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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
But the most important ceremony^ in connexion with 
the ratification of peace^ was the upoofaataa, &c. It 
was commemorative of the establishinent of the new 
government^ and designed to secure its perpetuity, and 
the happiness of the community. A leading raatira was 
usually the chief proprietor of the entertainment, and 
master of the ceremonies. The festival was convivial 
and religious. Food and fruits, in the greatest profusion, 
were furnished for the altars of the gods, and the banquet 
of the king. 
A heiva, or grand dance, formed a part of this cere¬ 
mony. It was called the dance of peace, and was per¬ 
formed in the presence of the king, who, surrounded by 
a number of chiefs and warriors, sat at one end of the 
large house in which it took place. A number of men, 
and sometimes women, fantastically dressed, danced to 
the beating of the drum and the warbling of the vivo, or 
flute; and though the king was surrounded by a number 
of attendants as body-guards, towards the close of the 
exhibition the men sought to approach the king’s person, 
and kiss his hand, or the females to salute his face when 
one or the other succeeded in this, the heiva, or dance, 
was complete, and the performance discontinued. 
This, however, was only part of the ceremony, for 
while they were thus employed, the priests were engaged 
in supplicating the gods that these amusements might 
be continued, and their enjoyments in feasting, dancing, 
and the pursuits connected with them, might not be 
again suspended or disturbed by war. Peace ’was now 
considered as established, the club and the spear were 
cleaned, varnished, and hung up in their dwellings •, and 
the festive entertainments, pagan rites, and ordinary 
avocations of life, resumed, till some fresh quarrel 
