POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
357 
this part of the ceremony was to purify the king from 
all mahuru huru, or defilement and guilty which he might 
have contracted, according to their own expression, by 
his having seized any land, banished any people, com¬ 
mitted murder, &c. 
When these ablutions were completed, the king and 
the priest ascended the sacred canoe. Here, in the pre¬ 
sence of Oro, he was invested with the maro ura, or 
sacred girdle, which, the feathers from the idol being 
interwoven in it, was supposed to impart to the king a 
power equal to that possessed by Oro. The priest, while 
employed in girding the king with this emblem of do^ 
minion and majesty, pronounced an ubu, commencing 
with Faaa tea te arii i tai i motu tabu, Extend or spread 
the influence of the king over the sea to the sacred 
island,’" describing also the nature of his girdle, and 
addressing the king at the close, by saying— Madua 
tere a oe ateArii: ^^V?LvmXj this, of you o king;” indicat¬ 
ing that from the gods all his power was derived. 
As soon as the ubu was finished, the multitude on the 
beach, and in the surrounding canoes, lifted up the right- 
hand, and greeted the new monarch with loud and uni¬ 
versal acclamations of Maeva arii! maeva arii! Th6 
steersman in the sacred canoe struck his paddle against 
the side of the vessel, which was the signal to the rowers, 
who instantly started from the shore towards the reef, 
having the god, and the king, girded as it were with the 
deity, on board; the priests beating their large drum, 
and sounding their trumpets, which were beautiful large 
turbo, or trumpet-shells. The thronging spectators fol¬ 
lowed in their canoes, raising their right-hand in the air, 
and shouting Maeva arii! 
Having proceeded in this manner for a considerable 
