Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0211
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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