Chap. VI II. PLANTATIONS OF SWEET POTATO. 2«t 
met and welcomed by a madman, the first I had seen 
among the natives. He was fantastically dressed in a 
mixture of European and native clothing, and jabbered 
away on all subjects with great speed, to the unbounded 
amusement of the monkey-like children, who flocked 
around the pakeha ho, or " new White man." The 
madman was quite harmless, and led me very politely 
to the hut assigned for my residence. 
I found that "the Wild Fellow" was absent at 
Kapiti ; but the few natives in the pa prepared to 
make me comfortable, and the women soon produced 
an ample meal of vegetables and birds for myself and 
my train. The madman, E TVitu fastened himself to 
one of the posts of the house with an iron hoop, and 
amused the natives by extravagant orations till a late 
hour. 
In the morning, having given some tobacco to the 
owner of the hut, and to the women who cooked the 
food, I proceeded along the foot of the verdant wall of 
which I have spoken. The beach was shingly and 
studded with rocks. I picked up several pieces of sponge 
on my way. At one spot we passed through a natural 
arch in a spur of rock which jutted into the sea. I 
had to get on to E Pukes shoulders ; and he seized 
a favourable time to run through the passage, as the 
surf occasionally rolled breast-high into it. A little 
further on, some neat plantations of the kumera, or 
sweet potato, betrayed the neighbourhood of a settle- 
ment. They extended about thirty yards up the face 
of the hill, in terraces formed by logs of wood laid 
horizontally, and supported by large pegs. The ter- 
races were covered with sand from off the beach, which 
the natives assured me was the best soil for the growth 
of the kumera. In storms, these plantations must be 
covered with salt spray, and swept by the north-west 
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