Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

610 IDOLS OK AMULETS — MATS. them, whicli it is supposed the evil spirit would not like to see or to hear, and therefore would avoid. Particular figures and shapes also are considered to be disagreeable to the author of evil and his agents.* Surely the New Zealanders must have tried thus to frighten Satan by their hideous images, and by the uncouth, horrible faces which they delight in making. The little images, or amulets of jade, are formed in a similar fashion J These small idols, or talismans, seem to me to have been cut into the rude likeness of an ape, or a ' ribbed-nosed baboon'-f- Yet, excepting the face, they resemble figures of Hindoo gods ! What time and pains must have been bestowed in working such hard pieces of stone, unless indeed, a method of acting upon them by fire or chemistry was known ; or that when first taken from the ground they were softer.;}: Besides the use whicli the natives make of the flax for clothins: by day, a mat, coarsely woven of its fibres, is tied at night, or while it rains, round the neck, and forms a sort of thatch, under which the owner squats upon his heels, and, at a little distance, looks very like a bee-hive. The rough tuft of coarse and curly black hair, which shows at the top of the conical roof, does not at all injure the resemblance ; and in this manner a great num- ber of the natives pass their nights, especially if there is the least chance of a surprise or attack from an enemy. I was told that they sleep as well in this way as if they were lying down, but T doubt it much, and think that only a part of the whole number at any place, keep watch, or remain ready in this man- ner, while others sleep lying down, though frequently in the open air. A more watchful way of resting could not well be devised. 30th. Unpleasant discussions, on the local discordances I have already mentioned, obliged me to delay sailing for some hours : but at last I escaped, happy to disentangle myself from a maze of disagreeable questions, in which it Avas not * Mosheim, in his edition of Cudworth's Intellectual System. — Enc)c. Brit. + The mandril, of Buffon. Apes were worshipped in India.— Ibid. I It is still a matter of conjecture how the Penivians worked in the yerv hard stone of which some of their ornaments were made.