ut off by the knee.

Connected with Samoan warfare several other things may be noted, such
as consulting the gods, taking a priest to battle to pray for his
people and curse the enemy, filling up wells, destroying fruit-trees,
going to battle decked off in their most valuable clothing and
trinkets, haranguing each other previous to a fight, the very
counterpart of Abijah the king of Judah, and even word for word, with
the filthy-tongued Rabshakeh.

If the war became general, and involving several districts, they
formed themselves into a threefold division of highway, bush, and
sea-fighters. The fleet might consist of three hundred men, in thirty
or forty canoes. The bushrangers and the fleet were principally
dreaded, as there was no calculating where they were, or when they
might pounce unawares upon some unguarded settlement. The fleet met
apart from the land forces, and concocted their own schemes. They
would have it all arranged, for instance, and a dead secret, to be off
after dark to attack a particular village belonging to the enemy. At
midnight they would land at an uninhabited place some miles from the
settlement they intended to attack. They took a circuitous course in
the bush, surrounded the village from behind, having previously
arranged to let the canoes slip on quietly, and take up their position
in the water in front of the village. By break of day they rushed into
the houses of the unsuspecting people before they had well woke up,
chopped off as many heads as they could, rushed with them to their
canoes, and decamped before the young men of the place had time to
muster or arm. Often they were scared by the people, who, during war,
kept a watch, night and day, at all the principal openings in the
reef; but now and then the plot succeeded and there was fearful
slaughter. It was in one of these early morning attacks from the fleet
that the young man to whom I have referred had such a narrow escape.
That morning many were wounded, and the heads of thirteen carried off.
One of them was that of a poor old man, who was on his knees at his
morning devotions, when off went his head at a blow. In another house
that same morning there was a noble instance of maternal heroism, in a
woman who allowed herself to be hacked from head to foot, bending over
her son to save his life. It is considered cowardly to kill a woman,
or they would have despatched her at once. It was the head of her
little boy they wanted, but th