610 



IDOLS OR AMULETS — MATS. 



them, which it is supposed the evil spirit would not like to 

 see or to hear, and therefore would avoid. Particular figures 

 and shapes also are considered to be disagreeable to the author 

 of evil and his agents.* Surely the New Zealanders must have 

 tried thus to frighten Satan by their hideous images, and by 

 the uncouth, horrible faces which they delight in making. The 

 little images, or amulets of jade, are formed in a similar fashion ! 



These small idols, or talismans, seem to me to have been cut 

 into the rude likeness of an ape, or a ' ribbed-nosed baboon.'-f* 

 Yet, excepting the face, they resemble figures of Hindoo gods ! 

 What time and pains must have been bestowed in working 

 such hard pieces of stone, unless indeed, a method of acting 

 upon them by fire or chemistry was known ; or that when first 

 taken from the ground they were softer. J 



Besides the use which the natives make of the flax for clothing 

 by day, a mat, coarsely woven of its fibres, is tied at night, or 

 while it rains, round the neck, and forms a sort of thatch, under 

 which the owner squats upon his heels, and, at a little distance, 

 looks very like a bee-hive. The rough tuft of coarse and curly 

 black hair, which shows at the top of the conical roof, does not 

 at all injure the resemblance ; and in this manner a great num- 

 ber of the natives pass their nights, especially if there is the 

 least chance of a surprise or attack from an enemy. I was told 

 that they sleep as well in this way as if they were lying down, 

 but T doubt it much, and think that only a part of the whole 

 number at any place, keep watch, or remain ready in this man- 

 ner, while others sleep lying down, though frequently in the open 

 air. A more watchful way of resting could not well be devised. 



30th. Unpleasant discussions, on the local discordances I 

 have already mentioned, obliged me to delay sailing for some 

 hours : but at last I escaped, happy to disentangle myself 

 from a maze of disagreeable questions, in which it was not 



* Mosheim, in his edition of Cudworth's Intellectual System. — Encyc. 

 Brit. 



t The mandril, of Buffon. Apes were worshipped in India. — Ibid. 

 + It is still a matter of conjecture how the Peruvians worked in the 

 very hard stone of which some of their ornaments were made. 



