Corenso.—On the Maori Races of New Zealand. 345 
heads ; or to the carving of figures (some larger than life) on posts of fences 
or slabs (pilasters) of chiefs’ houses; or of carving boxes for feathers, or of 
balers for canoes, or their large and highly ornamented stern-posts, taffrails, 
and figure-heads. 
(2.) The women attended to their peculiar work—to the diurnal pre- 
paring of food, and the coarse weaving of small baskets ( paro) of green 
flax as dishes for their food, no cooked food basket being used twice; to 
the gathering of shell-fish; to the cleaning of sea-fish; to fetching of fire- 
wood ; to preparing of flax, and to plaiting and weaving it into clothing and 
baskets of very many different kinds; and to their work in the cultivations, 
such as weeding, &c.; and above all, to the very heavy task of carrying on 
their backs fresh gravel thither every year for their sweet-potato beds. In 
the summer season, too, they sought and gathered in large quantities the 
juicy fruits of the tutu (Coriaria ruscifolia), and expressed its juice as a 
refreshing drink. They also gathered in the swampy forests the sugary 
fruits and fleshy edible flower-bracts of the kiekie plant (Freycinetia banksii). 
1. Their means of obtaining subsistence were as varied as the things 
themselves. They were not (as many have rashly supposed) deficient in 
food; although (having but one domestic animal, and that a small dog) 
what they had and used was not to be obtained without a large amount of 
daily labour. At the same time, there must have been a great difference in 
the food of the natives of the Northern and of the Southern and Stewart 
Islands; as Cook states, “the southern natives have not yams, taro or 
kumara” (iii. p. 56). They were very great consumers of fish; those on 
the coast being true ichthyophagi. The seas around their coasts swarmed - 
with excellent fish and crayfish; the rocky and sandy shores abounded with 
good shell-fish ; the cliffs and islets yielded plenty of mutton-birds, and fat 
young shags and other sea-fowl, and their eggs, all choice eating. The rivers 
and lakes (in their season) contained plenty of ducks and other wild fowl, 
and plenty of small fish and fine mussels, and small crayfish ; the marshes 
and swamps were full of large rich eels; the open plains had plenty of quail, 
rail, and other birds, and edible rats; the fern lands abounded in the kiwi 
and ground parrot; and the forests yielded fine pigeons and parrots, and 
` plump parson-birds (tui), together with many other birds which are now 
very rare; while many a rich meal was also made from the large larve so 
commonly found in rotten wood. In seeking all these, they knew the proper 
seasons when, as well as the best manner how, to take them :— à; 
(1.) Sometimes they would go in large canoes to the deep-sea fishing, to 
some well-known shoal or rock, five to ten miles from the shore, and return 
with a quantity of large cod, snapper, and other prime fish; sometimes they 
would use very large drag nets, and enclose great numbers of grey mullet, 
44. 
