306 SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



subsoil. Where this point now is, there was, a few years ago, the 

 extended site of a regular fortified Pah or village. But one day 

 the greater part of it sank bodily into the lake ; and now only 

 the tops of the carved posts that were in the palisades are visible 

 above the waters. I did think when I sat down to contemplate 

 in this tombless corpseless graveyard, that earthly things were 

 transitory and unstable. 



In the afternoon we again took the stage for Wairoa, twelve 

 miles further on. This is another Maori village, with only one 

 hotel and one white man. Here the natives fairly swarmed. 

 They came and sat on the ground in front of the hotel, and strag- 

 gled through it as if they owned it. The women brought out 

 their pappooses strapped to boards ; the men brought out their 

 best blankets or old coats. We seemed to be in the midst of a 

 regular Indian pow-wow. In fact these Maoris reminded me 

 continually of the North American Indians as we used to see 

 them here in 'New York, before the spirit of manhood was all 

 crushed out of them. 



These tribes, the Arawas, own all this geyser country, and they 

 will not give it up, nor sell it, nor submit to any interference from 

 the English government. They have been so jealous of their 

 possessions that it is only within a very few years that they have 

 allowed any strangers to come in except by special permission 

 from the chiefs. 



In the evening we engaged a select party of the natives to give 

 us the great national dance, the Haka, in the meeting house. In 

 the middle, a row of sticks driven into the ground answered the 

 purpose of candle-sticks. On one side was a crowd of natives, 

 of every age, condition and sex, seated or sprawling over the 

 ground, all smoking dirty pipes, with half a dozen disgusted 

 whites wedged in among them. While on the other side was a 

 row of twenty girls in front, with as many young fellows behind 

 them, all in the scantiest apparel, and all attempting to go 

 through the same contortions and howlings as a leader, who 

 strode up and down before them, shouting and gesticulating with 

 all his might. It was a wild and savage orgy. The horrid hiss- 

 ings and ejaculations, the uncouth gestures and distorted faces, 



