XVIII 
EXCURSION TO WAIM ATE 
45i 
slave would press noses with any one he met, indifferently either 
before or after his master the chief. Although among these 
savages the chief has absolute power of life and death over his 
slave, yet there is an entire absence of ceremony between them. 
Mr. Burchell has remarked the same thing in Southern Africa 
with the rude Bachapins. Where civilisation has arrived at a 
certain point, complex formalities soon arise between the different 
grades of society : thus at Tahiti all were formerly obliged to 
uncover themselves as low as the waist in presence of the 
king. 
The ceremony of pressing noses having been duly completed 
with all present, we seated ourselves in a circle in the front of 
one of the hovels, and rested there half an hour. All the hovels 
have nearly the same form and dimensions, and all agree in 
being filthily dirty. They resemble a cow-shed with one end 
open, but having a partition a little way within, with a square 
hole in it, making a small gloomy chamber. In this the 
inhabitants keep all their property, and when the weather is 
cold they sleep there. They eat, however, and pass their time 
in the open part in front. My guides having finished their pipes, 
we continued our walk. The path led through the same 
undulating country, the whole uniformly clothed as before with 
fern. On our right hand we had a serpentine river, the banks of 
which were fringed with trees, and here and there on the hill¬ 
sides there was a clump of wood. The whole scene, in spite of 
its green colour, had rather a desolate aspect. The sight of so 
much fern impresses the mind with an idea of sterility ; this, 
however, is not correct ; for wherever the fern grows thick and 
breast-high, the land by tillage becomes productive. Some of 
the residents think that all this extensive open country originally 
was covered with forests, and that it has been cleared by fire. 
It is said that by digging in the barest spots, lumps of the kind 
of resin which flows from the kauri pine are frequently found. 
The natives had an evident motive in clearing the country ; for 
the fern, formerly a staple article of food, flourishes only in 
the open cleared tracks. The almost entire absence of 
associated grasses, which forms so remarkable a feature in 
the vegetation of this island, may perhaps be accounted for 
by the land having been aboriginally covered with forest- 
trees. 
