310 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
head from his body, and, while the life-blood 
has flowed warm from the dying trunk, to scoop 
it up in his hands, and, turning to his enemies 
with fiend-like triumph, drink it before them. The 
Tahitians were not, however, altogether free from 
cannibalism; and, occasionally, a warrior, out of 
bravado or revenge, has been known to eat two or 
three mouthfuls of a vanquished foe, generally the 
fat from the inner side of the ribs. 
Besides the at ore , embowelling, which was fre¬ 
quently inflicted, they sometimes practised what 
they called tiputa taata . When a man had slain 
his enemy, in order fully to satiate his revenge, 
and intimidate his foes, he sometimes beat the 
body flat, and then cut a hole with a stone battle- 
axe through the back and stomach, and passed his 
own head through the aperture, as he would 
through the hole of his tiputa or poncho; hence 
the name of this practice. In this terrific manner, 
with the head and arms of the slain hanging down 
before, and the legs behind him, he marched to 
renew the conflict. A more horrific act and ex¬ 
hibition it is not easy to conceive of, yet I was 
well acquainted with a man in Fare, named 
Taiava, who, according to his own confession, and 
the declaration of his neighbours, was guilty of 
this deed during one of their recent wars. The 
bodies of celebrated warriors were often pinihia 
for the amusement of the spectators. The legs 
and arms were broken, round the feet and hands 
a kind of fringe of ti-leaves was tied, a rope was 
tied round the neck, by which the body was drawn 
up towards the branch of a tree, from which it 
remained suspended; a small cord, attached to 
one of the feet, was held in the hand of the 
exhibitor; by means of these cords the body was 
