SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 307 



the barbarous antics and unnatural contortions of the body, were 

 fit only for a pandemonium. They kept it up for two hours, at 

 one time the women in front, at another the men ; during which 

 time we had to furnish two pails of beer, and sundry bottles of 

 a stronger beverage. These liquors and their little fee of half a 

 dollar a head were the sine qua non of the performance. But 

 they gave us the worth of our money in good, honest diabolism. 

 They worked like mad, and gave us such an idea of heathen 

 rage as never could be got elsewhere. The thing as we witnessed 

 it was in a measure orderly and decent ; but when the tribes have 

 their great meetings, and the excitement becomes contagious, the 

 Haka degenerates into the wildest debauch and saturnalia. 



The next morning early we were off for the terraces, the grand 

 object of all these excursions. Kate, an interesting and very 

 fair looking native, or rather half-caste, was our guide. When 

 the Arawas finally made up their minds to make some money out 

 of their unique possessions, they found that they had no one who 

 could speak English. A real full-blooded native never could 

 learn a foreign language. All business and teaching and books, 

 with both the Maoris and Kanakas (Sandwich Islanders), have to 

 be in their own language. So Kate, and another one, Sophie, 

 both half whites, who had partly mastered the hard language, 

 were imported from another tribe. They both claimed to be of 

 chieftain blood, and were stout enough to make good their pre- 

 tentious to rank and respect from both whites and browns. 



We first had a walk from Wairoa of about a mile through the 

 bush and down a steep hill to the foot of lake Tarawera. There 

 we took a large whale-boat with six native oarsmen, and were 

 rowed eight miles to the head of the lake. The country about 

 lake Tarawera is the most beautiful example of romantic and 

 varying scenery that I have ever seen. The blending of barren 

 volcanic peaks and verdure covered hills, the dark green forest 

 ranges, the isolated clumps of giant Totara pines, the Polmtu- 

 kawa trees, one part of a tree bright green, and the other part 

 all scarlet blossoms, the rocky shores drooping with immense fern 

 clusters, and the lifeless and gloomy silence that brooded over 

 the whole scene, made this lake-ride one ever to be remembered 

 by each one of us. 



