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[Page 211]

207.
Some account of New Zealand

against the sides of the Boats &c with their feet  Paddles & arms  the whole in such excellent time that tho the crews of several Canoes join in concert you rarely or never hear a single stroke wrongly placd

This we calld the War song  for tho they seemd fond of using it upon all occasions whether in war or peace they I beleive never omit it in their attacks  besides this they have several other songs which their women sing prettily enough in parts  they are all in a slow melancholy stile but certainly have more taste in them than could be expected from untaught savages  instrumental musick they have not  unless a kind of wooden pipe or the shell calld Tritons Trumpet with which they make a noise not much differing from that made by boys with a Cows horn  might may be calld such  they have indeed besides these a kind of small pipe of wood  crooked & shapd almost like a large tobacco pipe head  but it has hardly more musick in it than a whistle with a Pea in it  but on none of these did I ever hear them attempt to play a tune or sing to their musick

That they eat the bodies of such of their enemies as are killd in war is a fact which  tho universaly acknowledg'd by them from our first landing

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