380 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIII. 
time enjoying the view. The Surprise schooner was 
lying at Purua ; we could distinguish numerous large 
houses on either bank of the river, especially two or 
three apparently inhabited near the large pa ; and we 
could see the hospitable smoke, and hear the hum of 
people from the native villages. After our long dreary 
journey, and breaking suddenly from barren sand-hills 
upon this pleasant scene, we all felt lively and good- 
humoured ; and, after firing our guns as a signal, raced 
and skipped and shouted like children down the sand- 
hill to the river's beach, notwithstanding our sore feet 
and hunger. 
On reaching Putikiwaranm, I was loudly greeted by 
many of my old friends, and E Kuru soon dashed on to 
the beach in a boat manned by natives, and gave me his 
usual dignified but most hearty welcome. We got into 
the boat, and landed at the spot where the scramble 
for the goods had taken place. E Kuru signed to me 
to follow him, and led the way to a very large warCf 
about twenty yards from the bank. " This house is 
"yours," said he; "tell your White men to go in." On 
entering, I found it indeed a noble present. The house 
was fifty feet long and twenty-eight feet broad. Slabs 
of totara wood, two feet broad, neatly smoothed with 
the adze, and placed at regular intervals of five feet, 
formed the frame-work of the walls ; and these, nine 
feet high and six inches thick, were composed of 
neatly packed bundles of raupo or bulrushes, lined in- 
side with the glazed reeds of the tohe tohe, and outside 
with the wiwi, or fine grass. The reeds are as thick as 
a finger, of a golden yellow colour, and stand hori- 
zontally between the slabs, bound in their place by 
flaxen ties, which are noosed round each separate reed, 
and cross horizontally from slab to slab at distances of 
a foot. The roof, also six inches thick, was composed 
