File:FROUDE(1886) p303 A MAORI BANQUET HALL, NEW ZEALAND.jpg

Kawau, or Shag Island, lies at the mouth of the Hauraki Gulf, four miles from the mainland and about thirty in a direct line from Auckland. (...) We turned from the path into the forest, forcing our way with difficulty through the thicket. Suddenly we came on a spot where three-quarters of an acre, or an acre, stood bare of any kind of undergrowth, but arched over by the interwoven branches of four or five gigantic Pohutukama trees, whose trunks stood as the columns of a natural hall or temple. The ground was dusty and hard, without trace of vegetation. The ots twisted and coiled over it like a nest of knotted pythons, while other pythons, the Rata parasites, wreathed themselves round the vast stems, twined up among the boughs, and disappeared among the leaves. It was like the horrid shade of some Druid's grove, and the history of it was as ghastly as its appearance. Here, at the beginning of this century, the Maori pirates of the island had held their festivals. To this place they had brought their prisoners; here they had slain them and hung their carcases on these branchesto be cut and sliced for spit or caldron. Here, when their own turn came, they had made their last bloody stand against the axes of the invaders,and had been killed and devoured in turn.