296 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
In times of war, all capable of bearing arms 
were called upon to join the forces of the chieftain 
to whom they belonged, and the farmers, who held 
their land partly by feudal tenure, were obliged to 
render military service whenever their landlord 
required it. There were, besides these, a number 
of men celebrated for their valour, strength, or 
address in war, who were called aito , fighting-men 
or warriors. This title, the result of achieve¬ 
ments in battle, was highly respected, and 
proportionably sought by the daring and ambi¬ 
tious. It was not, like the chieftainship and other 
prevailing distinctions, confined to any class, but 
open to all; and many from the lower ranks have 
risen, as warriors, to a high station in the com¬ 
munity. 
Originally their weapons were simple, and form¬ 
ed of wood ; they consisted of the spear, which the 
natives called patia or tao , made with the wood of 
the cocoa-nut tree, or of the aito , iron-wood, or 
casuarina. It was twelve or eighteen feet long, 
and about an inch or an inch and a half in dia¬ 
meter at the middle or the lower end, but tapering 
off to a point at the other. The spears of the in¬ 
habitants of Rurutu, and other of the Austral 
Islands, are remarkable for their great length and 
elegant shape, as well as for the high polish with 
which they are finished. 
The omore , or club, was another weapon used 
by them ; it was always made of the aito , or iron- 
wood, and was principally of two kinds, either 
short and heavy like a bludgeon, for the purpose 
of close combat, or long, and furnished with a 
broad lozenge-shaped blade. The Tahitians did 
not often carve or ornament their weapons, but by 
the inhabitants of the southern islands they were 
