ABSTRACT
Old Hapoto's cabin was but a few yards from the shore. It was the regular Maori structure, with the old paving of black flags, the lattice walls, and the pandanus thatch—a haven for scorpions and centipedes. Massive beams of timber supported large beds of an old-fashioned pattern, with curtains made of the macerated and flattened bark of the paper-mulberry. A clumsy table, with these primitive bedsteads, formed the whole of the furniture; but on the table lay a Bible in Tahitian, reminding the visitor that the Christian religion was held in honour in this remote dwelling.
