1840.] FORTIFIED TOWNS AND HOUSES. 303 



general head among the natives, even those who were evi- 

 dently of the same race ; but they were divided into tribes, 

 distinguished by separate names, which were governed by 

 principal chiefs, or arekees, and between which fierce and ex- 

 terminating wars often took place. A very large proportion 

 of the people were slaves, being subject to chiefs who were 

 owners of the soil, and had the power to dispose of their lands, 

 and alienate their servants, at will. These chiefs were them- 

 selves dependent on the arekees, or head chiefs, but often 

 proved refractory and disobedient subjects. 



Fortified towns, called pas, are the permanent places of resi- 

 dence of the natives. They consist of collections of huts or 

 houses, built closely together, on high promontories or insu- 

 lated hills ; such a position being usually selected as will af- 

 ford the greatest natural resistance to an attacking enemy 

 These clusters of houses, or pas, are surrounded and protected 

 by palisades, or upright stakes, perhaps ten feet high, driven 

 firmly into the ground. Some of the inclosures contain as many 

 as two or even three hundred huts. The main entrance, or 

 gateway, opening through the row of palisades, is commonly 

 flanked with larger posts, on which are sometimes carved dis- 

 torted representations of human figures. Within the princi- 

 pal incJosure, there are frequently minor ones, containing five 

 or six houses, separated from each other by intervening alleys 

 or walks, from two to four feet wide. Formerly, when the 

 natives were ignorant of the use of fire arms, a pa may 

 have been pretty secure against attack, but it would now 

 form a feeble defence. 



The huts of the New Zealander are most sorry affairs. 

 They are of an oblong shape, low and small, blackened inside 

 and out with soot and smoke, and defiled from top to bottom, 

 with grease, filth, and dirt, of every kind. Those of the largest 

 class are only twenty feet long, by twelve feet broad. In 

 erecting them, they begin with the frame, which consists of 

 four posts driven into the ground at the corners. These pro- 

 ject from two to five feet above the ground, and are connected 

 by horizontal beams firmly secured in their places with twine 



