Jan.] 



THE NATIVES. 



367 



As it is in all villages as well as cities, society is here* divided into 

 two distinct classes, corresponding to patricians and plebeians ; the 

 New-Zealanders call the former class rungateedas, and the latter they 

 call hookies. Besides these mats or robes, which are fastened round 

 the body with a highly ornamented girdle, the rungateedas wear orna- 

 ments of shells, feathers, beads, &c. But the humble hookies generally 

 wear nothing more than a quantity of the sedge-plant, badly manu- 

 factured, thrown over the shoulders, and fastened with a string, falling- 

 down on all sides to the knees. When sitting down in this dress, they 

 could hardly be distinguished from the gray rocks or stones, if their 

 black heads did not project above the garment which covers the body. 



The New-Zealanders have some excellent domestic habits, and 

 evince extraordinary ingenuity in a few arts. Having no metallic 

 vessels for boiling their food, they contrive to cook their fern-root, and 

 their potatoes, by means of two hollow stones, in which they first put 

 the roots, surrounded by a few moist leaves of some well-flavoured 

 plant, and then applying the hollow sides of the stones to one another, 

 heat them thoroughly for a due length of time ; at the end of which 

 the contents are well stewed and palatable food. They make wooden 

 vessels, and carve them with much taste ; cultivate their fields with 

 great neatness, with nothing but a wooden spade ; construct large and 

 well-finished canoes ; and prepare fishing tackle and other implements 

 in a wonderful manner, considering their limited means and want of 

 tools. Their principal mechanical tool is formed in the shape of an 

 adze, and is made of the serpent-stone, or jasper. Their chisels and 

 gouges are generally made of the same material, but sometimes of a 

 black solid stone similar to the jasper. Their masterpiece of ingenuity 

 is carving, which they display on the most trivial objects, as well as 

 in the elegant figure-heads of their canoes, &c. Their cordage for 

 fishing-lines, nets, &c, is not inferior to the finest we have in this 

 country, and their nets are admirably made. A bit of flint, or a shell, 

 is their only substitute for a knife, and a shark's tooth, fixed in a piece 

 of wood, serves for an auger or gimlet. They also fix on a piece of 

 wood, nicely carved, a row of large shark's teeth, setting them in a 

 line, and their sharp edges all one way. This answers for a saw, 

 which they use in their carpenter-work, and also for the purpose of 

 cutting up the bodies of their enemies who are slain in battle. 



Their wars are conducted with the utmost ferocity. They have 

 short spears, which they throw like javelins, from a distance ; long 

 ones, which they use as lances ; and a broad, thick, sharp-edged 

 weapon of stone, called patoo-patoo, with which they strike each other 

 in close combat, and which sometimes cleaves the scull at a single 

 blow. I brought home specimens of each of these weapons, which 

 are now in the museums before mentioned. They devour the bodies 

 of their enemies ; but not from a physical appetite or relish for human 

 flesh, as many suppose. Such an appetite or relish was never yet ex- 

 perienced by any cannibal that ever existed. The horrid rite is per- 

 formed merely to appease a moral appetite, far more voracious than 

 that of hunger. It is done to express the extent of their hate, their 

 vengeance, or rather an insatiable malice that would pursue its victim 



