Their public contentions are frequent, or rather perpetual; for it appears, from their number of weapons, and dexterity in using them, that war is their principal profession.  These weapons are spears, patoos and halberts, or sometimes stones.  The first are made of hard wood pointed, of different lengths, from five, to twenty, or even thirty feet long.  The short ones are used for throwing as darts.  The patoo or emeete is of an elliptical shape, about eighteen inches long, with a handle made of wood, stone, the bone of some sea animal, or green jasper, and seems to be their principal dependence in battle.  The halbert, or long club, is about five or six feet long, tapering at one end with a carved head, and at the other, broad or flat, with sharp edges.

Before they begin the onset, they join in a war-song, to which they all keep the exactest time, and soon raise their passion to a degree of frantic fury, attended with the most horrid distortion of their eyes, mouths, and tongues, to strike terror into their enemies; which, to those who have not been accustomed to such a practice, makes them appear more like demons than men, and would almost chill the boldest with fear.  To this succeeds a circumstance, almost foretold in their fierce demeanour, horrid, cruel, and disgraceful to human nature; which is, cutting in pieces, even before being perfectly dead, the bodies of their enemies, and, after dressing them on a fire, devouring the flesh, not only without reluctance, but with peculiar satisfaction.

One might be apt to suppose, that people, capable of such excess of cruelty, must be destitute of every human feeling, even amongst their own party; and yet we find them lamenting the loss of their friends, with a violence of expression which argues the most tender remembrance of them.  For both men and women, upon the death of those connected with them, whether in battle or otherwise, bewail them with the most doleful cries; at the same time cutting their foreheads and cheeks, with shells or pieces of flint, in large gashes, until the blood flows plentifully and mixes with their tears.  They also carve pieces of their green stone, rudely shaped, as human figures, which they ornament with bright eyes of pearl-shell, and hang them about their necks, as memorials of those whom they held most dear; and their affections of this kind are so strong, that they even perform the ceremony of cutting, and lamenting for joy, at the return of any of their friends, who have been absent but for a short time.

The children are initiated, at a very early age, into all the practices, good or bad, of their fathers; so that you find a boy or girl, nine or ten years old, able to perform all the motions, and to imitate the frightful gestures, by which the more aged use to inspire their enemies with terror, keeping the strictest time in their song.  They likewise sing, with some degree of melody, the traditions of their forefathers, their actions in war, and other indifferent subjects; of all which they are immoderately fond, and spend much of their time, in these amusements, and in playing on a sort of flute.