POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
507 
The captives taken in war, called ivi or were murr 
dered on the spot, or shortly afterwards, unless reserved 
for slaves to the victors. The bodies of the slain were 
treated in a most savage manner. They were pierced 
with their spears, and at times the conduct of the vic¬ 
tors towards their lifeless bodies was inconceivably 
barbarous. 
On the day following the battle, the bure taata was 
performed. This consisted in collecting the bodies of the 
slain, and offering them to Oro, as trophies of his prow¬ 
ess, and in acknowledgment of their dependence upon 
his aid. Prayers were preferred, imploring a continuance 
of his assistance. 
The bodies were usually left exposed to the elements, 
and to the hogs or wild dogs that preyed upon them.— 
The victors took away the lower jaw-bones of the most 
distinguished among the slain, as trophies, and often 
some of the bones, converting them into tools for build¬ 
ing canoes with, or into fish-hooks. Sometimes they 
piled the bodies in a heap, and built the skulls into a 
kind of wall around the temple, as at Opoa, but they were 
commonly laid in rows near the shore, or in front of 
the camp, their heads all in the same direction. Here the 
skulls were often so battered with the clubs, that no trace 
of the countenance or human head remained. 
In addition to the preceding indignities, their bodies 
were sometimes laid in rows along the beach, and 
used as rollers, over which they dragged their canoes, on 
landing, or launching them after a battle. We do not 
know that the Tahitians ever feasted on the bodies of the 
slain, although this is practised by the Marquesians on 
the one side, and the New-Zealanders on the other—by 
the inhabitants of the Dangerous Archipelago in the 
