478 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



drops. And even this is sometimes increased (though rarely) 

 while one is quietly looking on pleasurably, and drinking in the 

 scene, by the lighting-down of a dear little black-and-white 

 forest bird''' on one of the pendulous branches, so that its image 

 is also reflected clearly in the watery mirror : perhaps it has 

 come to quench its thirst, and will patiently wait until I retire ? 

 And then, suddenly, on the falling of a leaf, or a flower, or a 

 tiny twig into the pool, all is blurred and vanished as if by 

 magic; but ere long, the day being calm, the pleasing scene 

 returns, and affords a delightful object for contemplation. 

 This is also further heightened by considering the foulness of 

 the bottom of the said water, caused by thick deposits of rotten 

 leaves, mud, &c., which, on being only slightly stirred, mar the 

 whole. As Shakespeare quaintly and truly remarks, — 



Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud. 



Just so it is with many of us. And, while thus contemplating 

 and moralizing, his truthful and natural religious lines con- 

 cerning the retired woodland life come rushing to the fore : — 



And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 

 Finds tongues in trees, books m the running brooks, 

 Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 



Here I may mention that such a still pool of clear water 

 was formerly used by the Maori chiefs as a kind of mirror, to 

 show them the appearance of their own hair and heads when 

 dressed with feathers, &c. And, of course, such a pool was 

 sacred, and its water never used for any other purpose, unless 

 it were to wash that one chief's head. Such pools have often 

 served to remind me of the ancient poetical story of Narcissus. 



I well remember in one of my early journeys at the north 

 (in the "thirties") stopping at a Maori village where I had 

 never been before. I noticed a delightful little pool of clear 

 cold water in a rock-basin in the side of a rivulet in a seques- 

 tered spot in a thicket near by, and, being thirsty, I drank from 

 it. This was seen by one of the Maoris of the place, who soon 

 informed the others, and my transgression formed the subject 

 of a long public debate as to what was to be done to me by 

 way of retaliation, and what was I to pay as a fine or recom- 

 pense. The water of that pool had never been drunk before 

 by any human being, as it was the head chief's mirror- water. 

 I got ofl', however, partly through my knowing a little of their 

 language and their ways, and partly through my plea of being 

 a foreigner and ignorant of the great sanctity of that dell : but 

 there was much said about it — particularly my temerity, and 

 its desecration, while some of them also waited to see the ex- 

 pected results (as in Acts, xxviii., 6). 



*Miro australis, wood-robin. 



