236 cook's voyage to feb. 



throwing as darts. The patoo or emeete is of an 

 elliptical shape, about eighteen inches long, with 

 a handle made of wood, stone, the bone of some 

 sea animal, or green jasper, and seems to be their 

 principal dependance in battle. The halbert, or 

 long club, is about five or six feet long, tapering 

 at one end with a carved head, and at the other, 

 broad or flat, with sharp edges. 



Before they begin the onset, they join in a war- 

 song, to which they all keep the exactest time, and 

 soon raise their passion to a degree of frantic fury, 

 attended with the most horrid distortion of their 

 eyes, mouths, and tongues, to strike terror into 

 their enemies ; which, to those who have not been 

 accustomed to such a practice, makes them appear 

 more like demons than men, and would almost chill 

 the boldest with fear. To this succeeds a circum- 

 stance, almost foretold in their fierce demeanor, 

 horrid, cruel, and disgraceful to human nature ; 

 which is, cutting in pieces, even before being per- 

 fectly dead, the bodies of their enemies, and, after 

 dressing them on a fire, devouring the flesh, not only 

 without reluctance, but with peculiar satisfaction. 



One might be apt to suppose, that people, capa- 

 ble of such excess of cruelty, must be destitute of 

 every humane feeling, even amongst their own party. 

 And yet we find them lamenting the loss of their 

 friends, with a violence of expression which argues 

 the most tender remembrance of them. For both 

 men and women, upon the death of those connected 

 with them, whether in battle or otherwise, bewail 

 them with the most doleful cries ; at the same time 

 cutting their foreheads and cheeks, with shells or 

 pieces of flint, in large gashes, until the blood flows 

 plentifully and mixes with their tears. They also 

 carve pieces of their green stone, rudely shaped as 

 human figures, which they ornament with bright 

 eyes of pearl shell, and hang them about their necks, 



