Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/87

68 ings; these are all intended to set the enemy at defiance, and are undoubtedly well calculated to inspire the beholder with terror; but as the natives are so much accustomed to these exhibitions, they in all probability are not easily terrified or intimidated by them.

The same mode of warfare is employed on the water as on the land; after the preparatory shouting, grimace, &c. have been carried on in the adverse canoes for some time, the paddles impel the warriors to the contest, which instantly commences with unbounded fury.

Of their manufactures the principal article is their mats, which I have before spoken of as the only clothing in use among them. Those worn as their ordinary covering are made of a strong bladed grass, woven into a coarse mat of flax, so as to leave the outside shaggy, and form a coating similar to thatch: it is two inches in thickness, and from the grass being so disposed as to turn off the wet, it must be almost impenetrable