948 Essays. 
of the New Zealand palm, nikau (Areca sapida), and also of the ti (Cordyline 
australis), were eaten both raw and cooked. The watery farinaceous roots 
of raupo (Typha angustifolia) were also eaten raw ; and its pollen was made 
into cakes like gingerbread and baked. The fleshy blanched sugary bracts 
` ofthe flowers of the kiekie plant (Freycinetia banksii), called by the natives 
tawhara, and the fruit of the same (ureure), when quite ripe, were eagerly 
sought after in their season. The common sow-thistle, puwha (Sonchus 
oleraceus), of which there were two varieties, and the little poroporo (Solanum 
nigrum), and the toi (Barbarea australis), were also cooked and eaten as 
vegetables. So were several fungi found growing in open fern lands, and 
in woods on trees; also a few of the sea-weed class, particularly the 
. karengo, a low growing thin fronded species, found extensively on clayey 
tidal rocks from the East Cape southwards. This kind was gathered and 
dried for use, and sometimes carried a long way into the interior to friends . 
as a great delicacy. Many small fruits were also eaten when ripe; such as 
. the fruits of the large timber trees, kahikatea, totara, mataii, and rimu, 
(Podocarpus dacrydioides, P. totara, P. spicata, and Dacrydium cupressinum) ; 
of the kohoho (Solanum aviculare), of the poroporo (S. nigrum), of the kotu- 
kutuku (Fuchsia excorticata,) of the karamu (Coprosma lucida), of the ngaio 
CMyoporum letum), of the korapuka (Gaultheria antipoda), of two species of 
myrtle, the ramarama and rohutu (Myrtus bullata and pedunculata), and of 
the little heath Zotara (Leucopogon fraseri). 
12. Labour was by them divided into four great classes, viz.—(1) Male ; 
(2) Female; (3) Sacred, and (4) Common. Of Jruges consumere nati 
there were none. The chiefs worked equally with the slaves, especially in 
the cultivations, and often better and more energetically. There were no 
really adstricti glebe. From their youth the chiefs were taught to be fore- 
most and to excel; and as they gloried in getting a great name, they strove 
to do so. The men caught fish and eels, and snared birds and rats ; they dug 
and planted their cultivations ; they climbed the highest trees for their 
fruits; they dug up the fern-root ; they felled the timber, and built the 
houses, and canoes, and made the fences, and all wooden, stone, and bone 
implements and ornaments; they made their fishing nets and lines, and eel 
traps and hooks; they performed all the tattooing; and very frequently 
carried their infants for hours on their backs, even while at work. The 
women prepared the daily food ; cleaned the fish for drying ; collected shell- 
fish, edible sea-weeds, and herbs, and firewood; weeded the plantations, and 
gathered up the crop when dug; cut and dressed the flax leaves for clothing 
and floor mats and baskets, and plaited and wove them. Their quasi 
cna or taboo (tapu) duties (of which much might be written) could 
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