36 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
ber should not excite any astonishment, for all are in health and. 
vigour: old and young are active and strong, and all are capable 
of managing a spear, club or sling. Their general mode of fight” 
ing consists in constant skirmishing. The adverse parties assem» 
ble on the brows of opposite hills, having a plain between them. 
One or two dressed out in all their finery, richly decorated with 
shells, tufts of hair, ear ornaments, &c. &c. advance, dancing up 
to the opposite party, amid a shower of spears and stones (which 
they avoid with great dexterity) and daring the other to single 
combat: they are soon pursued by a greater number, who are in 
turn driven back; and if in their retreat they should chance to be 
knocked over with a stone, they are instantly despatched with 
spears and war-clubs and carried off in triuMph. They have two 
descriptions of spears which they use in their warfare: those by 
which they set the most store, are about fourteen feet in length, 
made of a hard and black wood called toa , which receives a polish 
equal to ivory: these are made with much neatness, and are never 
thrown from the hand: the other kind are smaller, of a light 
kind of wood, and are thrown with much accuracy to a great 
distance. At certain distances from their points they are pierced 
with holes all round, in order that they may break off, with their 
own weight, on entering a body, and thus be more difficult to 
extract. Their slings are made of the fibres of the bark of the co¬ 
coa-nut tree, and are executed with a degree of neatness and skill not 
to be excelled. The stones thrown from them are of an oval shape, 
of about half a pound weight, and are all highly polished, by rubbing 
against the bark of a tree; they are worn in a net suspended about 
the waist, and are thrown with such a degree of velocity and ac¬ 
curacy, as to render them almost equal to musketry—wherever 
they strike they produce effect; and the numerous scars, broken 
limbs, and fractured sculls of the natives, proves that, notwith¬ 
standing their great dexterity in avoiding those missiles, they are 
used with much effect. It is no uncommon thing to see a warrior 
bearing about him the wounds of many spears, some of which have 
transfixed his body; some bear several wounds occasioned by 
stones; and I have seen several with their skulls so indented, as 
that the whole hand might have been laid in the cavity, and yet 
the wounds were perfectly healed, and appeared to give no pain. 
