TREATMENT OF THE VANQUISHED 161 
their bones, or on the spot where they had fallen, 
probably as trophies of victory. 
When the king or any chief of high rank was 
known to be humane, or any of the vanquished 
had formerly been on terms of friendship with 
him, avoiding carefully the warriors, an individual, 
risking his life on the conqueror’s clemency, 
would lie in wait for him in his walks, and, pros¬ 
trating himself in his path, supplicate his com¬ 
passion, or rush into his house, and throw himself 
on the ground before him. Though any one 
might have killed him while on his way thither, 
none dare touch him within the king’s enclosure, 
without his orders. When the king did not 
speak, or directed the fugitive to be carried from 
his presence, which was very unusual, he was 
taken out and slain. Generally the prince spoke 
to the individual who had thus thrown himself into 
his power; and if he did but speak, or only recog¬ 
nize him, he was secure. He might either join 
the retinue of the sovereign, or return to his own 
house. No one would molest him, as he was 
under warn, shade, or screening protection, of the 
king. 
When the vanquished were completely routed, 
or nearly cut off, their country was hoopahora , 
portioned out, by the conqueror, among the chiefs 
and warriors who had been his companions in the 
war, by whom it was settled. The wives and 
children of those whom they had defeated were 
frequently made slaves, and attached to the soil 
for its cultivation, and, together with the captives, 
treated with great cruelty. But when there had 
been a great loss on both sides, or one party wished 
for peace, an ambassador, with a young plantain 
tree, and a green branch of the ti plant, was sent 
IV. M 
