346 Assays. 



dog-fish, mackerel, and otlier fish which swim in shoals, of which (especially 

 o£ dog-fish and of mackerel) ih.ej dried immense quantities for winter use. 

 They would also fish from rocks with hook and line, and scoop-nets ; or, 

 singly, in the summer, in small canoes manned by one man and kept con- 

 stantly paddling, with a hook baited with mother-of-pearl shell, take plenty 

 of Jcahaivai ; or with a chip of tawliai wood attached to a hook, as a bait, they 

 took the barracouta in large quantities. Very fine crayfish were taken in 

 great numbers by diving, and sometimes by sinking baited wicker traps. 

 Heaps of this fish, with mussels, cockles, and other bivalves, were collected 

 in the summer, and prepared and dried; and of eels also, and of severax 

 delicate fresh-water fishes, large quantities were taken in the summer, and 

 dried for future use. 



(2.) Birds, such as quail, rail, and ground parrot, also the pigeon and 

 parson-bird, and various species of wild duck, they ingeniously snared ; 

 although they often speared the pigeon. The large brown parrot was first 

 decoyed to a stand fixed on the top of a high tree by the cry of a tame one, 

 and then suddenly trapped and killed by the concealed native. The hiwi 

 was caught by night, through successfully imitating its cry ; and the fat 

 frugivorous and harmless indigenous rat was both trapped and dug out of 

 its burrow in several ways. 



(3.) A large portion of their time and attention was necessarily given to 

 their cultivations, especially as the few plants they cultivated — two edible 

 roots, the humara (^Batatas eclidis) and taro {Caladium esculentum) , and a 

 gourd-like fruit called Jme, and the cloth plant, or paper mulberry tree, ante 

 (Br^ousso7ietia papyrifera) — each required a different soil to bring it to per- 

 fection ; added to which they always wisely preferred cultivating in patches 

 far apart, so as perchance to save one or more in case of a sudden inroad 

 from a taua (a legal or illegal honouring, stripping, or fighting pai-ty), which 

 visit was perfectly sure to take place at least two or three times a year. 

 The humara, or sweet potato, was planted with much ceremony and regularity 

 in little hillocks in sheltered dry ground facing the sun, carefully prepared, 

 and heavily gravelled with fresh gravel obtained from some gravel pit, or 

 from the bed of a neighbouring stream ; this annual gravelling of their 

 humara grounds was alone a heavy service. Among some tribes (as at 

 E,otorua),the humara root was not planted until the sprout had gained some 

 length, which caused" additional care and labour. It had to be constantly 

 watched when in leaf, or it would be destroyed by a large caterpillar which 

 fed on the plant, and which was continually being gathered and destroyed 

 in great quantities. It was also carefully weeded, and the ground around 

 its roots loosened. When about two-thirds ripe, a few of its largest roots 

 were carefully taken away by an experienced hand ; these were scraped and 



