aori. He is a professed
Christian,--that is, in most cases,--and accepts the Bible; but he is
apt to give it his own interpretation: yet for that matter how many
white religionists there are who do the same! These children of Nature
follow their ancestral traditions modified by Christian influences. The
original religion of the natives, if we can give it that name, consisted
in a dim belief of a future state, quite undefined even in their own
minds. It was largely a sort of ancestor worship, according to the
missionaries, with a vague idea of some Being higher and better than
anything human or finite. The sorcery which was universally practised
among them filled up a certain measure of religious conviction and
observance; nor is this by any means disused among them to-day. Many of
the tribes can read and write, and educational facilities are freely
offered to the rising generation by the English Government.

Whakarewarewa--we can write but not pronounce the name--forms another
active volcano point, and is situated about four miles from the Lake
House. For three days, whenever the eyes wandered in that direction, we
had seen the hamlet, which occupies a side-hill, steaming away
vigorously, and sometimes got a glimpse of the boiling water spouted
high in air. The road thither lies over a perfectly level way in the
midst of a plain which was doubtless overflowed by the lake in former
times, and which is still so much under water as to be nearly navigable
for a small boat. Here we found another tribe of Maoris surrounded by
geysers, boiling pits, hot, spluttering, and unwholesome-looking
mud-pools, with steam-holes innumerable. What a region of perpetual
ferment it is! How busy must be the fiery agencies constantly operating
in Nature's subterranean laboratory! Soon after entering the hamlet we
passed a clear, blue boiling-pool of great depth, which is improved by
the whole community for cooking purposes. In the sides of this
out-of-doors stone and earthen cavity indentures had been made, where
iron pots and wicker screens could be placed for boiling vegetables and
other food.

The action of the largest geyser here was fitful and irregular,
subsiding for a few seconds now and then, and again bursting forth with
renewed power, throwing a column of boiling water thirty feet into the
air with startling effect. We were told that this geyser when in
operation often sent up such a column to the height of sixty feet. Much
wander