OCT. 1769 NEW ZEALAND CANOE 193 



sation with one of their priests ; they seemed to agree very 

 well in their notions of religion, only Tupia was much 

 more learned than the other, and all his discourse was 

 received with much attention. He asked them in the course 

 of his conversation many questions, among the rest whether 

 or no they really ate men, which he was very loth to 

 believe ; they answered in the affirmative, saying that they 

 ate the bodies only of those of their enemies who were killed 

 in war. 



Among other knicknacks, Dr. Solander bought a boy's 

 top, which resembled those our boys play with in England, 

 and which they made signs was to be whipped in the same 

 manner. 



2Sth. On an island called Jubolai we saw the largest 

 canoe which we had met with; her length was 68 J feet, 

 her breadth 5 feet, and her height 3 feet 6 inches. She 

 was built with a sharp bottom, made in three pieces of 

 trunks of trees hollowed out, the middlemost of which was 

 much longer than either of the other two; their gunnel 

 planks were in one piece 62 feet 2 inches in length, carved 

 prettily enough in bas-relief; the head also was richly 

 carved in their fashion. We saw also a house larger than 

 any we had seen, though not more than 3 feet long ; it 

 seemed as if it had never been finished, being full of chips ; 

 the woodwork was squared so evenly and smoothly that we 

 could not doubt of their having very sharp tools. All the 

 side-posts were carved in a masterly style of their whimsical 

 taste, which seems confined to making spirals and distorted 

 human faces ; all these had clearly been moved from some 

 other place, so that such work probably bears a value among 

 them. 



While Mr. Sporing was drawing on the island he saw a 

 most strange bird fly over his head. He described it as 

 being about as large as a kite, and brown like one ; his tail, 

 however, was of so enormous a length that he at first took 

 it for a flock of small birds flying after him : he who is a 

 grave thinking man, and is not at all given to telling 

 wonderful stories, says he judged it to be yards in length. 



o 



