PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
49 
bodies, and would attribute to them none of the honours of the 
victory obtained over them. Overcome by their solicitude, I con¬ 
sented to their request, and being- in some measure satisfied that 
these people were not cannibals, I consented to their keeping 
two, on their promise that the others should be sent to the camp 
I remarked that as they brought back the dead bodies every per¬ 
son carefully avoided touching, not only them, but even the blood 
on the poles to which they were slung, and in removing the cov¬ 
ering of cocoa-nut leaves, a stick instead of the hand was used for 
the purpose: also that horror was marked on every countenance 
when their numerous wounds of spears wei;e exposed to view; for 
it must be observed, that those who were covered with leaves bore 
innumerable marks of the spears which had been thrust into them 
at the moment of their death; the others had been despatched with 
clubs, after they had been shot, the marks of which were to be 
seen about their heads. This delicacy in concealing the wounded 
body of an enemy, and their caution in avoiding the touch of the 
blood or the dead carcasses, greatly staggered my belief of their 
being cannibals, although they did not deny that they sometimes 
eat their enemies, at least so we understood them; but it is possi¬ 
ble we may have misunderstood. We had but little opportunity 
of gaining a knowledge of their language while we remained' 
among them; but from the little we became acquainted with, we are 
satisfied that it is not copious; few words serve to express all they 
wish to say; and one word has oftentimes many significations; as 
for example, the word mo tee signifies I thank you, I have enough, 
I do not want it , I do not like it, keep it yourself, take it away, &c, 
&c. Mattce expresses every degree of injury which can happen 
to a person or thing from the slightest harm to the most cruel 
death. Thus a prick of the finger is mattee, to have a pain in any 
partis mattee; mattee is to be sick, to be badly wounded is mattee , 
and mattee is to kill or be killed, to be broke (when speaking of 
inanimate objects) to be injured in any way, even to be dirtied or 
soiled is expressed by the word mattee. Mo takee, with slight 
variation of the voice, signifies every degree of good, from a thing 
merely tolerable, to an object of the greatest excellence; thus it 
is, so, so, good, very good, excellent: it signifies the qualities and 
disposition of persons; thus they are tolerable, likely, handsome,'or 
