Personal appearance of the New 

 Zealanders. 



NEW ZEALAND. 



Native traditions. Trade in tattooed 

 heads diminished. 



171 



that it had been atoned for. In the opinion of all, 

 he rose much above the silly trifler who had been 

 the perpetrator of the joke. 



The natives are peculiarly sensible to any insult 

 of this kind. A short time before our arrival, a 

 mischievous white boy, staying with our consul, 

 had placed a small brass kettle on the head of an 

 old chief, which caused some amusement to the 

 bystanders. The chief at the time did not show 

 any signs of being offended. He had always been 

 well disposed and peaceable towards the whites, 

 and was known to have a strong partiality towards 

 the family. On going to the pa, however, he men- 

 tioned the circumstance to his tribe, which produced 

 a great excitement among them. They assembled 

 and advanced in a body to the dwelling, to require 

 satisfaction for the affront offered, and although they 

 were told and convinced it was done in playfulness, 

 they required atonement; and this being refused, 

 they took all the clothes that were hanging to dry 

 on the lines, and every thing they could find about 

 the premises. They even took the shoes and clothes 

 off a sick boy, who was lying in the veranda. Their 

 rapacity was only stopped by the courage of the 

 mistress of the house, who, being unable to check 

 their proceedings by remonstrances, threw a billet 

 of wood at the principal chief. This bold act 

 astonished him, and from admiration of her courage 

 caused them at once to desist, saying she had a big 

 heart, which is their figurative term for a cou- 

 rageous person. Insults given in this accidental 

 way, have been known to occasion the most deadly 

 feuds. They have, however, great command of 

 temper when insulted. As an instance of this, 

 an anecdote was related to me of some chiefs having 

 become offended at the Episcopal missionaries, in 

 consequence of some transaction respecting lands, 

 in which they conceived themselves wronged. The 

 offended parties proceeded to Pahia in order to de- 

 mand redress; but on their arrival there, the mis- 

 sionaries were absent, and although the whole 

 property was at their mercy, there being no one on 

 the premises but females, they did not harm any 

 thing, and declined to enter into any explanation 

 until they had seen the missionaries. Taking their 

 seats quietly at the gate, they awaited their return, 

 wliich did not take place for some hours after, when 

 they demanded an explanation of the supposed 

 wrong, and atonement for it; and being satisfied, 

 they departed without any molestation or injury 

 whatever. It will, in all probability, be said that 

 such patience was in consequence of the parties 

 complained of being missionaries; but that could 

 not well have been the case, for they are by no 

 means popular with the natives, and the reason is, 

 that the missionaries show very little regard for 

 their own countrymen, which, in the eyes of a New 

 Zealander, is a great crime. 



From all I could gather, I am inclined to believe 

 them an observant people, and that they would 

 become an industrious one, were it less easy to 

 provide themselves with the necessaries of life. 

 They show much energy of character in their war- 

 like pursuits, on which their whole minds seem yet 

 to dwell. The spontaneous productions of their 

 soil furnish them so easily with all that is required 

 for their food and clothing, that there is no sufficient 

 incitement to industry. 



The New Zealanders are above the middle size, 

 well formed, and athletic; they vary in colour from 



a chesntit to a light copper; they have black hair, 

 very thick and curly, which many suffer to grow 

 long, while others crop it close. I saw few with 

 whiskers, and their beards were light. The fore- 

 head is high, sloping backwards; the nose frequently 

 aquiline and prominent; the eyes are black and 

 piercing, but rather small; the tattooing gives a 

 hardness of outline to the chiefs that is not so ob- 

 servable in the common people; they want, how- 

 ever, the softness of the rest of the Polynesian 

 family, of which they are a part, not having the full 

 muscles, or soft contour of face, which we had 

 hitherto observed among the groups we visited. 

 They are as indolent as the other cognate races, 

 but more capable of undergoing fatigue. 



The following is one of their traditions respect- 

 ing their origin. The first natives came from 

 Hawaiki, situated towards the east, in several 

 canoes, and the names of some of the principal 

 men were, Tanepepeke, Tanewitika, Taneweka, 

 Rongokako, Kopaia, Kornanpoko : the canoes in 

 which they came were called Kotahinui, Kotea- 

 rawa, Kohorouta, Taldtima. They settled first at 

 Kawia, on the western coast; then near Maketu, 

 Turanga, and Ahuriri, at the east cape. The 

 natives, it may be as well to remark, say that this 

 story is all nonsense, yet the similarity of the fore- 

 going names with those of the people of Savaii, in 

 the Samoan Group, is striking. This, connected 

 with the story, which we shall hereafter quote, of 

 the introduction of the kumara in canoes, taken 

 together, would appear to afford very strong rea- 

 son for the conjecture that they were derived from 

 the same source. In their native traditions there 

 appears to be some idea of a creation, having a 

 general resemblance to that of the other nations of 

 Polynesia. 



The trade in native curiosities is not quite so 

 great as it used to be, particularly in tattooed 

 heads. So great at one time was the traffic in the 

 latter article, between New Zealand and Sydney, 

 that in 1831, it was prohibited by law. In Go- 

 vernor Darling's administration of the colony, the 

 chief Shougi is supposed to have made large sums 

 by it, and there are some persons who, in part, 

 impute his wars to his desire of gain; for having 

 been in England, he became acquainted with the 

 value set upon them, and the demand for them. It 

 is generally thought that many of the heads thus 

 sold have been prepared by the white runaway con- 

 victs, who have learnt the mode of doing this from 

 the natives. They are still to be obtained, though 

 great precaution is used in disposing of them. A 

 missionary brig, lying at the Bay of Islands, had 

 many curiosities on board, in the possession of the 

 steward; and after the buying of mats, &c., had 

 been finished, he invited our officers to step down 

 to his little store-room, under the forecastle, where 

 he had a curiosity which could not be brought out. 

 After this mysterious enunciation, they followed 

 him to the bottom of the ladder; he then told them 

 he was about to put his fate into their hands, be- 

 lieving that they were too much men of honour to 

 betray him. He then proceeded to inform them 

 that he had two preserved heads of New Zealand 

 chiefs, which he would sell for ten pounds. He 

 could not venture, he said, to produce them on 

 board the brig, but if they would appoint a place, 

 he would bring them. The penalty for selling them 

 was fifty guineas, and he conjured them to the 



