110 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
pets, and beat the sacred drum, as they marched 
in procession from the temple to the sea-shore, 
where a fleet of canoes, previously prepared, was 
waiting for them. The sacred canoe, or state 
barge of Oro, was distinguished from the rest by 
the tapaau, or sacred wreaths of platted cocoa-nut 
leaves, by which it was surrounded, and which 
were worn by every individual on board. 
As soon as the procession reached the beach, 
Oro was carried on board, and followed by the 
priests and instruments of music, while the king 
took his seat upon the sacred sleeping-place of 
Oro, which was fixed on the shore. The chiefs 
stood around the king, and the priests around the 
god, until, upon a signal given, the king arose 
from his seat, advanced into the sea, and bathed 
his person. The priest of Oro then descended 
into the water, bearing in his hand a branch of the 
sacred mero, plucked from the tree which grew in 
the precincts of the temple. While the king was 
bathing, the priest struck him on his back with 
the sacred branch, and offered up the prescribed 
nbu, or invocation, to Taaroa* The design of this 
part of the ceremony was to purify the king from 
all mahuru huru, or defilement and guilt, which he 
might have contracted, according to their own ex¬ 
pression, by his having seized any land, banished 
any people, committed murder, &c. 
When these ablutions were completed, the king 
and the priest ascended the sacred canoe. Here, 
in the presence of Oro, he was invested with the 
maro ura, or sacred girdle, interwoven with the 
feathers from the idol. The priest, while employed 
in girding the king with this emblem of dominion 
and majesty, pronounced an ubu, commencing 
with Faa atea te arii i tai i motu tabu , “ Extend 
