POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
489 
If the battle continued for several successive days, the 
labours of the Rautis were so incessant by night through 
the camp, and by day amid the ranks in the field, that 
they have been known to expire from exhaustion and 
fatigue. The priests were not exempted from the battle, 
they bore arms, and marched with the warriors to the 
combat. 
The combatants did not use much science in the 
action, nor scarcely aim to parry their enemy^s weapons; 
they used no shield or target, and, believing the gods 
directed and sped their weapons with more than human 
force upon their assailants, they depended on strength 
more than art for success. Their clubs were invariably 
aimed at the head, and often, with the lozenge-shaped 
weapon, they would iapai^ or cleave, the skulls of their 
opponents. Their spears they directed against the body, 
and the maui was often a deadly thrust, piercing through 
the heart. 
When the first warrior fell on either side, a horrid 
shout of exultation and of triumph was raised by the 
victors, which echoed along the line, striking a panic 
through the ranks of their antagonists, it being con¬ 
sidered an intimation of the favour of the gods towards 
the victorious parties. Around the body the struggle 
became dreadful; and if tho victors bore him away, he 
was despoiled of his ornaments, and then seized by the 
priests, or left to be offered to the gods at the close oi 
the battle. 
The first man seized alive was offered in sacrifice, and 
called te mataahaetumu Taaroa —the first rending of 
the root. The victim was not taken to the temple, but 
laid alive upon a number of spears, and thus borne on 
men’s shoulders along the ranks, in the rear of the army, 
II. 3 R 
