1778. THE PACIFIC? OCEAN. 2 ( J7 



the roots which they dig from the ground, without 

 so much as shaking off the soil that adheres to them. 



We are uncertain if they have any set time for 

 meals ; for we have seen them eat at all hours, in their 

 canoes. And yet, from seeing several messes of the 

 porpoise-broth preparing toward noon, when we vi- 

 sited the village, I should suspect that they make a 

 principal meal about that time. 



Their weapons are bows and arrows, slings, spears, 

 short truncheons of bone, somewhat like the patoo 

 patoo of New Zealand, and a small pickaxe, not un- 

 like the common American tomahawk. The spear 

 has generally a long point, made of bone. Some of 

 the arrows are pointed with iron ; but most commonly 

 their points were of indented bone. The tomahawk 

 is a stone, six or eight inches long, pointed at one 

 end, and the other end fixed into a handle of wood. 

 This handle resembles the head and neck of the hu- 

 man figure ; and the stone is fixed in the mouth, so 

 as to represent an enormously large tongue. To 

 make the resemblance still stronger, human hair is 

 also fixed to it. This weapon they call taaweesh, or 

 tsuskeeah They have another stone weapon called 

 seeaik, nine inches or a foot long, with a square 

 point. 



From the number of stone weapons, and others, 

 we might almost conclude that it is their custom to 

 engage in close fight ; and we had too convincing 

 proofs that their wars are both frequent and bloody, 

 from the vast number of human skulls which they 

 brought to sell. 



Their manufactures and mechanic arts are far 

 more extensive and ingenious, whether we regard the 

 design or the execution, than could have been ex- 

 pected from the natural disposition of the people, 

 and the little progress that civilization has made 

 amongst them in other respects. The flaxen and 

 woollen garments, with which they cover themselves, 

 must necessarily engage their first care, and are the 



