156 THE NEW ZEALANDER ON THE WHITE MAN'S FLY. 



desirable ; and under these circumstances therefore it 

 was regarded as an omen of the eventual conquest of 

 the country by the white stranger. No one can deny 

 that in this instance at all events, the medicine man's 

 prophecy has turned out correct, for wherever the bee 

 has gone the white man has followed. And remark- 

 able it is, that almost the self-same superstition, if we 

 may call it so, has taken fast hold of the Maori, or 

 aboriginal native of New Zealand. That this should 

 occur thousands of miles away in distant lands, among 

 tribes of totally different race and language; and that 

 what is practically the same figurative idea should 

 spontaneously lay hold of the native mind, both in 

 America and in New Zealand, is a most curious coin- 

 cidence. Speaking of the probable future of his race, 

 an old New Zealand native is said to have philosophi- 

 cally remarked : " The white man's rat has driven away 

 our rat The European fly drives away our fly His 

 clover kills our grass and so will the Maoris disap- 

 pear before the white man himself." * See how these 

 little facts in natural history are at once seized upon, 

 and applied to the practical illustration of every-day 

 life, by these widely-separated native tribes! This 

 gives .us a good illustration of the peculiar cast of 

 thought which exists among wild men almost every- 

 where, and shows that their acute powers of observa- 

 tion, and attentive study of the great Book of Nature, 

 might well put to shame the more cultivated intellect 

 of the white man. 



Few of those who study the ways of Nature will be 



* Darwin and after Darwin, by Geo. J. Romanes, F.R.S., p. 286 

 (This is a scientific work on the origin and descent of species and 

 the struggle for existence). 



