se of
things must have been somewhat different; inasmuch as here we find the
agricultural state begun, where the pastoral could never have been
known, there being no flocks to tend. Cook, as we have seen, found the
inhabitants of this country extensive cultivators of land, and they,
probably, had been so for many ages before. Although the fern-root is in
most places the spontaneous produce of the soil, and enters largely into
the consumption of the people, it would yet seem that they have not been
wont to consider themselves independent of those other crops which they
raise by regular cultivation. To these, accordingly, they pay the
greatest attention, insomuch, that most of those who have visited the
country have been struck by the extraordinary contrast between the neat
and clean appearance of their fields, in which the plants rise in even
rows, and not a weed is to be seen, and the universal air of rudeness,
slovenliness, and discomfort which their huts present.

But we must remember that in the latter case we see merely a few of the
personal accommodations of the savage, his neglect of which occasions
him but very slight and temporary inconvenience; whereas in the former
it is the very sustenance of his life which is concerned, his
inattention to which might expose him to all the miseries of famine. The
same care and neatness in the management of their fields has been
remarked as characteristics of the North American Indians; and both they
and the New Zealanders celebrate the seasons of planting and gathering
in their harvests with festivities and religious observances, practices
which have, indeed, prevailed in almost every nation, and may be
regarded as among the most beautiful and becoming of the rites of
natural religion.

The commencement of the coomera harvest in New Zealand is the signal for
the suspension of all other occupations except that of gathering in the
crop. First, the priest pronounces a blessing upon the unbroken ground;
and then, when all its produce has been gathered in, he "taboos" or
makes sacred, the public storehouse in which it is deposited.

Cruise states that this solemn dedication has sometimes saved these
depositories from spoliation, even on occasion of a hostile attack by
another tribe. "One of the gentlemen of the ship," this writer adds,
"was present at the 'shackerie,'[AL] or harvest-home, if it may be so
called, of Shungie's people. It was celebrated in a wood, where a square
s