Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-09

It, own medicinal properties There are
notes and cottages and all the surround
lngS of such a resort in the United States
The government has charge of the springs
and fixes the tariff, and the people thus
keep the place for themselves The gov
errment has put up bath houses with enor-
nous swimming pools
The baths have curious names Ono our,no
10 the beauty which 1t gives the complex
ion, steaming all impurities out of the sys-
tenn, mas been called after Madam Rachel
"hlch the French pronounce Ra-shell. The
people here drop the madame and saw
rachel, as though they were speaking of
an English girl. Another is called the
Priest bath, another the Pankiller. q third
the Coffee Pot and fourth the Blue Bath.
Inc names sound curious at first, and
when | was told 1 could have half hour
at the Priest felt like protesting / was not
catholic, but a cast-iron Presbyterian
Joking aside the baths are wonderful
Rachel comes from a boiling caldron of
enormous depth. which yields fifty thou
sand gallons daily. The water seems
to be loaded with sulphuretted hydrogen,
and smell of decayed eggs floats into your
nostrils. You are Disguised until you walk
down into 1t. Then your skin seems to
have turned to satin, and you lie as COM
portable as though on beds Of rose leaves.
me Blue Bath has swimming pool about
as big as the average city lot. The water
is at % degrees. 1t is delightful. In the
Coffee Pot" the pool is covered with an
oily slime and the water is thick. brown
and muddy. Still 1t is cure for rheuma-
tism. Others Of the baths are 80 strong
in their mineral properties that one must
be examined by a doctor before he can
enter them.
How the Natives Battle,
There are many native Maori villages in
this region. The Maoris, you know. are
the aborigines Of New Zealand. They cor
respond to the Indians of North America,
although far different from them in char
acter and customs. There are only about
10000 Of them left. I went into many OF
the houses. They are sort of cross be-
tween an Indian hut and that Of a lower
class Englishman. They are built right
over the steaming earth. Many of them
have bathing pools behind them, and in
the pools you see boys and girls bathing
together in the steaming water. I stood
and watched such a crowd this morning.
The pool was about twenty feet square
and in it were dozen little ones as naked
as when they were born. The steam rose
up from the pool and as the morning sun
caught it their brown skins shone out
through the mist. One of the bathers was
girl of fourteen. She was pouring the
water over her with a bucket when
threw in silver sixpence. She with
all the rest dived down into the
steaming pool for it, she finally emerging
with the coin in her mouth. AS I walked
on to other pools I saw here and there the
heads of men and women floating, as 1t
but whether they were taking this method
of getting warm or merely having their
morning baths 1 do not know.
Mother Earth Does the Cooking.
Old Mother Earth is kind to her Maori
daughters. She does their cooking for
them. They never have to make a fire nor
put the kettle on. Each woman has g.
steaming box of her own, which is always
at the right temperature. This box is mere
ly an old dry goods box, shoe box or soap
box, with the top and bottom knocked out
and the bottom covered with Stats. It is
sunken in the earth over one of these steam
holes. The food Is dropped in and an old
piece of carpet or cloth thrown over it and
in due time 1t is cooked.
Cooking is also done In the boiling pools
Potatoes are pared and put into bags made
of network of rope, each holding quar-
ter or half peck The bag is then dropped
into the pool and string which is fastened
to 1t Is tied to stake outside. In a few
minutes the potatoes are ready for eating.
be put into bucket and steamed In fact
almost anything in the boiling or steaminr
line is so done by these people. They have
lately taken up some English customs. and
now celebrate Christmas, when thew make
plum buildings and cook them in these
petty volcanoes.
In some places the villagers cook at one
great vat, and In others, such as Whakare-
warewa, the women all do their washing in
one hot pool. the water of which is soft and
cleansing. They kneel down on the outside
OF the pool and scour the clothes together
! IKE the Maori women. Their dTess n now