208 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
a fresh challenge. If he had retired, two fresh 
combatants engaged, and when one was thrown, 
exhibitions of feeling, corresponding with those 
that had attended the conclusion of the first 
struggle, were renewed, and followed every suc¬ 
cessive engagement. When the contest was over, 
the men repaired again to the temple, and pre¬ 
sented their offering of acknowledgment, usually 
young plantain trees, to the idols of the game. 
There are a number of men still living, who, 
under the system of idolatry, were celebrated as 
wrestlers through the whole of the islands. Among 
these, Fenuapeho, the hardy chieftain of Tahaa, 
is perhaps the most distinguished. He is not a 
large man, but broad, strong, sinewy, and remark¬ 
ably firm-built. In person he appears to have 
been adapted to excel in such kinds of savage 
sports. 
Although wrestling was practised principally by 
the men, it was not confined to them. Often, 
when they had done, the women contended, 
sometimes with each other, and occasionally with 
men, who were not perhaps reputed wrestlers. 
Persons in the highest rank sometimes engaged in 
the sport; and the sister of the queen has been 
seen wearing nearly the same clothing as the 
wrestlers wore, covered all over with sand, and 
wrestling with a young chief, in the midst of a 
ring, around which thousands of the people were 
assembled. 
On all great festivals, wrestling was succeeded 
by the Moto - raa, or Boxing. This does not 
appear to have been so favourite an amusement 
with the Tahitians as wrestling; and there was 
generally a smaller number to engage. It was 
mostly practised by the lower orders and servants 
