discovered before they can execute their
bloody purpose, they generally steal off again, and sometimes are
pursued and attacked by the other party in their turn. To give quarter,
or to take prisoners, makes no part of their military law; so that the
vanquished can only save their lives by flight. This perpetual state of
war, and destructive method of conducting it, operates so strongly in
producing habitual circumspection, that one hardly ever finds a New
Zealander off his guard either by night or by day. Indeed, no other man
can have such powerful motives to be vigilant, as the preservation both
of body and of soul depends upon it; for, according to their system of
belief, the soul of the man whose flesh is devoured by the enemy, is
doomed to a perpetual fire, while the soul of the man whose body has
been rescued from those who killed him, as well as the souls of all who
die a natural death, ascend to the habitations of the gods. I asked,
Whether they eat the flesh of such of their friends as had been killed
in war, but whose bodies were saved from falling into the enemy's hands?
They seemed surprised at the question, which they answered in the
negative, expressing some abhorrence at the very idea. Their common
method of disposing of their dead, is by depositing their bodies in the
earth; but if they have more of their slaughtered enemies than they can
eat, they throw them into the sea.

[Footnote 145: Every reader almost will here recollect, that a similar
disposition to perpetuate grievances has been found to operate in all
barbarous nations, and indeed amongst many people who lay great claims
to refinement in civilization. It will be found, in truth, too strong an
effort for most men's charity, to regard with perfect impartiality
either a person or a nation whom their fathers had pointed out as an
enemy. On the great scale of the world, we see it is the nearly
inevitable consequence of war to generate malicious feelings. In
addition, then, to some contrariety of interest, to some real or
imaginary aggression, or even a bare possibility of being injured, it is
almost enough, at any time, for the commencement of a new struggle
betwixt rival nations, that one, or both of them, remember they were
formerly at variance. Nor is it at all requisite for due rancour in such
cases, that politicians explain the grounds of the quarrel, and
aggravate the enormous injustice of the opponent, or prove his readiness
to do mischief. T