The Story of New Zealand: Past and Present--savage and Civilized, Volume 1

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Page 290 - Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea. There methinks would be enjoyment more than in this march of mind In the steamship, in the railway, in the thoughts that shake mankind. There the passions cramp'd no longer shall have scope and breathing space ; I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.
Page 188 - And trims his helmet's plume ; When the goodwife's shuttle merrily Goes flashing through the loom ; With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old.
Page 290 - I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race. Iron-jointed, supple-sinew'd, they shall dive, and they shall run, Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in' the sun; Whistle back the parrot's call, and leap the rainbows of the brooks, Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books...
Page 236 - They treated us," says Crozet, " with every show of friendship for thirty-three days with the intention of eating us on the thirty-fourth.
Page 132 - ... and torotoro creepers. The outer fence, from six to eight feet high, was constructed of lighter materials. Between the two there was a dry ditch. The only openings in the outer fence were small holes ; in the inner fence there were sliding bars. Stuck in the fences were exaggerated wooden figures of men with gaping mouths and out-hanging tongues. At every corner were stages for sentinels, and in the centre scaffolds, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad, from which men discharged...
Page 60 - Now do you, my dear children, depart in peace, and when you reach the place you are going to, do not follow after the deeds of Tu...
Page 188 - ... not unlike Hindoo idols, were erected on the spots where the bodies were deposited, Mourning head dresses made of dark feathers were worn; some mourners clipped half their hair short, and people talked of the dead as if they were alive. The bodies were permitted to remain about half a year on the stages, or in the earth, after which the bones were scraped clean, placed in boxes or mats, and secretly deposited by priests in sepulchres, on hill tops, in forests, or in caves.
Page 81 - It was ascertained, by weighing the quantity of millet seed skulls contained and by measurements with tapes and compasses, that New Zealanders' heads are smaller than the heads of Englishmen, consequently the New Zealanders are inferior to the English in mental capacity. This comparative smallness of the brain is produced by neglecting to exercise the higher...
Page 187 - What meaneth this?' Say the winds of this our world Have been torn from it, in the death of the brave one, The leader of onr battles. Atutahi and the stars of the morning Look down from the sky. The earth reels to and fro, For the great prop of the tribes lies low. Ah ! my friend, the dews of Hokianga Will penetrate thy body. The waters of the rivers will ebb out And the land be desolate."* Dead chiefs sat in state until they gave out an ill odour.
Page 96 - Think not that I am a man, that my origin is of the earth. I come from the heavens ; my ancestors are all there ; they are gods, and I shall return to them.

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