, and furnished the banquet of victory with their 
bodies. 
The desire of revenge, or the satisfaction resulting 
from actually devouring an enemy, was not their only 
motive. The craving of nature, and the pangs of famine, 
often led to this unnatural crime. It was the frequent 
inducement in the Marquesas, and also in the Harvey 
Islands. In Maute, Metiaro, and Atiu, seasons of 
scarcity are severely felt; and, to satisfy their hunger, 
a number of persons, at the hour of midnight, have stolen 
a man from a neighbouring residence, killed, and eaten 
him at once. Mr. Bourne, w^ho visited the islands in 
1825, states, that members of the same family are not 
safe; and so awful is their wretchedness, that this 
horrid cruelty is practised towards those who, in civi¬ 
lized communities, are the objects of most endearing 
attachment: the husband has preyed upon the body of 
his wife, and the parent upon his child, in a most 
revolting manner, without subjecting it to any previous 
preparation. These facts are too painful and bar¬ 
barous to admit detail. Another, and perhaps more 
criminal motive than either revenge or want, led some 
to the perpetration of these appalling deeds: this was, 
the indulgence of their depraved and vitiated appetite. 
In the little island of Tapuaemanu, between Eimeo 
and Huahine, tradition states that there were formerly 
