METHOD OF 
no 
wards put into the oven, and half cooked ; then 
placed upon a wattled stage, about ten feet from 
the ground, under which burns a good strong 
fire during the night, but which is quenched by 
day, that the fish may be dried in the sun. The 
mackare], thus prepared, eat very short, and are 
a favourite winter-food amongst the great folks 
of the land. They also prepare oysters, cockles, 
large and small muscles, and other shell-fish, in 
the same way ; only that, when taken out of the 
oven, they are no more exposed to the action of 
fire, but threaded on a piece of flax, and hung upon 
the branches of trees to dry. The cultivation, 
and catching, and preparing their various viands 
occupy no small portion of their time. Their 
mouths are almost always going, whether at work 
or at play : if they have no news to tell — no food 
to eat — no pipe to smoke — they will chew the 
gum which oozes from the Kauri-tree ; and hav- 
ing chewed, without diminishing, the lump, till 
their jaws are tired, they pass it from one to the 
other, till it has gone the round of the whole 
party ; when it is carefully rolled up in a clean 
leaf, and reserved till the morrow, or till some 
future opportunity. Often have I, most politely, 
been offered, out of the toothless mouth of an old 
woman, or of a tobacco-chewing old man, this 
precious morsel, to have my share of its sweets. 
The New Zealanders are also fond of extracting, 
by suction, the sweets from the stalk of the Indian- 
corn. They would gladly ferment it, and make 
