men are pushing Robert into the burning iron furnace. It is the man
who has his arm on Robert's breast. Physiognomy here spoke the truth;
this chief had been a notorious murderer, and was an arrant coward to
boot. At the point where the boat landed, Mr. Bushby accompanied me a
few hundred yards on the road: I could not help admiring the cool
impudence of the hoary old villain, whom we left lying in the boat,
when he shouted to Mr. Bushby, "Do not you stay long, I shall be tired
of waiting here."
We now commenced our walk. The road lay along a well beaten path,
bordered on each side by the tall fern, which covers the whole country.
After travelling some miles, we came to a little country village, where
a few hovels were collected together, and some patches of ground
cultivated with potatoes. The introduction of the potato has been the
most essential benefit to the island; it is now much more used than any
native vegetable. New Zealand is favoured by one great natural
advantage; namely, that the inhabitants can never perish from famine.
The whole country abounds with fern: and the roots of this plant, if
not very palatable, yet contain much nutriment. A native can always
subsist on these, and on the shell-fish, which are abundant on all
parts of the sea-coast. The villages are chiefly conspicuous by the
platforms which are raised on four posts ten or twelve feet above the
ground, and on which the produce of the fields is kept secure from all
accidents.
On coming near one of the huts I was much amused by seeing in due form
the ceremony of rubbing, or, as it ought to be called, pressing noses.
The women, on our first approach, began uttering something in a most
dolorous voice; they then squatted themselves down and held up their
faces; my companion standing over them, one after another, placed the
bridge of his nose at right angles to theirs, and commenced pressing.
This lasted rather longer than a cordial shake of the hand with us, and
as we vary the force of the grasp of the hand in shaking, so do they in
pressing. During the process they uttered comfortable little grunts,
very much in the same manner as two pigs do, when rubbing against each
other. I noticed that the slave would press noses with any one he met,
indifferently either before or after his master the chief. Although
among the 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
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