WEAPONS. 
297 
frequently very neatly, though partially, carved. 
The inhabitants of the Marquesas carve their spears, 
and ornament them with human hair ;* and the 
natives of the Hervey Islands, with the Friendly 
and Figian islanders, construct their weapons 
with taste, and carve them with remarkable in¬ 
genuity. 
The paeho was a terrific sort of weapon, al¬ 
though it was principally used at the heva , or 
seasons of mourning. It resembled, in some 
degree, a club; but having the inner side armed 
with large sharks’ teeth, it was not used for striking 
a blow, but for almost embowelling those assailed. 
Another weapon of the same kind resembled a 
short sword, but, instead of one blade it had three, 
four, or five. It was usually made of a forked 
aito branch; the central and exterior branches, 
after having been pointed and polished, were 
armed along the outside with a thick line of sharks’ 
teeth, very firmly fixed in the wood. This was 
only used in close combat, and, when applied to 
the naked bodies of the combatants, must have 
been a terrific weapon. The bowels or lower parts 
of the body were attacked with it, not for the 
purpose of piercing, as a dagger is used, but 
drawn across like a saw. 
They do not use the patia , or dagger, of the 
Sandwich Islands, but substitute an equally fatal 
weapon, the aero fai , a serrated back-bone of the 
sting-ray, and the hoto , a short dart-like wea¬ 
pon, barbed and pointed with this or other fish- 
* This practice corresponds with that of the Malayans, 
among whom Dr. Buchanan saw a chief, the top of whose 
spear was ornamented with a tuft of hair, w T hich he had 
taken from a vanquished foe, as he lay dying or dead at 
his feet. 
