RELIGION. CANNIBALISM. 469 



a deception upon them in order to strengthen his power ! 

 However extraordinary this may appear, the same was the 

 case in Tahiti. " In addition," says Mr. Ellis, " to the firm 

 belief which many who were sorcerers, or agents of the infernal 

 powers, and others who were the victims of incantation, still 

 maintain, some of the early missionaries are disposed to think 

 this was the fact/'* Even Mr. Ellis himself was of the same 

 opinion. With such low ideas of the Divinity, it is perhaps 

 not surprising that some of the chiefs were looked upon as 

 gods even during life. Watches and white men also were at 

 first regarded as deities ; the latter not, perhaps, unnaturally, 

 their fire-arms being regarded as thunder and lightning. 

 The New Zealanders had but little regard for human life. 



O 



Earle relates that a young chief named Atoi, who is described 

 as having " a handsome open countenance," on one occasion 

 recognized a pretty girl of about 16, who had been working 

 for Mr. Earle, and claiming her as a runaway slave, took her 

 back with him to his village, where he killed and ate her. 

 The next day he showed Mr. Earle " the post to which she had 

 been tied, and laughed to think how he had cheated her." 

 " For," said he, " I told her I only intended to give her a flog- 

 ging ; but I fired, and shot her through the heart." " Yet," 

 adds Mr. Earle, "I again affirm, that he was not only a hand- 

 some young man, but mild and genteel in his demeanour, 

 and a general favourite with us all."")- 



Although the New Zealanders were addicted to cannibalism, 

 it was with them a very different habit from that of the 

 Fijian. No doubt the Maori enjoyed his meals of human 

 flesh. But the cannibalism of a New Zealander, though often 

 a mere meal, was also sometimes a ceremony ; in these cases 

 the object was something very different from mere sensual 

 gratification ; it must be regarded as a part of his religion, as 



* Polynesian Researches, vol. ii. p. 226. 

 t Residences in New Zealand, p. 117. 



