NEW ZEALAND. 125 



and clubs. Both sexes are addicted to rum-drinking and 

 tobacco-chewing — bad practices— which, no doubt, they have 

 acquired from the convicts and other low whites who have 

 settled among them. Suicide is very common among all the 

 tribes. A woman who is badly treated by her husband will 

 immediately go and hang herself. This is also frequently 

 done at the death of a near relative. 



Their laws are simple, clear, and few in number. The 

 most important ones are those which concern the division of 

 land. The lower classes are perfectly subordinate to their 

 superiors, whom they style Etakatika and Epoda. Here is a 

 mode of government entirely analogous to that which prevails 

 in the islands of the Indian Seas, where the chief authority is 

 vested in the Rajah, whose rank resembles that of the Areekee 

 of New Zealand, and who commands the services of the pan- 

 gcran or heads of the dusums, or villages. These latter cor- 

 respond exactly with the subordinate chiefs above mentioned, 

 and like them they acknowledge a superior, though, with re- 

 spect to their possessions, they are independent of his control. 



The religious belief of those who have not embraced Chris- 

 tianity is as follows : — That they are surrounded by invisible 

 spirits, who must be conciliated by prayers and ceremonies, 

 as they have power over the elements, and can at any time 

 raise the wind and waves against them. They also believe 

 their priests to be prophets, who can foretell future events, 

 which they (the priests themselves) pretend have been com- 

 municated to them directly from some genii, or spirits, which 

 supposed to have taken them under their especial care. 



A few days after our arrival, Pomare, the chief of the 

 town of Para,, paid us a visit. He came off in a war-canoe, 

 and was attended by forty of his people, men and women. 

 He was a tall, well-formed man, and I should judge about 



