RELIGION.

CANNIBALISM.

481

are disposed to think this was the fact."* Even Mr. Ellis himself was of the same opinion. With such low ideas of the Divinity, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the chiefs. were looked upon as gods even during life. Watches and white men also were at first regarded as deities; the latter not, perhaps, unnaturally, their firearms being regarded as thunder and lightning.

The New Zealanders had but little regard for human life. Earle relates that a young chief named Atoi, who is described as having "a handsome open countenance," on one occasion. recognized a pretty girl of about 16, who had been working for Mr. Earle, and claiming her as a runaway slave, took her back with him to his village, where he killed and ate her. The next day he showed Mr. Earle "the post to which she had been tied, and laughed to think how he had cheated her.” "For," said he, "I told her I only intended to give her a flogging; but I fired, and shot her through the heart." "Yet,” adds Mr. Earle, "I again affirm, that he was not only a handsome young man, but mild and genteel in his demeanour, and a general favourite with us all.”†

Although the New Zealanders were addicted to cannibalism, it was with them a very different habit from that of the Figian. No doubt the Maori enjoyed his meals of human flesh; all people appear to have done so who have once overcome the natural horror which must, one would suppose, have been at first experienced. But the cannibalism of a New Zealander, though often a mere meal, was also sometimes a ceremony; in these cases the object was something very different from mere sensual gratification; it must be regarded as a part of his religion, as a sort of unholy sacraThis is proved by the fact that, after a battle, the bodies which they preferred were not those of plump young * Polynesian Researches, vol. ii. p. 226.

ment.

+ Residences in New Zealand, p. 117.

men, or tender damsels, but of the most celebrated chiefs, however old and dry they might be.* In fact, they believed that it was not only the material substance which they thus appropriated, but also the spirit, the ability, and the glory of him whom they devoured. The greater the number of corpses they had eaten, the higher they thought would be their position in the world to come. Under such a creed there is a certain diabolical nobility about the habit, which is, at any rate, far removed from the sensuality of ordinary cannibalism. To be eaten was, on the other hand, the greatest misfortune that could happen to a New Zealander; since he believed that the soul was thus destroyed as well as the body. The chief who could both kill and devour his enemy had nothing more to fear from him either in this world or the next; on the contrary, the strength, ability, and prestige against which he had had to contend, were not only conquered, but, by this dreadful process, incorporated with, and added to his own.

In other cases slaves were killed and eaten in honour of the gods. The New Zealanders declared that criminals alone were thus treated. Even if this was the case, the custom was horrible enough; but religious persecutions have scarcely ceased in Europe even now, nor is it so very long since the fire and the stake were regarded as necessary for the preservation of Christianity itself. E'hongui evidently considered that the whole analogy of nature was in favour of cannibalism. He was surprised at the horror of it felt by D'Urville. Big fish, he said, eat little fish; insects devour insects; large birds feed upon small ones; it is in accordance with the whole analogy of nature that men should eat their enemies.†

Tahiti.

Tahiti, the Queen of Islands, has excited the wonder and

* D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 547.

+ Ib. 548.

TAHITI.

FIG. 211.

483

admiration of almost all those by whom it has been visited. In some respects the Tahitians were surpassed by other South Sea Islanders; the Figians, for instance, being, as we have seen, acquainted with pottery, but on the whole they may be taken as representing the highest stage in civilization to which man has in any country raised himself before the discovery or introduction of metallic implements. It is not, indeed, at all probable that any inhabitants of the great continents were so far advanced in civilization during their Stone Age. Doubtless, the Society Islanders would not have remained without metal, if the country had afforded them the means of obtaining it. On the other hand, the ancient inhabitants of Europe were confined to the use of stone weapons only until they became acquainted with the superiority of, and acquired the art of working in, copper, bronze, or iron; and it is evident that a nation would in all pro

bability discover the use of metal before attaining the highest pitch of civilization, which, without such aid, it would be possible for it to attain.

The tools of the Tahitians when first discovered were made of stone, bone, shell, or wood. Of metal they had no idea. When they first obtained nails, they mistook them for the young shoots of some very hard wood, and, hoping that life might not be quite extinct, planted a number of them carefully in their gardens.*

In a very short time, however, the earlier weapons were entirely replaced by those of iron; and in his last voyage Captain Cook tells us† that "a stone hatchet is, at present, as rare a thing amongst them as an iron one was eight years ago; and a chisel of bone or stone is not to be seen." The stone axes, or rather adzes, were of various sizes; those intended for cutting down trees weighed six or seven pounds, the little ones, which were used for carving, only a few ounces. All of them required continual sharpening, and a stone was always kept in readiness for this purpose. The natives were very skilful in the use of their adzes; nevertheless, to fell a tree was a work of several days. Some of the South Sea axes have beautifully carved handles, as in fig. 212, representing a specimen in my own collection. These were axes of state. The chisels, or gouges, were of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow. Pieces of coral were used as rasps, and splinters of bamboo for knives. For cultivating the ground they had instruments of hard wood, about five feet long, narrow, with sharp edges and pointed. These they used as spades or hoes.‡ They had fish-hooks made of mother-of-pearl, and every fisherman made them for himself. They generally served for the double purpose of hook and bait. "The shell is first cut into square pieces, by the edge of another shell, and

*Ellis, Polynesian Researches, p. 298.

Voyage to the Pacific Ocean,

vol. ii. p. 137.

Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the South Pacific, p. 245.

§ Cook's Voyage round the World, vol. i. p. 483; vol. ii. p. 218.