THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
35 
swers, e noho, sit down.* Every little resemblance is inter- 
esting, as furnishing a link of the chain which will enable 
the ethnologist to trace the origin of the Maori. The Chi- 
nese have also a custom of taking out all the bones from the 
fowls they cook, which is done most adroitly, the birds still 
preserving even their form : perhaps the Celestials surpass all 
other nations in the art of cookery, and if any portion of their 
race had their lot cast amongst the Maori, what more probable 
than their leaving some traces of their culinary teaching; 
the Maori cook, though not quite so refined in this noble 
art, has still learnt to remove most skilfully all the bones 
from pigeons, ducks, and other birds. The Chinese have 
their food cut up in little bits, and eat with a couple of 
ivory sticks ; this appears to be the first advance from 
the primitive practice of eating with the fingers, as is still 
the custom amongst the orientals and. the largest portion of 
the human race ; according to the old saying, “ fingers 
were made before forks/'’ which the Maori acted upon in 
general, but when he was tapu, he was either fed by 
another or, like a Chinese, picked his food out of his kete , 
or poti, little food basket, with a sharpened fern stick. 
China seems then once to have had a connection with New 
Zealand, and not only with it, but its junks have radiated 
in every direction, to the east as well as to the south ; 
and the nearer we approach the empire of that singular 
people, the more striking will the resemblance be found in 
manners, customs, religion, and language. The Maori 
house is built as though its architect came from the land of 
the bamboo ; it is made of lattice work, beautifully wrought 
in different coloured patterns, which is called arajoaki. 
This seems decidedly to have had a Chinese origin, so like- 
wise the elaborately embroidered borders of their mats, 
the taniko , seems far beyond the civilization of the people ; 
the disposition of colours, beauty of design, so far in ad- 
vance of the garments manufactured in other parts of the 
Pacific, seem clearly to point to China for its first fabri- 
cation. 
* The Chinese catty is much the same as the Maori kete — a basket. 
D 2 
