NEW ZEALAND. 339 



carving recently done, in comparison with former times. They are said 

 to have improved in the construction of their houses ; but there is still 

 great room for improvement, before they can vie with any of the other 

 islanders we have visited. Their food consists principally of the 

 potato, fish, kumara, or sweet potato, Indian corn, and fern-root, which 

 is found throughout the country. The kumara is much smaller and 

 inferior in quality to those grown in the other Polynesian isles. Here 

 it is a small watery root, and is generally disliked by foreigners. 

 It is preserved in houses constructed for the purpose, to prevent the 

 depredations of the rats. These are built on four posts, which are 

 scraped exceedingly smooth, and are only entered by a single slanting 

 post. The roots are also suspended beneath these houses in large 

 baskets. 



Fish are taken with hooks and nets, and are dried and laid by for 

 use. They also eat a clam, which they call pipi. Hogs and poultry 

 are raised in abundance, for their own use and the supply of ships. 

 They have, as I before stated, peaches, as well as many small berries, 

 and in a few years they will have all the fruits of the temperate zone 

 introduced by settlers. They formerly ate their fish raw, or cooked 

 with the kumara, after the Polynesian fashion, in the ground, with hot 

 stones ; but now they use an iron pot, in which all their food is boiled 

 together. They have a great fondness for rice, with sugar or molasses. 

 They do not want for food, for their country is well supplied with wild 

 roots, w T hich in case of necessity or scarcity can be resorted to. They 

 also make a pleasant beverage, resembling spruce-beer, which they 

 call icai-maori. 



The greatest changes which have taken place in their customs are 

 the introduction of the use of fire-arms, and the adoption of whale- 

 boats instead of their canoes. The latter are without an out-rigger, 

 and differ in this respect from the boats of all the other Polynesians 

 south of the equator. They have also adopted the square sail (which 

 generally consists of a blanket), in place of the triangular one common 

 to all Polynesia. 



The ornaments of the New Zealanders are few ; those of the men, 

 w T ho are chiefs, generally consist in an elaborate tattooing, that gives 

 a striking appearance to the face ; the regularity with which it is done 

 is wonderful. They all have their ears bored, and have small rings in 

 them, made of jade or shark's-teeth, tipped with sealing-wax, or small 

 bright-coloured feathers. Around the necks of the chiefs and their 

 wives is hung their " heitiki," made of a stone of a green colour, 

 which is held very sacred, and which, with their "meara," — a short 

 cleaver or club, — is handed down from father to son. The heitiki has 



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