time. The race evinces to-day
many of the wild traits of their ancestors, which have been transmitted
to them in their blood, and which break out in odd ways now and then
when least expected. You cannot quite tame an Apache warrior, a Spanish
gypsy, or a New Zealand Maori; there will still remain a lingering
desire toward the old life, which will often be resumed upon the first
opportunity by the seemingly reclaimed savage. These natives exhibit
very little family affection, though we saw evidences of tenderness
toward their very young children. The old men and women are not
infrequently abandoned when ill or too feeble to take care of
themselves,--a trait which is sometimes exhibited by our own Indian
tribes. Polygamy and slavery still exist among them. Indeed, a married
woman is virtually the slave of her husband, whom she is expected to
supply with food by gathering roots, berries, fruits, and the like.

We are told by the early missionaries that the Maoris possessed an oral
mythology rudely resembling that of the classics. They firmly believed
in a future state of existence, and built rude temples to a Great
Spirit, but could see no harm whatever in making war upon neighboring
tribes for the purpose of replenishing their larder. So late as 1840
their greatest delight was the war-dance, the cannibal feast, and the
boasting war-song. The braggadocio of their fighting songs would do
credit to Falstaff; but the Maori affords us the anomaly of a braggart
who is not by any means a coward. Now and then there is seen among them
a face of so unmistakably a Jewish cast as to set the imagination at
work to find some possible connection, far back among the by-gone ages,
between this race and the Hebrews. When this peculiar cast of features
is seen among the girls or young women, it forms a face strikingly
attractive.

The Maoris when first discovered had many games and sports which were
identical with our own,--such as flying kites, skipping rope,
cat's-cradle, gymnastic pole-exercise, hide-and-seek, dancing, and
walking upon stilts. They are represented to have been good orators, and
have handed down proverbs from generation to generation,--terse sayings,
which are still preserved among them, and which are in spirit similar to
many of those of Confucius. Captain Cook estimated when he first visited
them that the Maoris had passed the period of their best days. He
thought that in the century previous to his coming hither they