Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/46

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The chiefs of the Bay of Islands not only walk, but walk barefoot; but those of the interior they describe as being carried in a sort of vehicle on the shoulders of men whenever they vouchsafe to go abroad.

This vehicle, as far as I could learn, is not distinguished by much elegance, and, from the account of the natives, it very much resembles what in England is called an hand-barrow.

But notwithstanding this want of elegance in the vehicle, it will not be supposed that the monarch, if so he may be stiled, is destitute of the means of state and parade; when it is considered that upon many occasions he is attended by some hundreds, or even thousands of dauntless warriors, armed with spears and battle-axes, and decorated with war-mats, feathers, &c. He is, therefore, by no means that contemptible being that Europeans, upon a first idea, would imagine.

The chieftains of the coast are, however, deficient in this splendour, but they are no