LUDICROUS INVOCATION. 317 
similar to those which governed their own con¬ 
duct; and when once the vanquished party im¬ 
bibed the impression that the gods had forsaken 
them, their defence was comparatively feeble, and 
they consequently fell a prey to their enemies, who 
were often indebted more to the superstitious 
apprehensions of their foes, than to their own skill 
or power. It is amusing (were it not too serious a 
subject) to notice the absurdity, and childish con¬ 
duct occasionally exhibited. When a party wished 
for peace, they sometimes offered the taata o meia 
roa , a young plantain tree, taken up by the roots, 
put in a basket, and carried to the temple, as they 
were accustomed to carry a human victim. The 
men who bore it, shouting to the god, exclaimed, 
“ Here is the man, long plantain; give us peace 
in abundance. Compassionate your devotees— 
cause the war to cease. If you do not attend, we 
will not worship you again. Compassionate your 
pigs, feeders, pearl divers, scarlet feather seekers. 
If you do not deliver us, you are an evil working 
god.” 
If the conquered party surrendered at discre¬ 
tion, their land and property were divided by the 
conquerors, and the captives either murdered, re¬ 
duced to slavery, or reserved for sacrifices when the 
gods might require human victims. The bodies of 
such as were killed in their forts, were treated with 
the same indignity as those slain in the field ; parts 
of the bodies were eaten by the priests, the rest 
piled up in heaps on the sea-coast, where the 
effects of decomposition have been so offensive, 
that the people have forborne to fish in the adja¬ 
cent parts of the sea. On the contrary, when nei¬ 
ther party had been subdued, and, by intimation 
from the gods, or any other cause,one party desired 
