406 NEW ZEALAND. [< HAF. XYJII. 



ft notorious murderer, and was an arrant coward to boot. At the 

 point where the boat landed, Mr. Bushby accompanied me a few 

 hundred yards on the road: I could not help admiring the cool 

 impudence of the hoary old villain, whom AVO left lying in the 

 boat, when he shouted to Mr. Bushby, "Bo not you stay long, 

 I shall be tired of waiting here." 



We now commenced our walk. The road lay along a well- 

 beaten path, bordered on each side by the tall fern, which covers 

 the whole country. After travelling some miles, we came to a 

 little country village, where a few hovels were collected together, 

 and some patches of ground cultivated with potatoes. The intro- 

 duction of the potato has been the most essential benefit to the 

 island; it is now much more used than any native vegetable. 

 New Zealand is favoured by one great natural advantage ; namely, 

 that the inhabitants can never perish from famine. The whole 

 country abounds with fern : and the roots of this plant, if not very 

 palatable, yet contain much nutriment. A native can always 

 subsist on these, and on the shell-fish, which are abundant on all 

 parts of the sea-coast. The villages are chiefly conspicuous by 

 the platforms which are raised on four posts ten or twelve feet 

 above the ground, and on which the produce of the fields is kept 

 secure from all accidents. 



On coming near one of the huts I was much amused by seeing 

 in due form the ceremony of rubbing, or, as it ought to be called, 

 pressing noses. The women, on our first approach, began uttering 

 something in a most dolorous voice; they then squatted themselves 

 down and held up their faces ; my companion standing over them, 

 one after another, placed the bridge of his nose at right angles to 

 theirs, and commenced pressing. This lasted rather longer than 

 a cordial shake of the hand with us ; and as we vary the force of 

 the grasp of the hand in shaking, so do they in pressing. During 

 the process they uttered comfortable little grunts, very much in 

 the same manner as two pigs do, when rubbing against each other. 

 I noticed that the slave would press noses with any one he met, 

 indifferently either before or after his master the chief. Although 

 among these savages, the chief has absolute power of life and death 

 over his slave, yet there is an entire absence of ceremony between 

 them. Mr. Burchell has remarked the same thing in Southern 

 Africa, with the rude Baohapins. Where civilization has arrived 

 at a certain point, complex formalities soon arise between the 



