They were in general of tall figure, and had regular features; their small, jet black eyes were always in motion. According to an artist who has traveled nearly round the world, the young men would serve well as models for a statue of Hercules. The women were well formed, had beautiful eyes and an abundance of black hair. Their faces looked quite intelligent, and even possessed a certain grace. Former explorers tried to find out what religious sentiments, what superstitions, reigned among these people; they sought to gather up their traditions. Owing to their idiomatic language the information was derived slowly and only after great effort. In the midst of a people presenting the spectacle of primitive life it is impossible not to take a lively interest in their belief touching the origin and the final destiny of man. Many of their ideas on these subjects present a striking similarity to those prevailing among civilized people. They have a long mythological history concerning the migrations of several distinguished ancestors. The life of one of these in its beginning is of peculiar interest. At his birth his mother, seeing that he was very feeble, put him in a little skiff which she placed upon the sea. The winds and the waves rocked him. He was finally wafted ashore, and found and cared for by a woman in high authority. His after life was full of wonderful and supernatural deeds. Then comes an age of heroes. These at death were deified and shone as stars in the heavens. Their brilliancy was greater or less according to their deeds of valor. In the cosmogony of these New Zealanders the earth is a plain, the heavens an opaque body extending around it, separated from it by a transparent substance. They supposed that the sun and moon glided on the outside of this crystal-like appearance. Above is the reservoir of the rain, higher the haunts of the winds, higher still the dwelling of spirits, then that of light, and then the highest region, the abode of the greatest of all the gods. They recognized a multitude of divinities, and accorded to each one a special function. They occasionally presented offerings to the gods, in order to render them propitious. They did not anticipate any pain nor any recompense in the future life. After death souls, having remained three days near the bodies which they had abandoned, took themselves to the extreme north of New Zealand, in order to take their last plunge into eternal night, or into glory.