135 
They will not worship their god in the presence of soldiers 
or arms—a curious fact in so military a race. 
This reminds us of Quetzalcoatl, the white god of Mexico, 
who ‘‘ stopped his ears when they told him of war,” and surely 
it implies a dim recollection of a purer theology. 
Their language, also, exhibits traces of refinement strangely 
out of place in so barbarous a race. 
Mr. Taylor, New Zealand missionary, relates, in his work 
on New Zealand and its Inhabitants, that the Maories had 
traditions of a time when they were far more numerous than 
when discovered by Huropeans, when universal peace pre- 
vailed, and the tribes met annually in a large central temple 
of wood. . 
Also, that the name of the man who first began cannibalism 
by way of revenge, barely fifty years before Tasman landed, was 
well remembered. 
Alas, how rapidly had deterioration spread in these islands ! 
The kindred races in Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands did 
not generally practise this fearful custom, and seemed horri- 
fied: at it. 
The large double-canoes of the Maories, in which they 
performed long voyages, have gradually fallen into desuetude. 
With regard to the Hsquimaux, polar voyagers find every- 
where traces of déserted houses and settlements.* 
Dr. Hayes, in his interesting work on The open Polar Sea 
(p. 385), says: ‘ Kalutunah’s first question was, whether I 
had found any Esquimaux ? 
“ Before starting I had frequently spoken to him concern- 
ing the extension of his people to the north, and he recited 
to me a well-established tradition of the time, that the 
Esquimaux once extended to the north and south; and that, 
finally, the tribe, now inhabiting the coast from Cape York to 
Smith Land, were cut off by the accumulation of ice as well 
above as below them; and he believed that Hsquimaux were 
living at this present time in both directions. 
“That there was once no break in the communication of 
the natives of the region about Upernavik with those on the 
shores of Melville Bay, there can be no doubt; and Kalu- 
tunah appeared to think the same would hold good in the 
opposite direction. 
“The ice has accumulated in Smith Sound as it has in 
Melville Bay ; and what were evidently once prosperous hunt- 
* The recent German Arctic Expedition discovered the same thing. 
