fashioning, sharpening, and polishing their stone implements and
weapons.[28] In council they were orators, and in the battlefield
warriors whose courage has merited the respect, and whose military skill
has won the admiration of the British troops opposed to them.[29] In
short, the Maoris were and are one of the most highly gifted among the
many uncivilised peoples which the English race, in its expansion over
the world, has met and subdued. It is therefore of peculiar interest to
learn what conceptions they had formed of man's spiritual nature and his
relations to the higher powers.

[17] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the Maoris_,
p. 202. The elaborate system of fortification employed by the
Maoris, of which the remains may be seen by thousands, seems to
have no exact parallel in Polynesia. See Elsdon Best, "The
Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) p. 75. These native
forts or _pas_, as they were called, had often a double or even
quadruple line of fence, the innermost formed by great poles
twenty or thirty feet high, which were tightly woven together by
the fibrous roots of a creeper. They were built by preference on
hills, the sides of which were scarped and terraced to assist
the defence. Some of them were very extensive and are said to
have contained from one to two thousand inhabitants. Many of
them were immensely strong and practically impregnable in the
absence of artillery. It is believed that the habit of
fortifying their villages was characteristic of the older race
whom the Maoris, on landing in New Zealand, found in occupation
of the country. See W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_
(London, 1835), pp. 122 _sqq._; G. F. Angas, _Savage Life and
Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_ (London, 1847), i. 332
_sq._; Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maoris of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_,
vol. xii. no. 4 (December 1903), pp. 204 _sqq._; W. H. Skinner,
"The Ancient Fortified _Pa_," _Journal of the Polynesian
Society_, vol. xx. no. 78 (June 1911), pp. 71-77.

[18] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), ii. 50.

[19] The ruins of native irrigation works are to be found in New
Zealand as well as in other parts of Polynesia (J. Deniker, _The
Races of Man_, p. 501).

[20] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New