POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
483 
who were employed as messengers, to fetch the latter in 
cases of emergency; each god had his own messenger, 
hovering about the habitations of men, in the shape of a 
bird or a shark. When the priest by prayers sought the 
aid of these gods, they imagined that the messenger set 
off to the place of the god’s abode, somewhere in fare 
papa, near the foundation of the world,” and made 
the usual declaration —Mai haere i te ao e tamae ti te ao, 
Come to the world, or state of light, there is war in the 
world.” 
The sacred feathers being deposited in the temporary 
maraes erected in the canoes, a large number of the 
finest hogs they could procure were killed, and baked in 
the temple on shore, the heads cut off, and placed on a 
small altar in the canoe, before the symbol of the idol’s 
presence. The remaining part of the body was eaten by 
the priests, and those who feasted on the sacrifices. 
Whether they fought by sea or on shore, as their prin¬ 
cipal engagements were near the shore, a fleet usually 
accompanied the army, and on board the canoes the 
principal idols were generally kept. The arrangements 
being now completed, with the symbols of their gods, 
and the offerings they made, they speedily set out for 
the combat, confident of victory. 
Nuu and papaupea were the terms usually employed 
to designate an army, though it is probable the former 
was applied principally to an army, or fleet, filled with 
fighting men, and the latter to an army on shore, toge¬ 
ther with the multitude that followed for the purposes of 
plunder. Their armies must formerly have been large: 
when Captain Cook was there in 1774, he supposed the 
fleet to consist of not fewer than 1700 canoes, each 
carrying forty men^ making altogether 6000 fighting 
