THE PRIESTS AND GODS PROPITIATED. 279 
thirty miles to listen to an address impassioned as 
those he has sometimes heard on these occasions. 
When war was determined, the king’s vea, or 
herald, was sent round the island, or through the 
districts dependent on the parties, and all were 
required to arm, and repair to the appointed ren¬ 
dezvous. Sometimes the king’s flag was carried 
round. The women, the children, and the aged, 
called the ohua> were either left in the villages, or 
lodged in some place of security, while the men 
hastened to the field. 
Their arms were kept with great care, in high 
preservation. In some of the houses, on our arri¬ 
val in the Leeward Islands, especially in the dwell¬ 
ing of Fenuapelio, the chief of Tahaa, every kind 
of weapon was in such order, and so carefully fixed 
against the sides of the house, that the dwelling 
appeared more like an armoury than a domestic 
abode. Many a one, whom the summons from 
the chief has found destitute in the morning, has 
been known to cut down or rive a tall cocoa-nut tree, 
finish his lance or his spear, and join the warriors 
at the close of the same day. The chief of each 
district led his own tenantry to the war—reported, 
on his arrival, the number of men he had brought 
—and then formed his buhapa , or encampment, 
with the rest of the forces. 
A number of ceremonies still remained to be 
observed. The priests were important personages 
in every expedition; their influence with the gods 
was considered the means of victory, and they re¬ 
ceived a proportionate share of consideration. The 
first service of this kind was called the taamu raa 
ra —the binding of the sacredness or supernatural 
influence; and while the chiefs and warriors had 
been employed in the preliminaries of war, the 
