Yet, although very numerous, they are themselves of a peaceful disposition.  Their houses are said to be both larger and better built than those in any other part of the island; and their plantations are also more extensive.  This seems, in short, to be the manufacturing district of New Zealand, the only part of the country in which anything like regular industry has found an abode.  Hence the pre-eminence of its inhabitants, both in the useful and the elegant arts.

Nicholas has printed some specimens of the songs of the New Zealanders, which, when sung, are always accompanied, he informs us, by a great deal of action.  As he has given merely the words, however, without either the music or a translation, it is needless to transcribe them.  The airs he describes as in general melodious and agreeable, and as having a resemblance to our chanting.

One of the songs which he gives is that which is always sung at the feast which takes place when the planting of the potatoes commences.  “It describes,” he says, “the havoc occasioned by the violence of an east wind.  Their potatoes are destroyed by it.  They plant them again, and, being more successful, they express their joy while taking them out of the ground, with the words, ah kiki! ah kiki! ah kiki!—­eat away! eat away! eat away!  Which is the conclusion of the song.”  Of another, “the subject is a man carving a canoe, when his enemies approach the shore in a canoe to attack him; endeavouring to conceal himself, he runs in among the bushes, but is pursued, overtaken, and immediately put to death.”

Every more remarkable occasion of their rude and turbulent life seems to have its appropriate song.  The planting of their potatoes, the gathering in of the crop, the commencement of the battle, the interment of the dead, are all celebrated, each by its peculiar chorus, as well as, probably, most of their other customary excitements, both of mirth and of mourning.

The New Zealanders have a variety of national dances; but none of them have been minutely described.  Some of them are said to display much grace of movement; others are chiefly remarkable for the extreme violence with which they are performed.  As among the other South Sea tribes, when there are more dancers than one, the most perfect uniformity of step and attitude is preserved by all of them; and they do not consider it a dance at all when this rule is not attended to.

Captain Dillon very much amused some of those who came on board his ship by a sample of English dancing, which he made his men give them on deck.  A company of soldiers going through their manual exercise would certainly have come much nearer their notions of what a dance ought to be.