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196 but these are fast dying out, and so are their traditions and legends. Sir George Grey collected many of their poems, myths, and fables, and published them in a large octavo volume, and if you wish to know more on this subject you can see the book in our public library."



Fred asked if they were diminishing in numbers as rapidly as the people of the South Sea Islands had diminished since the advent of the white strangers.

"Yes," was the reply, "but civilization has had less to do with their reduction than the quarrels among themselves. When Captain Cook took possession of the islands, it is thought there were 120,000 Maoris living here; to-day there are less than 50,000. Before the whites came here the Maoris were divided into eighteen nations or great tribes, and the nations were subdivided into tribes, of which each had its chief whom it acknowledged. Each tribal chief regarded the head of his nation as his lord and obeyed his orders.

"The nations were constantly at war with each other, and then, too, the tribes of any one nation might be at war among themselves. The Maoris loved war for its own sake, vastly preferring it to peace, however much it might inconvenience them. Some of their ways were peculiar, and quite at variance with European notions or customs. Shall I tell you some of them?"

The youths expressed their desire to hear more about this interesting people, and their informant continued:

"Their wars were conducted with great ferocity, and the vanquished were either enslaved by the victors or killed and eaten."

"That is not so very strange," said Fred, as the gentleman paused; "savages in many parts of the world do the same thing."

"Of course they do," was the reply; "but they do not divide their