In the forests they found birds, and, not having the bow-and-arrow, made shift to snare and spear them ingeniously.

To add to the vegetable staples which they had brought with them from their Polynesian home, they used the root of the fern or bracken, and certain wild fruits and berries--none of them specially attractive.

What between fish, birds and vegetables, with occasional delicacies in the shape of dogs and rats, they were by no means badly provisioned, and they cooked their food carefully and well, chiefly by steaming in ovens lined with heated stones.

Without tea, coffee, sugar, alcohol or tobacco, they had also but seldom the stimulant given by flesh meat.

Their notorious cannibalism was almost confined to triumphal banquets on the bodies of enemies slain in battle.