190 NEW ZEALAND CHAP, VIII 
this we visited several houses, and saw a little of their 
customs, for they were not at all shy of showing us anything 
we desired to see, nor did they on our account interrupt their 
meals, the only employment we saw them engaged in. 
Their food at this time of the year consisted of fish, with 
which, instead of bread, they eat the roots of a kind of fern, 
Pteris crenulata,’ very like that which grows upon our 
commons in England. These were slightly roasted on the 
fire and then beaten with a stick, which took off the bark 
and dry outside; what remained had a sweetish, clammy, 
but not disagreeable taste. It might be esteemed a tolerable 
food, were it not for the quantity of strings and fibres in it, 
which in quantity three or four times exceed the soft part. 
These were swallowed by some, but the greater number spit 
them out, for which purpose they had a basket standing 
under them to receive their chewed morsels, in shape and 
colour not unlike chaws of tobacco. Though at this time of 
the year this most homely fare was their principal diet, yet 
in the proper seasons they certainly have plenty of excellent 
vegetables. We have seen no sign of tame animals among 
them, except very small and ugly dogs. Their plantations 
were now hardly finished, but so well was the ground tilled 
that I have seldom seen land better broken up. In them 
were planted sweet potatoes, cocos, and a plant of the 
cucumber kind, as we judged from the seed leaves which 
just appeared above ground. 
The first of these were planted in small hills, some in 
rows, others in quincunx, all laid most regularly in line. 
The cocos were planted on flat land, and had not yet 
appeared above ground. The cucumbers were set in small 
hollows or ditches, much as in England. These plantations 
varied in size from 1 to 10 acres each. In the bay there 
might be 150 or 200 acres in cultivation, though we did 
not see 100 people in all. Each distinct patch was fenced 
in, generally with reeds placed close one by another, so that 
a mouse could scarcely creep through. 
When we went to their houses, men, women and children 
1 The same plant as the British bracken, Pteris aquilina. 
