A KAINGA MAORI (NATIVE VILLAGE).
"They are of Malay origin," said the gentleman, "and according to their traditions, which are unusually clear, they came here from either the Sandwich or the Samoan islands, four or five centuries ago, in a fleet of thirteen large canoes, which were followed by others. The names of their canoes, the chiefs that commanded them, and the places where they landed are carefully preserved in their traditions. They say that they came from an island called Hawaiki, in the Pacific Ocean, and this is thought to be either Savaii, in the Samoan group, or Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands. Their language is so nearly like that of the Sandwich Islanders that the two people can understand each other after a little practice.
"They had no written language until one was made for them by the missionaries, and the nearest approach to it was a knotted stick, by which the wise men transmitted the names of successive chiefs. They had a great many songs of love, war, religion, and other things, but these are fast dying out, and so are their traditions and legends. Sir George Grey collected many of their poems, myths, and fables, and published them in a large octavo volume, and if you wish to know more on this subject you can see the book in our public library."
CARVED NEW ZEALAND CHEST.
Fred asked if they were diminishing in numbers as rapidly as the people of the South Sea Islands had diminished since the advent of the white strangers.
"Yes," was the reply, "but civilization has had less to do with their reduction than the quarrels among themselves. When Captain Cook took possession of the islands, it is thought there were 120,000 Maoris living here; to-day there are less than 50,000. Before the whites came here the Maoris were divided into eighteen nations or great tribes, and the nations were subdivided into tribes, of which each had its chief whom it acknowledged. Each tribal chief regarded the head of his nation as his lord and obeyed his orders.
"The nations were constantly at war with each other, and then, too, the tribes of any one nation might be at war among themselves. The Maoris loved war for its own sake, vastly preferring it to peace, however much it might inconvenience them. Some of their ways were peculiar, and quite at variance with European notions or customs. Shall I tell you some of them?"