ives are confined to their beds by sickness, and,
it may be, at the point of death, they must receive whatever food they
take in this outer room, which, however, is sometimes provided with a
shed, supported upon posts, although in no case does it appear to be
enclosed by walls. It is here, accordingly, that those who are in so
weak a state from illness as not to be able to bear removal from one
place to another usually have their couches spread; as, were they to
choose to recline inside the house, it would be necessary to leave them
to die of want.

Nicholas, in the course of an excursion which he made in the
neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, was once not a little annoyed and
put out of humour by this absurd superstition. It rained heavily when he
and Marsden arrived very hungry at a village belonging to a chief of
their acquaintance, where, although the chief was not at home, they were
very hospitably received, their friends proceeding immediately to dress
some potatoes to make them a dinner. But after they had prepared the
meal, they insisted, as usual, that it should be eaten in the open air.

This condition, Nicholas, in the circumstances, naturally thought a
somewhat hard one; but it was absolutely necessary either to comply with
it, or to go without potatoes. To make matters worse, the dining-room
had not even a shed. So they had no course left but to take shelter in
the best way they could, under a projection from the roof of the house,
extending about three feet; and here they contrived to take their
repast, without being very much drenched. However, they were not allowed
this indulgence without many anxious scruples on the part of their
friends, who considered even their venturing so near to the house on
such an occasion as an act of daring impiety. As they had got possession
of the potatoes, their entertainers, though very much shocked and
alarmed, did not proceed to such rudeness as to take these from them
again; but whenever they wanted to drink out of the calabash that had
been brought to them, they obliged them to thrust out their heads for it
from under the covering, although the rain continued to fall in
torrents.

Fatigued as he was, and vexed at being in this way kept out of the
comfortable shelter he had expected, Nicholas at last commenced
inveighing, he tells us, against the inhospitable custom, with much
acrimony; and as Tooi, who was with them, had always shown so strong a
predilection for E