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[Page 192]

188.
Some account of New Zealand

stones from the rest, in the middle of which they can make a fire  round this the sides of the house are thick layd with straw on which they sleep;  as for furniture they are not much troubled with it  one chest commonly contains all their riches, consisting of Tools, Cloaths, arms, & a few feathers to stick into their hair; their gourds or Baskets made of Bark which serve them to keep fresh water, provision baskets & the hammers with which they beat their fern roots, are generaly left without the door.

Mean & low as these houses are they most perfectly resist all inclemencies of the weather & answer consequently the purposes of mere shelter as well as larger would do   the people I beleive spend little of the day in them (except may be in winter)  the porch seems to be the place for work  & those who have not room there must set upon a stone or the ground in its neighbourhood

Some few of the better sort have kind of Court Yards the walls of which are made of poles & hay 10 or 12 feet high which as their families are large incloses 3 or 4 houses  but I must not forget the ruins or rather frame of a house (for it had never been finishd) which I saw at Tolaga  as it was so much superior in size to any thing of the kind we have met with in any other part of the land  it was
 

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