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of rock above the madly gushing river, we were obliged to climb 
round the steep declivity of the Kawakawa mountain. After we 
had once more set foot on level ground, where we descried a fire 
ahead of us , I felt as though we had been marvellously saved from 
an imminent danger. We had safely reached the Maori settlement 
Katiaho. 
The dogs hailed our arrival with a perfect jackal’s howl; the 
pigs, roused from their repose, were running to and fro; but human 
voices also became audible, and at length some persons came up 
to us in the dark, who conducted us to a large house, of which 
only the roof seemed to protrude from the ground. One after an- 
other we slipped in through a low square-hole, and found our- 
selves in a spacious apartment lit up by two blazing fires and 
heated to an almost tropical heat (85° F.), in which we were most 
cordially received by the chief of the place, Taonui, with the sur- 
names Tekolme and Hepahapa, and by the whole people gathered 
about him, all expressing their unfeigned surprise at being honoured 
yet so late at night, and in such a weather, with a visit from 
Pakehas. There might have been twenty or thirty persons in the 
hut, which number was almost doubled by the addition of our 
party. The hut in which we found ourselves was a so-called 
Wharepuni, a conversation- and sleeping-room, such as existed in 
former times in every Maori village; which, however, have fallen 
more and more into disuse, owing to the influence of the mis- 
sionaries, who opposed the sleeping together of old and young , of 
boys and girls. This Wharepuni was quite new; it had been but 
recently erected on the occasion of a visit from a neighbouring 
tribe. It was a real palace in comparison with the miserable raupo 
huts in other Kaingas. The side -walls were artificially wrought 
of plaited reeds and rushes ; the ground-floor was covered with neat 
mats, and a row of carved columns supporting the roof divided 
the large room into two halves. The right side, according to Maori 
custom was assigned to the guests; and all of us strangers having 
arrived in a most deplorable plight, wet to the skin, and tired to 
death, we could well congratulate ourselves on having found so 
