XVIII EXCURSION TO W AIM ATE 451 



slave would press noses with any one he met, indifferently either 

 before or after his master the chief. Although among these 

 savages the chief has absolute power of life and death over his 

 slave, yet there is an entire absence of ceremony between them. 

 Mr. Burchell has remarked the same thing in Southern Africa 

 with the rude Bachapins. Where civilisation has arrived at a 

 certain point, complex formalities soon arise between the different 

 grades of society : thus at Tahiti all were formerly obliged to 

 uncover themselves as low as the waist in presence of the 

 king. 



The ceremony of pressing noses having been duly completed 

 with all present, we seated ourselves in a circle in the front of 

 one of the hovels, and rested there half an hour. All the hovels 

 have nearly the same form and dimensions, and all agree in 

 being filthily dirty. They resemble a cow-shed with one end 

 open, but having a partition a little way within, with a square 

 hole in it, making a small gloomy chamber. In this the 

 inhabitants keep all their property, and when the weather is 

 cold they sleep there. They eat, however, and pass their time 

 in the open part in front. My guides having finished their pipes, 

 we continued our walk. The path led through the same 

 undulating country, the whole uniformly clothed as before with 

 fern. On our right hand we had a serpentine river, the banks of 

 which were fringed with trees, and here and there on the hill- 

 sides there was a clump of wood. The whole scene, in spite of 

 its green colour, had rather a desolate aspect. The sight of so 

 much fern impresses the mind with an idea of sterility ; this, 

 however, is not correct ; for wherever the fern grows thick and 

 breast-high, the land by tillage becomes productive. Some of 

 the residents think that all this extensive open country originally 

 was covered with forests, and that it has been cleared by fire. 

 It is said that by digging in the barest spots, lumps of the kind 

 of resin which flows from the kauri pine are frequently found. 

 The natives had an evident motive in clearing the country ; for 

 the fern, formerly a staple article of food, flourishes only in 

 the open cleared tracks. The almost entire absence of 

 associated grasses, which forms so remarkable a feature in 

 the vegetation of this island, may perhaps be accounted for 

 by the land having been aboriginally covered with forest- 

 trees. 



