314 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
which they hurled down on those by whom they 
were attacked. In some of the Hervey Islands 
they planted trees around their places of encamp¬ 
ment, and thus rendered them secure against sur¬ 
prise.—These enclosures they called pa , the term 
which is used to designate a fort in the Sandwich 
Islands. 
If those who had been routed on the field of 
battle were allowed by their pursuers time to wall 
up the entrances of their places of refuge, they 
were seldom exposed to assault, though they might 
be decoyed from them by stratagem, or induced to 
leave from hunger. The pari in Boraboro, and 
some places in Tahiti, are seldom excelled as natu¬ 
ral fortresses. Several of these places were very 
extensive; that at Maeva,. in Huahine, bordering 
on a lake of the same name, and near Mouna- 
tabu, is probably the best artificial fortification in 
the islands. Being a square of about half a mile 
on each side, it encloses many acres of ground well 
stocked with bread-fruit, containing several springs, 
and having within its precincts the principal temple 
of their tutelar deity. The walls are of solid stone¬ 
work, in height twelve feet. They are even and 
regularly paved at the top. On the top of the 
walls, (which in some places were ten or twelve feet 
thick,) the warriors kept watch, and slept. Their 
houses were built within, and it was considered 
sufficiently large to contain the whole of the popu¬ 
lation. There were four principal openings in the 
wall, at regular distances from each other, that in 
the west being called the king’s road. They were 
designed for ingress and egress, but during a siege 
were built up with loose stones, when it was con¬ 
sidered a pari haabuea , an impregnable fortress, or, 
as the term indicates, place of refuge and life. 
