POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
355 
sacred, even as the person of the gods, the feathers 
being supposed to retain all the dreadful attributes of 
vengeance ’which the idols possessed, and ’with which 
it was designed to endow the king. Every part of 
the proceeding was marked by its absurdity or its wick¬ 
edness, but the most affecting circumstance was the 
murderous cruelty attending even the preparation for its 
celebration. 
In order to render the gods propitious to the trans^ 
mission of this power, a human victim was sacrificed 
when they commenced the fatu raa, or manufacture of 
this girdle. This unhappy wretch was called the sacri¬ 
fice for the mail raa titi, commencement or fastening on 
of the sacred maro. Sometimes a human victim was 
offered for every fresh piece added to the girdle; and 
when it v/as finished, another man, called Sacrifice for the 
piu raa maro, was slain; and the girdle was considered as 
consecrated by the blood of those victims. On the 
morning of what might be called the coronation day, 
when the king bathed prior to the commencement of the 
ceremonies, another human victim was required in the 
name of the gods. 
The pageant, on this occasion, proceeded by land and 
water. The parties who were to be engaged in the trans¬ 
actions of the day, assembled in the marae of Oro, the tute¬ 
lar deity of the nation. Certain ceremonies were here per¬ 
formed ; the image of Oro, stripped of the sacred cloth 
in which he usually reposed, and decorated with all the 
emblems of his divinity, was conveyed to the large court 
of the temple; the Papa rahio ruea, or great bed of Oro, 
a large curiously formed bench or sofa cut out of a solid 
piece of timber, was brought out for the throne on which 
the king was to sit. 
