296 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



was brown; its color was human. It was an insult as 

 well as an aggravation and a terror. At length the keeper 

 of the public place yielded to the dictates of his better 

 sense and the clamor of the people, and had the thing 

 whitewashed. But though the color was much improved, 

 it was only a hateful, bloodless skeleton. It cost mone}^ 

 even to keep it. So he finally knocked it to pieces and 

 threw it on the rubbish heap outside of the palisades. 



Even in Kewahwenaw the influence of science still 

 steadily exerts itself. There was another man with a 

 hammer who came some time before from Hawaiki, the 

 fatherland. Now the Maories always entertained a re- 

 gard for the fatherland, which consisted of a mixture of 

 reverence and affection. They considered everything from 

 the fatherland superior to the productions of Maui; and 

 especially was a scientific man from Tonga the object of 

 flatteries and attentions. The Tongesan of whom I speak 

 was a wise man. He never spoke of his plans. He seemed 

 to be not only a fatherlander, but also one of the strictest 

 of the Maories. He was tattooed Maori fashion; this 

 pleased their fancy. He, too, began to go about with a 

 hammer, and Master Witterbacks was mightily pleased 

 with him. He opened a hole in the top of Master Witter- 

 back's head, and projected it full of science. He then 

 closed the hole with a plug of puriri-wood. The stuff 

 worked like vaccine matter; and Master Witterbacks began 

 to pass himself for a man of science head full of knowl- 

 edge; heart large enough to undertake any duty the prov- 

 ince might impose on him. Master Witterbacks kept his 

 eye on the Tongesan. He told him where to go and 

 what to do. The Tongesan was gentle as a Kiwi; but 

 he was cunning as a Kou-kou. He had all the time a 



