236 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
in delivering speeches, accompanied by every 
variety of gesture and action ; and their represen- 
tions, on these occasions, assumed something of 
the histrionic character. The priests, and others, 
were fearlessly ridiculed in these performances, in 
which allusion was ludicrously made to public 
events. In the taupiti, or oroa, they sometimes 
engaged in wrestling, but never in boxing; that 
would have been considered too degrading for 
them. Dancing, however, appears to have been 
their favourite and most frequent performance. 
In this they were always led by the manager or 
chief. Their bodies, blackened with charcoal, and 
stained with mati, rendered the exhibition of their 
persons on these occasions most disgusting. They 
often maintained their dance through the greater 
part of the night, accompanied by their voices, and 
the music of the flute and the drum. These 
amusements frequently continued for a number of 
days and nights successively at the same place. 
The upaupa was then hui , or closed, and they 
journeyed to the next district, or principal chief¬ 
tain’s abode, where the same train of dances, 
wrestlings, and pantomimic exhibitions, was re¬ 
peated. 
Several other gods were supposed to preside 
over the upaupa, as well as the two brothers who 
were the guardian deities of the Areois. The gods 
of these diversions, according to the ideas of the 
people, were monsters in vice, and of course 
patronized every evil practice perpetrated during 
such seasons of public festivity. 
Substantial, spacious, and sometimes highly 
ornamented houses, were erected in several dis¬ 
tricts throughout most of the islands, principally 
for their accommodation, and the exhibition of 
