424 THE NATURAL HISTOET RETlEW. 



ground, on the east side of the river, and are built of fern posts 

 lashed together with strips of supple-jack and thatched with toi 

 grass, resembling in all respects those found in the old pahs in New 

 Zealand. The population, including a few Moie-oie slaves, numbers 

 about 115 all told. Their huts are surrounded by well-fenced pad- 

 docks laid down with English grasses, but the grass is now almost 

 smothered with the common English daisy, mustard, and dock, which 

 are spreading rapidly over the whole island. The Maories generally 

 possess considerable numbers of horses, cattle, and pigs, which run 

 in common on the open lands and in the bush. They cultivate 

 large quantities of potatoes, maize, pumpkins, and onions, which they 

 supply to American whaling ships resorting to the island, and occa- 

 sionally they export to New Zealand. There are also Maori settle- 

 ments at Subong, on the north-western, and at Taupeka and 

 Kaingaroo, on the north side of the island, having altogether a 

 population of some 400 souls. The remnant of the Moie-oies — the 

 name given to the aboriginal inhabitants — exclusive of the few who 

 are still retained in slavery, is settled at Ohangi, on the south-east 

 of the island. They do not exceed 200 in number, and are said to be 

 rapidly decreasing. In their habits they now assimilate to the 

 Maories, and speak a language compounded of their own and of the 

 New Zealanders. Before the invasion of the island by the latter, 

 which took place about 1832 or 1835, the Moie-oies were very 

 numerous, numbering very little short of 1500 people. They are 

 much shorter, but stouter built than the New Zealanders, and have 

 darker skins, but the same coarse, straight hair. They never tattooed; 

 and although they originally practised cannibalism, they had discon- 

 tinued it before the arrival of the New Zealanders. They appear 

 to have been a very cheerful people ; their habits of living, however, 

 were originally very rude and improvident. They built no huts, 

 merely using a few branches of trees stuck into the ground as a 

 shelter from the wind. Their food chiefly consisted of fish, shell- 

 fish, birds, and fern-root. They had no canoes, there being no wood 

 on the islands sufficiently large for constructing them, but they 

 formed rafts of the flower-stalks of a native plant, lashed together 

 with supple-jack, and having an upright wooden stern ingeniously 

 carved. They had no hereditary chiefs, the most successful fisher- 

 man, or bird-catcher, or some member of the community remarkable 

 for extraordinary stature or some other prominent quality, being 

 regarded as the authoritative leader. 



