THE PACIFIC OCEAN'. i^^ 



inciilcated into them from their very infancy. Of this I ^ '777- 



•' rebruary.- 



faw a remarkable inftance, in the youth who was firft de- ' . ' 



ftincd to accompany Taweiharooa. He refrained from eat- 

 ing the gfcateft part of the day, on account of his hair being 

 cut ; though every method was tried to induce him to break 

 his refokuion ; and he was tempted with the oifer of fuch 

 vidluals as he was known to efteem the moft. He faid, if 

 h-e eat any thing that day, the Eatooa would kill him. How- 

 ever, towards evening, the cravings of nature got the better 

 of the precepts of his religion, and he eat, though but 

 fparingly. I had often conjedlured, before this, that they 

 had fome fuperftitious notions about their hair, having fre- 

 quently obferved quantities of it tied to the branches of 

 trees near fome of their habitations j but what thefe notions 

 are, I never could learn. 



Notwithftanding the divided and hoflile flate in which the 

 New Zealanders live, travelling ftrangers, who come with 

 no ill defign, are well received and entertained during tlieir 

 ftayj which, however, it is expe(fled, v^ill be no longer 

 than is requifite to tranfadf the bufinefs they come upon. 

 Thus it is that a trade iox foenammoo^ or green talc, is carried 

 on throughout the whole northern ifland. For they tell us, 

 that there is none of this flone to be found, but at a place 

 which bears its name, fomewhere about the head of Queen 

 Charlotte's Sound, and not above one or two d:Lys journey, 

 at moft, from the ftation of our iliips. I regretted much 

 that I could not fpare time fufficient for paying a vifit to 

 the place J as we were told a hundred fabulous flories about 

 this ftone, not one of which carried with it the leaft proba- 

 bility of truth, though fome of their moft fenfible men 

 would have us believe them. One of thefe {lories is, that 

 this ftone is originally a fiih, which they flrike with a gig 



T % in 



