When the _hongi_ had been performed, and a _tangi_ had been held--for they wept here as they had done at Pouotepiki--we were invited to sit down in a circle with the natives who had accompanied us, and soon afterwards a number of women and girls, who came tripping along in Indian file, singing a wild refrain, brought us pork and potatoes and bread and _kumaras,_ in plaited flax baskets, each _hapu_ present contributing according to custom, a certain quantity, so that in a short time we had food enough around us to last us for a month. We ate heartily of the good things placed before us, but we had great fights over our banquet with the half-starved dogs assembled from all parts of the country, and which became so audacious in their efforts to obtain our luxuries, that we had to keep our whips going right and left all the time. [Illustration: NATIVE GIRL.] We remained at Manga-o-rongo for three days, during which time we had a good opportunity of examining the settlement and the general features of the surrounding country. The _kainga_, composed for the most part of a number of scattered _whares_ separated by broad patches of cultivation, was situated in a deep, basin-like depression in the upper valley of the Waipa, and upon the banks of a small river called the Manga-o-rongo, one of the principal tributaries of the Waipa. The scenery of the adjacent country was very attractive, the Rangitoto Mountains forming a beautiful and conspicuous feature to the south. The Rangitoto Mountains, the highest points of which attained to an altitude of about 2500 feet, were clothed to their summits with a dense vegetation, and flanked with lower hills covered with a luxuriant growth of fern, while winding valleys and deep ravines stretched far into the rugged fastnesses beyond. To the westward of the Rangitoto ranges were the mountains of the Kuiti, where the deep green forests were interspersed with wide stretches of open fern, which swept down to the undulating hills at their base. On all other sides the country around Manga-o-rongo was open, and presented a series of broad, rolling plains, covered with low fern, and where the dark alluvial soil was of the richest description.