244 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. X. 
now they had begun to do the same on the Hutt, to 
which they had no right. He was surprised to find 
that I did not greet him or make any answer, and ran 
for some distance along by the side of my horse, asking 
vyhy I was angry with him. I told him that he and 
the two great enemies of the White people were of one 
heart, and that he too had begun to break his faith 
and to drive the settlers off the land. He stoutly denied 
it, and said that he had only gone to grow potatoes for 
the White people for one season, when he would come 
away. But he was astonished when I told him that 
my ears had received the whole story from Rauperaha 
himself, and that I knew him to be that chief's obe- 
dient servant. He acknowledged that he had told me 
a lie, but did not seem at all abashed. On the contrary, 
he treated it as a good joke, and tried to laugh it off, 
repeating that he only went for a time, and all for the 
good of the White people. 
The Maori generally are singular on this point. 
They have little shame in telling a lie ; and it is no 
insult among them to tell a man that he is tito, or a 
Jiar. It even takes some time to make them under- 
stand that no deeper insult can be offered to a White 
man. The same word tito is also applied to improviso 
or inventive singing ; and a famous poet among them 
is thus renowned as a " great liar." They are generally 
amused at the ingenuity of the |)erson who proves to 
them that they have failed to conceal the truth, but 
are seldom ashamed or confused at the public exposure 
of their falsehood. A very few, like E Kuru and 
E Puni, have an idea of that sense of honour which 
makes lying one of the worst crimes which an English 
gentleman can commit. But I always considered these 
men startling exceptions, in many points of character, 
to the generality of their countrymen. 
