If one side got too far ahead, its score was cut down at the discretion of the chiefs in order to keep the game more even, and also to protract it sometimes over three or four days.

The warriors of the leading side might grumble among one another at the amount of cutting the chiefs did, but they would not dare to make any protest.

However, the chiefs would never cut the leading side down to an absolute parity with the other.

It was always allowed to retain a margin of the superiority it had won.
The game was now about to begin, and the excitement became intense.

Even the old judges leaned forward in their eagerness, while the brown bodies of the warriors shone in the sun, and the taut muscles leaped up under the skin.