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610 IDOLS o u 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 aud 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-iiosed 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.]
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 number
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 I doubt it much, and think that only a part of the whole
number at any place, keep watch, or remain ready in this manner,
while others sleep lying down, though frequently in the open
air. A more watchful way of resting could not wdl be devised.
SOth. 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, iu which it ivas not
• Mosheim, in his edition of Cudworth’s Intellectual System.—Encyc.
^ t The mandril, of Buffon. Apes were worshipped in India.-llud.
X It is still a matter of conjecture how the Peruvians worked in the
verv hard stone of which some of their ornaments were made.
1835. DEPARTURE REMARKS. 611
my proper business to interfere, though unavoidably I had
become involved in them. By evening we had gained a good
offing, and profited by it in the night, during a strong gale of
wind from the eastward, with a lee current, setting to the northwest,
about a knot an hour. When we sailed there was every
appearance of a gale coming on, but all our necessary operations
were completed, and to have stayed an hour longer in
that place would have been far worse than passing some hours
in a gale of wind at sea.
That the few notices here given of a small part of New
Zealand are «canty and quite insufficient for those who seek
general information, I am well aware; but the Beagle’s stay
was very short, and I have made it a principle in this narrative
to restrict myself to writing what I or my companions
collected on the spot: admitting a few quotations from other
authorities, only where they seemed to illustrate or explain a
particular subject, without requiring much space. To those
interested ahout this important and rising country, I need
hardly mention the volume of evidence taken before the House
of Lords, as the latest,—and Cook’s account as the earliest,
—as well as best sources of information.
I will now endeavour to draw attention to a few of the difficulties
against which missionaries have to contend, while anxiously
labouring in their holy cause among Polynesian, Australian,
and European infidels. I t may be supposed that population
and occasional intercourse had every where extended,
even before the ever-memorable epoch, when the ‘ Victory ’ was
steered by the daring Magalhaens across an unexplored ocean :
but since that time, intercourse with Polynesia has so much
increased, that the most interesting islanders—those of Otaheite
and the Sandwich Islands—are already more civilized
than the natives of some of the Spanish settlements in America.
The New Zealanders are improving; so likewise are the
natives of many other islands, which have been visited by missionaries
: but those islanders who have been altered only by
the visits of whalers, sealers, and purveyors for Chinese epicures,
have iu no way profited. On the contrary, they have
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