Corenso.—On the Maori Races of New Zealand. 375 
unheard of elsewhere. To a New Zealander gratitude was wholly unknown. 
They have no word for it in their language; no way of expressing such a 
feeling, which never existed in their breast. To a deeply reflecting mind, 
this sad fact may appear to be a far worse one than their cannibalism. There 
can be little doubt but that their total want of this high feeling of the soul 
arose from their own peculiar natural condition; particularly from the fact 
that no New Zealander ever did any kindness or gave anything to another 
without mainly having an eye to himself in the transaction; and this was 
known and reciprocated. Of all their characteristic vices, this of ingratitude 
appears to be one of the worst. Our immortal bard might well truthfully 
and feelingly say,— 
* Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky ; 
Thou dost not bite so nigh 
As friends remember'd not.” 
30. From what is gloomy and repulsive in their character, let us now 
turn to what is pleasing, and what perhaps, by some, has been hastily 
set down as wanting—their love of esthetics or the beautiful. This, it is 
believed, will be clearly seen, if we keep hold of the fine clue, and pursue it 
steadily through all its entanglements and ramifications to the end. They 
generally sought a clear open site for their villages, so as to command a good 
view; a fine open prospect from a village being loudly praised by 
strangers, while a cramped or bad one was denounced. They did all 
they could to keep their villages both clean and tidy. Each village had 
its common privy, generally in some secluded spot. Their houses were 
often neatly kept, all their little articles hung up or stowed away in 
baskets in their proper places. Their fishing residences, and huts near 
their cultivations, and forest huts where they sometimes dwelt (for a 
chief had generally five or six residences), were usually beautifully placed 
and snugly ensconced under shady trees, and by the side of a murmuring 
brook ; they rarely ever wantonly cut down evergreen shrubs or old 
shady trees growing near them for the sake of their wood for timber or 
firing, choosing rather to fetch the same from a long distance. They liked 
to hear the birds warbling, and they often planted the red parrot’s-bill 
acacia (kowhai-ngutukaakaa) and the ornamental variety of striped-leaved flax 
about their houses, on account of their beauty. They sought largely after 
the beautiful in their making of clothing mats, as is seen in their handsome 
coloured borders, in their many ornamental strings and tassels of various 
dyes, in their cutting up their dogskins into narrow strips and then sewing 
them together, so as to have the greater effect from shade and colour, and in 
