HOUSES, FURNITURE, 
154 
sliding shutter. The commoner houses are not so 
large, nor so well finished; and have no orna- 
ments about them : they are, however, wind-and- 
water-tight. Their kumera-stores are far better 
built than their most superb houses ; and are in 
general very elaborately carved, having a splendid 
architrave over the door. These stores, when the 
kumera is in them, are all tapued ; and no persons 
are allowed to enter them, except those who are 
tapued for the occasion. 
Furniture they have none: a few bulrushes, 
spread on the ground, serve for a bed ; and they 
roll tlieir day-garments about them, to sleep in. 
A calabash holds all the water they require ; and 
a small carved box contains their feathers, and all 
their little ornaments. Tlieir cooking utensils 
are a few stones; and their working instruments, 
a small stone axe, and a hatchet made of the 
same material; now, however, superseded, by the 
introduction of the more durable and useful tools 
of the British. 
Tlie villages of the New Zealanders are gene- 
rally scattered over a large plot of ground, and 
the houses are built without the least possible re- 
gard to order or arrangement. In one place is 
the house of the chief of the tribe : within a few 
yards of liis door may be a pig-sty, belonging to 
one of his slaves : close upon that will be seen a 
splendid store: and, perhaps, a few yards farther, 
or in another direction, a stage, about twenty feet 
from the ground, upon which are placed two or 
