374 [PART n. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Rotu-kaua Rotu-Mahana Tera-wera. 



ON the 28th of May we started, with scarcely any 

 provisions. We still followed the borders of the 

 lake. The land is here low table-land, strewed 

 over with pumiceous gravel. Its aspect is very 

 unpromising, as the only vegetation is a yellow 

 tufty grass and a few composite plants, which, 

 however, were dried up. When we were about 

 eight miles from the pa, and in no very good 

 humour, we were not a little pleased with the 

 sudden apparition of a family of pigs. A large 

 sow immediately received a deadly wound, and in 

 less than ten minutes the natives who were with 

 us had cleaned and cut the body into six parts, and 

 each of us burdened himself with a piece. They 

 were probably wild pigs, and therefore the property 

 of any one who can shoot them ; but, to secure 

 myself from reproach, I left a pair of trousers, 

 together with the entrails of the pig, on a neigh- 

 bouring bush, and also our camp-kettle, which I 

 thought had now become useless ; but in the even- 

 ing I learnt that our own attendants had taken 

 both trousers and camp-kettle with them. They 



