d into
another tribe, or--in latter days--became the wife of a white, she
did not forfeit her title, though sometimes such rights would be
surrendered by arrangement, to save inconvenience. Trade never entered
into Maori life. Buying and selling were unknown. On and by the land
the Maori lived, and he clung to it closely as any Irish peasant. "The
best death a man can die is for the land," ran a proverb. "Let us die
for the land!" shouted a chieftain, haranguing his fighting men before
one of their first battles with the English. No appeal would be more
certain to strike home.

Though the tribal estate was communal property in so far that any
member could go out into the wilderness and fell trees and reclaim the
waste, the fruits of such work, the timber and plantations, at once
became personal property. The fields, houses, weapons, tools, clothes,
and food of a family could not be meddled with by outsiders. The
territory, in a word, was common, but not only products but usufructs
were property attaching to individuals, who could transfer them by
gift.

Though in time they forgot the way to "Hawaiki," and even at last the
art of building double-canoes, yet they never wanted for pluck or
seamanship in fishing and voyaging along the stormy New Zealand
coasts. Their skill and coolness in paddling across flooded rivers may
still sometimes be witnessed.

Always needing fish, they placed their villages near the sea beaches
or the rivers and lakes. In their canoes they would paddle as far as
twelve miles from land. Amongst other fish they caught sharks, killing
them before they hauled them into the crank canoes; or, joining
forces, they would sweep some estuary with drag nets, and, with much
yelling and splashing, drive the fish into a shallow corner. There
with club and spear dog-fish and smooth-hound would be done to death
amid shouts and excitement. Then would come a gorge on a grand scale,
followed by business--the cutting into strips and drying of the
shark-meat for winter food. In the forests they found birds, and,
not having the bow-and-arrow, made shift to snare and spear them
ingeniously. To add to the vegetable staples which they had brought
with them from their Polynesian home, they used the root of the
fern or bracken, and certain wild fruits and berries--none of them
specially attractive. What between fish, birds and vegetables, with
occasional delicacies in the shape of dogs and rats, they were by no
means b