Although this plan is necessarily a very slow one, it is much more efficacious than might be imagined, and is able not only to cut the hair of the head, but to shave the stiff beards of the men. In performing the latter operation, the barber lays the edge of the lower shell upon the skin, and presses it well downward, so as to enable the upper shell to scrape off the hair close to the skin. Beard-shaving is necessarily a longer process than hair-cutting, because it is not possible to cut more than one or two hairs at a time, and each of them takes some little time in being rubbed asunder between the edges of the shells. CHAPTER LXXXI. NEW ZEALAND--_Continued_. DOMESTIC LIFE. CEREMONIES ATTENDANT ON BIRTH -- PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF INFANTICIDE -- A CURIOUS INSTANCE OF SUPERSTITION -- NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICATION -- THE CEREMONY OF SPRINKLING -- THE RECITATIONS -- CHANGES OF NAME -- MARRIAGE -- COURTSHIP AND WIFE-SNATCHING -- AMUSEMENTS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS -- THE SWING, OR GIANT STRIDE -- DRAUGHTS AND OTHER SEDENTARY GAMES -- CHILDREN’S SPORTS -- TOP-SPINNING, KITE-FLYING -- AND CAT’S-CRADLE -- SWIMMING AND DIVING -- CURIOUS PETS: DOGS, PIGS, AND PARROTS -- BALL-PLAYING -- MUSIC AND SINGING -- CHARACTER OF THE SONGS -- MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS -- THE FIFE, THE WAR TRUMPET, AND THE WAR BELL -- CURIOUS MODE OF SALUTATION -- THE “TANGI,” AND ITS LUDICROUS APPEARANCE -- ITS WEARISOME EFFECT ON A FOREIGNER -- UNCERTAIN TEMPER OF THE MAORIES -- STRENGTH OF MEMORY, AND CURIOSITY. We will now examine the domestic life of the New Zealander, and begin at the beginning, _i. e._ with his birth. As is mostly the case in those nations which do not lead the artificial life of civilization, there is very little trouble or ceremony about the introduction of a new member of society. The mother does not trouble herself about medical attendants or nurses, but simply goes off into some retired place near a stream, and seldom takes with her even a companion of her own sex. When the baby is born, the mother bathes her child and then herself in the stream, ties the infant on her back, and in a short time resumes the business in which she was engaged. Until the child is named the mother is sacred, or “tapu,” and may not be touched by any one. The New Zealand women are too often guilty of the crime of infanticide, as indeed might be imagined to be the case in a land where human life is held at so cheap a rate. Various causes combine to produce this result. If, for example, the child is deformed or seems sickly, it is sacrificed as an act of mercy toward itself, the Maories thinking that it is better for the scarcely conscious child to be destroyed at once than to die slowly under disease, or to live a despised life as a cripple.