A VOYAGE TO 
1-78. 
February. 
amongd their weapons, as they both ftrike and cut with it, 
when cloiely engaged. It is a fmall flat wooden indru- 
ment, of an oblong drape, about a foot long, rounded at 
the corners, with a handle, almoft like one fort of the pa - 
toos of New Zealand ; but its edges are entirely furrounded 
with drarks’ teeth drongly fixed to it, and pointing out¬ 
ward; having commonly a hole in the handle, through 
which palfes a long firing, which is wrapped feveral times 
round the wrid*. We alfo fufpecded that they ufe dings on 
fome occadons; for we got fome pieces of the haematites, 
or blood-done, artidcially made of an oval drape, divided 
longitudinally, with a narrow groove in the middle of the 
convex part. To this the perfon, who had one of them, 
applied a cord of no great thicknefs, but would not part 
with it, though he had no objection to part with the done, 
which mud prove fatal when thrown with any force, as it 
weighed a pound. We likewife faw fome oval pieces of 
whetdone wed polifhed, but fomewhat pointed toward 
each end, nearly refembling in drape fonre dones which 
we had feen at New Caledonia in 1774, and ufed there in 
their dings. 
What we could learn of their religious inditutions, and 
the manner of difpodng of their dead, which may, pro¬ 
perly, be conddered as clofely connected, has been already 
mentioned. And as nothing more drongly points out the 
affinity between the manners of thefe people and of the 
Friendly and Society Iilands, I mud jud mention fome other 
circumdances to place this in a drong point of view; and, 
at the fame time, to drew how a few of the infinite modid- 
cations of which a few leading principles are capable, may 
didinguifh any particular nation. The people of Tonga- 
taboo inter their dead in a very decent manner, and they 
•* See Plate LXVII. Fig. 1. 
alfo 
