them very high. Thefe fkulls had their brains taken out, and fome of them their
eyes, but the. fcalp and hair was left upon them. They locked as if they had been
dried by the fire* or by the heat of the fun. We alio found human bones in the
woods, near the ovens, where they ufed to partake of their horrid midnight re-
parts : and we faw a eanoethe baler of which, was made of a man’s fkull. The
natives feemed even to take pride in their cruelty, as if it was the moil laudable
virtue, inftead of one of the word of moral vices j. and (hewed us the manner in
which they difpatched their prifoners y which was to knock them down with their
patta pattoos, and then to rip them. up.
The natives, in this part of New Zealand^ [fee pi-XXIII.] wear large bunches*
of feathers on their heads, and their garments in a Angular manner,, juft as Abel*
Tafmen, the perfon who* about one hundred and fifty years ago,..difcovered this*
land, has figured in his work- They were not dertrous of any thing; we hack
except nails», which they foon difcovered to be ufefal.
When thefe people are- pleafed on any .particular occafion, they exprefs it by
crying Ai, and make a cluck with their tongues not unlike a hen's when (he calls,
her chickens..
We heard a great cry, or howling, at the Hippa every night, and, mod' likely,,
at that time they were cutting and (ladling themfelves, according to their' cuftom,
which is done with a piece of green ftone, (bell,or fhark’s tooth,, which.they drive
in to their tefk, and draw it along,, beginning at their feet and continuing, it to their
heads»
While we lay here, fome of our people went toward the Hippa in a- boat j feveral
of the natives came out to welcome them ,- mod likely they took, it to be as.
traverfe, and Mr- Monkhoufe fhot at them. An old man came in a few days after
and told us- one perfon was dead of a wound which he received- In this Hippa-
there are about thirty-two houfes, containing upwards of two hundred inhabitants»
Some of our people faw the bones of a girl, the rtefh of which, they faid, they ate
the day before* Another party of our people, going to an. ifle on. the other fide o f
the