THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 447 



vated with potatoes. The introduction 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 ap- 

 proach, 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 com- 

 menced 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. Dur- 

 ing 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 the 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 Af- 

 rica, with the rude Bachapins. Where civilization has 

 arrived at a certain point, complex formalities soon arise 

 between the different grades of society: thus at Tahiti all 

 were formerly obliged to uncover themselves as low as the 

 waist in presence of the king. 



The ceremony of pressing noses having been duly com- 

 pleted with all present, we seated ourselves in a circle in the 

 front of one of the novels, and rested there half-an-hour. 

 All the hovels have nearly the same form and dimensions, 



