366 Essays. 



the ground, one foot closely before the other ; hence they walked in very 

 narrow pathways, yet they trod firmly, and stood strong on their legs. 



23. Of drinks, save water, no people had fewer ; of really artificial ones 

 none. In summer they everywhere drank the sweet and pleasant juice of 

 the tittic, sometimes mixed with gelatinous seaweeds or a little prepared fern 

 root to give it consistency. Sometimes they mixed the fresh gathered watery 

 honey of the flax flowers, horari (JPhormm'in) , with water; and sometimes the 

 large roots of the cabbage-tree, ti {Qordyline australis), were slowly baked and 

 bruised up in water, and yielded a sweetish drink. 



24. Their masticatories were few and scanty, yet most of what they had 

 they prized. The resin of the tarata {Pittosporum eugenioides) they gathered 

 and mixed into a ball with the gum of the sow-thistle, which they chewed. 

 A kind of bitumen which was sometimes found thrown up on their coasts, 

 though rarely, and called by them '^ kauritawhiti,^^ and "onimiha," they also 

 chewed ; as they did the fresh resin of the kauri tree (Dammara australis) . 

 In using them, they passed them freely from one to another without 

 hesitation. 



25. Fond of children, pets, and playthings, they endeavoured to domesti- 

 cate a few animals. Foremost among them was their dog, which, for many 

 reasons, must have been one of their great treasures ; this animal they 

 prized for his long tail-hair, his skin, and his flesh. In some places they 

 dexterously managed to flay the outer skin of his living tail in narrow strips, 

 so as to obtain the much coveted long white hair ; which in time grew again ! 

 They also had a very ingenious mode of castrating them. This variety of 

 dog has long become wholly extinct in New Zealand. Next to their dog, as 

 being like him wholly at liberty, were the two large sea-gulls, the karoro and 

 the ngoiro (Larus sp.) ; these, however, were of no real service ; they would- 

 go to the sea and return again to the village. The large brown parrot, 

 kaakaa {Nestor meridionalis) , and the parson-bird, tui, or koko {Frostliema- 

 dera novce-zealandicd) , they also tamed, the former as a useful decoy-bird for 

 catching his fellow-parrots, the latter merely for his song, talking, and antics. 

 They kept the tui in a kind of rude cage, and taught him to repeat tolerably 

 well a long song ; while the poor parrot was always kept fast confined, tied 

 by his leg to a cord with a running noose on a light perch or spear. They 

 also sometimes kept the white crane, kotuku {Ardeajiavirostris), in a miser- 

 able cage of basket work, much smaller than the bird required to stand 

 upright in, where they scantily fed him with small fresh-water fish ; this was 

 done for the sake of its prized feathers, which were regularly plucked every 

 four or six months. 



26. Of games and diversions the New Zealanders had several ; some of 

 them were remarkably innocent. Tor children they had the whipping top. 



