138 AVOYAGETO 



^'777- attacked by the Other party, in their turn. To eive quarter, 



February. ■> i j > 017 



or to take prifoners, makes no part of their military law; 

 Ho that the vanquifhed can only fave their lives by flight. 

 This perpetual flate of war, and deftru(rtive method of con- 

 ducting it, operates fo fl:rongly in producing habitual cir- 

 cumfpe(5tion, that one hardly ever finds a New Zealander off 

 his guard, either by night or by d^j. Indeed, no other man 

 can have fuch powerful motives to be vigilant, as the pre- 

 fervation both of body and of foul depends upon it. For, 

 according to their fyflem of belief, the foul of the man 

 ■whofe flefli is devoured by the enemy, is doomed to a per- 

 petual fire, while the foul of the man whofe body has been 

 refcued from thofe who killed bim, as well as the fouls of 

 all who die a natural death, afcend to the habitations of the 

 Cods. I afked, Whether they eat the flefh of luch of their 

 friends as had been killed in war, but whofe bodies were 

 faved from falling into the enemy's hands ? They feemed 

 furprifed at the queftion, which they anfwered in the nega- 

 tive, exprefling fome abhorrence at the very idea. Their 

 common method of difpofing of their dead, is by depofit- 

 ing their bodies in the earth; but if they have more of 

 their flaughtered enemies than they can eat, they throw 

 them into the iea. 



They have no fuch thing as morais, or other places of 

 public worfhip; nor do they ever afTemble together with 

 this view. But they have Priefts, who alone addrefs the 

 Gods in prayers, for the profperity of their temporal affairs ; 

 fuch as an enterprife againft a hoftile tribe, a fifliing party, 

 or the like. 



Whatever the principles of their religion may be, of which 

 we remain very ignorant, its inftrudions are very ftrongly 



inculcated 



