CHAPTER VIII.

With regard to many of the other habits of the New Zealanders,
Rutherford in general corroborates the testimony of other travellers.

He mentions particularly their extreme inattention to personal
cleanliness, a circumstance which very much surprised Nicholas, as it
seemed to present an unaccountable contrast to the neatness and order
which were usually to be found both in their plantations and huts.

All the natives, Rutherford states, are overrun with vermin, which lodge
not only in their heads, but in their mats. "Their way of destroying
them in their mats," he adds, "is by making a fire, on which, having
thrown a quantity of green bushes, they spread the mat over the whole,
when the steam from the leaves compels the vermin to retreat to the
surface: these the women are very active in catching on such occasions
with both hands, and devouring greedily. Sometimes two or three will be
catching them at the same mat."

The New Zealanders cure their fish, Rutherford tells us, by dipping them
a great many times in salt water, and then drying them in the sun. The
large mussels they first bake in the usual manner, and then, taking them
out of the shell, string them together, and hang them up over the fire
to dry in the smoke. Thus prepared, they eat like old cheese, and will
keep for years. The coomeras, or sweet potatoes, are also cured in the
same manner, which makes them eat like gingerbread. Their potatoes the
natives pack in baskets made of green flax, and in this way preserve
them for the winter. There are, however, three months in the year during
which they live upon little except turnips, and at this time they do
with almost no drink. The baskets in which they keep their provisions,
and apply to other domestic purposes, are formed with considerable
ingenuity, and with some taste, in their decorations.

Notwithstanding the stormy seas by which their islands are surrounded,
and the woods, swamps, and rivers, which oppose such difficulties in the
way of passing from one place to another through the heart of the
country, the New Zealanders are known to be in the habit of making long
journeys, both along the coasts in their canoes, and through the
interior on foot.

Rutherford gives us some account of a journey which he once accomplished
in company with the chief Aimy.

"I took," says he, "my wife Epecka with me, and we were attended by
about twenty slave-women to carry our provisions, every one