irs, they asked him if our God had given us
any sweet potatoes, and could with difficulty be made to see how one
God should give these to the New Zealander and not equally to the white
man; or, on the other hand, how he should have acted so partially as to
give to the white man only such possessions as cattle, sheep, and
horses, which the New Zealander as much required. The argument, however,
upon which they seem most to have rested, was:--"But we are of a
different colour from you; and if one God made us both, he would not
have committed such a mistake as to make us of different colours." Even
one of the chiefs, who had been a great deal with Marsden, and was
disposed to acknowledge the absurdity both of the "taboo" and of many of
his other native superstitions, could not be brought to admit that the
same God who made the white men had also made the New Zealanders.

Among themselves, the New Zealanders appear to have a great variety of
other gods, besides the one whom they call emphatically the atua. Crozet
speaks of some feeble ideas which they have of subordinate divinities,
to whom, he says, they are wont to pray for victory over their enemies.
But Savage gives us a most particular account of their daily adoration
of the sun, moon, and stars. Of the heavenly host, the moon, he says, is
their favourite; though why he should think so, it is not easy to
understand, seeing that, when addressing this luminary, they employ, he
tells us, a mournful song, and seem as full of apprehension as of
devotion; whereas "when paying their adoration to the rising sun, the
arms are spread and the head bowed, with the appearance of much joy in
their countenances, accompanied with a degree of elegant and reverential
solemnity, and the song used upon the occasion is cheerful." It is
strange that none of their other visitors have remarked the existence of
this species of idolatry among these savages.

Yet two New Zealanders, who are now in this country, were in the habit
of commencing the exhibition of their national customs with the
ceremonies practised in their morning devotion to the sun.

The vocal part of the rite, according to the account we have received,
consisted in a low monotonous chant; the manual, in keeping a ball about
the size of an orange constantly whirling in a vertical circle. The
whole was performed in a kneeling posture. Like most other rude nations,
the New Zealanders have certain fancies with regard to several of