1111' THE PACIFIC OCEAN. )>i5 



sometimes are pursued and attacked by the other 

 party, in their turn. To give quarter, or to take 

 prisoners, makes no part of their military law ; so 

 that the vanquished can only save their lives by 

 flight. This perpetual state of war, and destruc- 

 tive method of conducting it, operates so strongly 

 in producing habitual circumspection, that one 

 hardly ever finds a New Zealander off his guard, 

 either by night or by day. Indeed no other man 

 can have such powerful motives to be vigilant, as the 

 preservation both of body and of soul depends upon 

 it. For, according to their system of belief, the soul 

 of the man whose flesh is devoured by the enemy is 

 doomed to a perpetual fire, while the soul of the man 

 whose body has been rescued from those who killed 

 him, as well as the souls of all who die a natural 

 death, ascend to the habitations of the gods. I 

 asked, whether they ate the flesh of such of their 

 friends as had been killed in war, but whose bodies 

 were saved from falling into the enemy's hands? 

 They seemed surprised at the question, which they 

 answered in the negative, expressing some abhorrence 

 at the very idea. Their common method of dis- 

 posing of their dead is by depositing their bodies in 

 the earth ; but if they have more of their slaughtered 

 enemies than they can eat, they throw them into the 

 sea. 



They have no such thing as morals, or other places 

 of public worship; nor do they ever assemble together 

 with this view. But they have priests, who alone 

 address the gods in prayers for the prosperity of 

 their temporal affairs; such as an enterprise against a 

 hostile tribe, a fishing party, or the like. 



Whatever the principles of their religion may be, 

 of which we remain very ignorant, its instructions 

 are very strongly inculcated into them from their 

 very infancy. Of this I saw a remarkable instance, 

 in the youth who was first destined to accompany 

 Taweiharooa. He refrained from eating the greatest 



p -if 



