Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/103

84 pattern principally depends upon the owner's fancy, but it frequently happens that neither the ornamental parts, or the form of the instrument itself, are strictly decent.

They have another instrument formed of two pieces of wood bound together, so as to produce a tube about the size of a fife, whose figure is bellied out about midway, and at which part they make a small hole. This instrument is inflated at one extremity, while the other is occasionally stopped and opened so as to produce some variety in the modulation of the sound.

Thus it will appear that though the music of New Zealand is not remarkable for its variety, yet it affords an ample fund of amusement to the natives, particularly their humorous lays, which I have seen, in some instances, produce such violent and tumultuous mirth as could scarcely be exceeded. The dancing of the natives of New Zealand is, I imagine, similar to that prac-