272 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
marae. The bridegroom 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 survivors, 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 miro, placed it on the head of the bride¬ 
groom, 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 and brows with the instrument set 
with shark’s teeth, received the flowing blood on 
a piece of native cloth, and deposited the cloth, 
sprinkled with the mingled blood of the mothers of 
the married pair, at the feet of the bride. 
By the latter parts of the ceremony, any infe¬ 
riority of rank that might have existed was 
removed, and'they were considered as equal. The 
two families, also, to which they respectively 
belonged, were ever afterwards regarded as one. 
Another large piece of cloth, called the tapoi , 
covering, was now brought, and the ceremony 
concluded by the relatives throwing it over the 
bridegroom and bride. 
The cloth used on these occasions, as well as 
the dress, was considered sacred, and was taken 
to the king, or appropriated to the use of the Areois. 
The parties returned to their habitation, where 
sumptuous feasting followed, the duration of which 
