ated enemy; and, secondly, their efforts to
restore amity proves their extreme desire to
have white people settle amongst them.
About a week after this event we witnessed
a most extraordinary ceremony, which partook
more of the ludicrous than the horrible, though
I have no doubt it was regarded by the natives
as a most solemn affair. For some days we
had been honoured by the presence of a great
priest, or one of their chief tabooers; he came
for the purpose of discussing with the chiefs
the affairs of the nation, particularly the approaching
wTar with the tribe of the Thames;
and the day set apart for the discussion of the
principal points was ushered in by a rich feast,
not of pork, nor fish, nor even the kumera,
but of two old sturdy large dogs!
I was much surprised on rising one morning
to see Kiney Kiney, with several chiefs of the
highest rank, stripped, and performing the
offices of the meanest slave (the washing the
feet of the pilgrims by cardinals and persons
of rank in Rome came instantly to my remembrance).
These chiefs were making a fire
and cooking. I was still more astonished, on
approaching them, to find the nature of the
food they were singing and scraping. This
bo'w-'wo’w meat they were preparing after the
fashion of pork : pigs being the only quadr
ruped they have ever seen cooked, they of
course are not acquainted with any other way
of dressing the animal creation, and a sad-
bungling job they made of it; for the dogs
were old and tough, and the hair adhered
most pertinaciously to the skin, and in many
places would not come off.
There were only five persons allowed to
partake of this delicious meal, which was, as
well as the five partakers, strictly taboo’d for
the whole of that day: and we strongly recommended
them to hold a similar feast every
day, until they had cleared the country of
these canine nuisances, the dogs being the
greatest pests they have.
One morning I was roused out of a sound
sleep by continued discharges of musketry
from a number of war canoes. I jumped up
instantly in alarm ; but I soon discovered them
to be Atoi and his party, who had been absent
about two months on a warlike expedition to
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