V 
CHAPTER XX. 
AMUSEMENTS. 
BOAT HARBOUR IN MOTUTAIKO, TAUPO LAKE. 
It has been thought, that were a child from its birth to be 
kept from hearing the sound of any language, it would com- 
mence with the tongue which was spoken by the first parents 
of the human race; but this has not been verified — the 
child was found to have none at all; it appears more reason- 
able to find a proof of the identity of our race in thought, 
rather than in sound ; the latter varying from physical causes, 
which may affect the body without influencing the mind, the 
early feelings of the child appear to furnish a better guide to 
what is really common to all, and if an identity of amuse- 
ments can be traced in parts which are so remote and 
severed from each other as England and New Zealand, we 
cannot well help allowing that this similarity is likewise 
a strong proof of identity of origin as well; I remember, as 
