160 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the contest, as if by mutual consent, from despair 
of victory, or an evil omen revealed by the diviners. 
Such a battle was called rukurua, both beaten. 
This, however, was a rare occurrence; they gene¬ 
rally fought till one of the armies was vanquished. 
When routed in the field, some fled to the pa/iu 
tabu , sacred enclosure, called also puhonua, or 
place of refuge; others repaired to their pari or 
fortress ; and when these were distant, or the way 
to them intercepted, they all fled to the mountains, 
whither they were pursued by the victors for 
weeks, and even months, afterwards. When dis¬ 
covered, they were cruelly massacred on the spot, 
or brought down to the king and chiefs. When 
led to the king’s presence, they usually prostrated 
themselves before him, and exclaimed, “ E make 
paha , e ora paha—i runa te aro ? i raro te aro V\ 
To die perhaps, to live perhaps—upwards the face ? 
or downwards the face 7 —If the king did not 
speak, or said, “ The face down,” it was sentence 
of death, and some one in attendance either 
despatched the poor captive in his presence, or led 
him away to be slaughtered. But if the king said, 
C( Upward the face,” they were spared, though 
perhaps spared only to be slaves, or to be sacri¬ 
ficed when the priests should require human 
victims. The persons of the captives were the 
property of the victors, and their lives entirely at 
their disposal. A chief taken in the field, or during 
the retreat, was sometimes spared, and allowed to 
return to his home. 
The victors usually buried their dead; but the 
bodies of the slain, belonging to the vanquished, 
were generally left unburied on the field, and were 
devoured by hogs and dogs, or suffered to rot. 
Small heaps of stone* w r ere afterwards piled over 
