Stirring scenes in savage lands

by James Greenwood

Tonga Weapons.

Originally their weapons were simple and formed of wood; they consisted of the spear, which the natives called patia or tao, made with the wood of the cocoa-nut tree or of the aito, iron-wood or casuarina. It was twelve or eighteen feet long, and about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter at the middle of the lower end, but tapering off to a point at the other. The spears of the inhabitants of Rurutu and other of the Austral Islands are remarkable for their great length and elegant shape, as well as for the high polish with which they are finished. The omore or club was another weapon used by them; it was always made of the aito or iron-wood, and was principally of two kinds, either short and heavy like a bludgeon, for the purpose of close combat, or long and furnished with a broad lozenge-shaped blade. The Tahitians did not often carve or ornament their weapons; but by the inhabitants of the Southern Islands they were frequently very neatly though partially carved. The inhabitants of the Marquesas carve their spears, and ornament them with human hair; and the natives of the Harvey Islands, with the Friendly and Figian islanders, construct their weapons with taste and carve them with remarkable ingenuity.

The pacho was a terrific sort of weapon, although it was principally used at the heva or seasons of mourning. It resembled in some degree a club; but having the inner side armed with large sharks’ teeth, it was more frequently drawn across the body, where it acted like a saw, than used for striking a blow. Another weapon of the same kind resembled a short sword, but instead of one blade, it had three, four, or five. It was usually made of a forked aito branch; the central and exterior branches, after having been pointed and polished, were armed along the outside with a thick line of sharks’ teeth, very firmly fixed in the wood. This was only used in close combat, and, when applied to the naked bodies of the combatants, must have been a terrific weapon. The bowels or lower parts of the body were attacked with it, not as a dagger is used, but drawn across like a saw. Some of the fighting men wore a kind of armour of network formed by small cords wound round the body and limbs so tight as merely to allow of the unencumbered exercise of the legs and arms, and not to impede the circulation of the blood. This kind of defence was principally serviceable in guarding from the blows of a club, or force of a stone, but was liable to be pierced by a spear. In general, however, the dress of the Tahitian warriors must have been exceedingly inconvenient. To make an imposing appearance, and defend their persons, seem to have been the only ends at which they aimed, differing greatly in this respect from the Hawaians, who seldom thought of guarding themselves, but adopted a dress that would least impede their movements.

The Tahitians went to battle in their best clothes, and often had the head not only guarded by an immense turban, but the body enveloped in folds of cloth, until the covering was many inches in thickness, extending from the body almost to the elbows, where the whole was bound round the waist with a finely braided sash or girdle. On the breast they wore a handsome military gorget ingeniously wrought with mother-of-pearl shells, feathers, and dog’s hair, white and coloured. The captives taken in war called ivi or titi were murdered on the spot, or shortly afterwards, unless reserved for slaves to the victors. The bodies of the slain were treated in the most savage manner. They were pierced with their spears and at times the conduct of the victors towards their lifeless bodies was inconceivably barbarous.

On the day following the battle the bure taata was performed. This consisted in collecting the bodies of the slain and offering them to Oro as trophies of his prowess, and in acknowledgment of their dependence upon his aid. Prayers were preferred, imploring a continuance of his assistance.

The bodies were usually left exposed to the elements and to the hogs or wild dogs that preyed upon them. The victors took away the lower jaw-bones of the most distinguished among the slain as trophies, and often some of the bones, converting them into tools for building canoes with, or into fish hooks. Sometimes they piled the bodies in a heap, and built the skulls into a kind of wall around the temple, but they were commonly laid in rows near the shore, or in front of the camp, their heads all in the same direction. Here the skulls were often so battered with the clubs that no trace of the countenance or human head remained.

As to the manner of disposing of prisoners towards whom the king, when supplicated for forgiveness, preserves silence, the following brief account of a warrior execution as related by Mariner may be offered:—

“About mid-day, or a little after, the large canoe, in which were the prisoners lashed hand and foot, pushed out to sea under the command of Lolo Hea Malohi, an adopted son of Finow. They had on board three old small canoes, in a very leaky, rotten state, in which the prisoners were destined to be put and thus to be left gradually to sink, leaving the victims to reflect on their approaching dissolution, without having it in their power to help themselves.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE TERRIBLE FARCE.