CoLENSO. — On the Maori Baces of New Zealand. 367 



wtiicli, curiously enough, closely resembled the common English one ; also 

 a game called loliai, played with a string, much like the " cat's-cradle " of 

 English children ; and another called ijoi, played with a large light orna- 

 mented ball attached to a short string. Young men often strove for the 

 mastery in short spear exercises, and in projecting long dry fern stalks over 

 a piece of level ground or sandy beach ; and in wrestling, running, leaping, 

 hopping with or without a pole, climbing, swinging, paddling a small canoe, 

 swimming, and diving ; in the three last-mentioned the girls also took part. 

 They had also, for the young of both sexes, games of guessing, in one of 

 which a pebble was hidden among a company ; of repeating long involved 

 sentences without stay or hesitation; of singing; and of regular gesticu- 

 lation by a company all sitting. They had various dances, some of which 

 were mostly performed in their villages by the young women ; while the 

 rougher dances, accompanied with grimaces, and defiance, and brandishing 

 of weapons, culminating in the hideous war-dance, were generally executed 

 by the adult men. In dancing, however, with the sole exception of the war^ 

 dance, and also in swimming and other aquatic exercises, they were very 

 much inferior to the other Polynesians. Old men often amused themselves 

 with looking on and encouraging the younger ones, and especially with kite- 

 flying, and in playing with the ^ot-ball. Their kites {pahauJcau) were wholly 

 different from European ones, and more resembling those of the Chinese. 

 They were very ingeniously and neatly made with round and flat rushes, and 

 hovered very prettily in the air. They usually sang or chaunted a song to 

 the kite while flying it. 



II. Psychological. 



27. Their intellectual and moral faculties, as a race, were of a high order ; 

 however stunted, warped, or debased they may have been through custom, 

 habit, or their strong and unrestrained animal propensities. 



(1.) They often showed acuteness of understanding and of comprehen- 

 sion, with great quickness of apprehension ; consequently they were very apt 

 to learn. Their subtlety was great, notwithstanding their openness and want 

 of secrecy ; so also was their ready power of mimicry and imitation, and 

 of low wit. Their memory was very good ; and their ingenuity ever ready 

 to follow closely any pattern, though certainly barren of originality and 

 invention. They often exhibited great skill in finding out how best to do 

 or get anything (with their very limited means), as well as ingenuity in per- 

 forming or obtaining it ; this they exemplified in many ways : — -as in making 

 their various axes, weapons, and ornaments of stone ; in not only taking, 

 preserving, and curing fish and birds for food, but in making the highly 

 poisonous vegetable substances, Icaralca and taioa kernels, subserve the same 



