312 



They had been cannibals up to this time, but upon peace being made they 

 renounced man-eating altogether, and when tribes or individuals had quarrels, 

 they fought with light sticks, and the dispute was decided in favour of the 

 party who drew first blood. 



Unlike the New Zealandei'S, the Maiorioris have neither songs nor chants ; 

 but they have a sort of dance, in performing which they flourished short sticks 

 round their heads. 



One of their principal ancestors was named Kahu, the captain of the canoe 

 Okahu. 

 / Their modes of disposing of the dead were peculiar. In some instances the 

 corpses were placed upright between young trees, and then firmly bound I'ound 

 with vines, and in course of time they became embedded in the wood itself; 

 sometimes they were j^laced in hollow trees. Several skeletons have lately 

 been discovered by Europeans, in trees which they were cutting up for fire- 

 wood, etc. In other cases the corpses were placed on small rafts constructed 

 of the dry flower stems of the flax ; water, food, fishing lines, etc., were then 

 placed by them, and they were set adrift and carried out to sea by the land 

 breeze. N^ot long ago an American whaler discovered one of these rafts with 

 a corpse seated in the stern, many miles from land. ISTot knowing that it had 

 been sent adrift purposely, the captain had a rope attached to it, and towed it 

 V into Whangaroa Harbour, much to the annoyance of the natives. 



An old sealer. Jack Coflee, who has been living at the Chathams 

 since 1832, informed me that he found the Maiorioris very numerous 

 when he first went there, and that on one occasion he counted over a 

 thousand men on the beach going to Waitangi. He was on the Island when 

 the ISTgatiawa and ISTgatimutunga went down from IN ew Zealand. He says 

 they treated the inoffensive Maiorioris with great cruelty, but not so bar- 

 barously as is generally supj)Osed. They killed and ate great numbers because 

 they would not submit, but fled to the woods, from whence they issued 

 occasionally to steal the crops and to break the canoes of their conquerors. 

 For these petty acts of retaliative aggTCssion, the offenders who happened to 

 be caught were killed and eaten. 



When the Maiorioris entirely submitted to the rule of their conqu.erors, 

 they were treated with much more consideration. 



In 1839, an epidemic carried off" great numbers of the Maiorioris, some- 

 times as many as forty dying in a single day. 



This epidemic was, no doubt, identical with the great plague of influenza 

 which, in the same year-, committed such ravages in New Zealand. Probably 

 one-half of the Maioi-ioris died from this cause ; a third, perhaps, Avere slain 

 by the cruel Ngatiawa and ISTgatimutunga ; and thus the rapid diminution of 

 the unfortunate Chatham Islanders may be accounted for. 



The foregoing notes may hereafter be found incorrect in some respects as 



