POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
569 
which were afterwards considered sacred; they took 
their stations in the place appointed for them, the bride 
on one side of the area, and the bridegroom on the other, 
five or six yards apart. 
The priest now came forward, clad in the habiliments 
of his office, and, standing before them, addressed the 
bridegroom usually in the following terms: Eita anei 
oe a faarue i ta oe vahine f Will you not cast away 
your wife to which the bridegroom answered, 
Turning to the bride, he proposed to her the 
same question, and received a similar answer. The 
priest then addressed them both, saying, Happy will it 
be, if thus with ye two."^ He then offered a prayer to 
the gods in their behalf, imploring for them that they 
might live in affection, and realize all the happiness mar¬ 
riage was designed to secure. 
The relatives now brought a large piece of white cloth, 
which they call ahu vauvau, spreading cloth: it was 
spread out on the pavement of the marae. The bride¬ 
groom and bride took their station upon this cloth, and 
clasped each other by the hand. The skulls of their 
ancestors, which were kept carefully preserved by the 
family, who considered the spirits of the proprietors of 
these skulls as the guardian spirits of the family, were 
sometimes brought out and placed before them. 
The relatives of the bride then took a piece of sugar¬ 
cane, and, wrapping it in a branch of the sacred mero, 
placed it on the head of the bridegroom, while the new- 
married pair stood holding each other’s hands. Having 
placed the sacred branch on the bridegroom’s head, they 
laid it down between them. The husband’s relatives 
then performed the same ceremony towards the bride. 
On some occasions, the female relatives cut their faces 
II. 4 D 
