Vitality of the Race.

The vitality and health of the people, as far as one can judge, must have been excellent. Except for battle, misfortune in transgressing the law or being bewitched, they reached a ripe old age. People of the earlier generation who passed through the European days and reached their century, were common. As the Maoris say, they lived till "their knees reached the backs of their ears and they walked on four legs instead of two. "Disease as we know it seems to have afflicted them but little and the mode of living was such as to develope their page 19fine physique. As already stated, they were tall and well-built being especially well developed about the loins, buttocks and lower limbs. The wounds they recovered from were simply marvellous but their constitutional resistance to disease was as low as the former was high.