368 FORTIFICATIONS^ WEAPONS. CANOES. 



into the ground, so that they projected over the ditch, 

 which "from the bottom to the top or crown of the 

 bank is four-and-twenty feet. Close within the innermost 

 pallisade is a stage, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and 

 six broad ; it is supported by strong posts, and is intended 

 as a station for those who defend the place, from which they 

 may annoy the assailants by darts and stones, heaps of which 

 lay ready for use. Another stage of the same kind com- 

 mands the steep avenue from the back, and stands also 

 within the pallisade."* Within the pallisades they had 

 reduced the ground " not to one level, but to several, rising 

 in stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of 

 which is enclosed within its separate pallisade." These 

 different platforms communicated only by narrow passages, so 

 that each one was capable of separate defence ; and they were 

 FIG. 150. provided with large stores of dried fish, fern- 



roots, etc. As the natives, when first dis- 

 covered, had no bows and arrows, nor even 

 slings, in fact no " missile weapon except the 

 lance, which was thrown by hand," such posi- 

 tions as these must have been almost impreg- 

 nable. Their principal weapon was the 

 patoo patoo (Fig. 150) which was fastened to 

 the wrist by a strong strap, lest it should be 

 wrenched from them. They had no defen- 

 sive armour, but besides their weapons the 

 chiefs carried a " staff of distinction." 



Their canoes were well built and re- 

 sembled those of the other islands. Many 

 of them, however, were broad enough to sail 

 without an outrigger. The two ends were 

 Patoo Patoo. often ingeniously carved. 

 The dead were wrapped in native cloth, and either buried 



* Cook's First Voyage, p. 343. t Forster's Observations, I.e. p. 326. 



