CoLENSO. — On the Maori Baces of New Zealand. 345 



heads ; or to the carving of figaires (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 toomen 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 w^eaving it into clothing and 

 baskets of very many different kinds ; and to their work in the cultivations, 

 such as Aveeding, &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 tutto {Goriaria 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 hiekie plant {Freycinetia hanhsii) . 



11. 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 

 Tcumara''^ (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 larrse so 

 commonly f ouud in rotten wood. In seeking all th33e, they knew the proper 

 seasons when, as well as the best manner how, to take them : — 



(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 



