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 POU N AMU. 
 
 NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND GREENSTONE.
 
 
 u. 
 
 n
 
 w 
 
 POUNAMU 
 
 NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND GREENSTONE 
 
 BY 
 
 AIajor-General H. G. ROBLEY 
 
 Author of MOKO or Maori Tattooing, 
 
 AND OF 
 
 Historij of the 1st Battalion A)'(jijU and Sutherland Highlanders, 1794-1'S87. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 T. J. S. GUILFORD & CO., LTD. 
 Ckrks Road, Kingston 
 
 1915
 
 
 To 
 Mrs. DOUGLAS McLEAN 
 
 this little book on 
 
 Maori Greenstone 
 
 is respectfully dedicated by 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 4^3^A 
 
 o
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction .... .... .... .... .... vii 
 
 Chapter I.— CONCERNING POUNAMU .... .... 9 
 
 Chapter II.— WORKING POUNAMU .... .... .... 19 
 
 Chapter III.— GREENSTONE IMPLEMENTS.. .... 23 
 
 Chapter IV.— CONCERNING WAR-CLUBS ... ... 31 
 
 Chapter V— GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS ... .... 39 
 
 Chapter Vl.—HEI-TIKI .... .... .... .... 51 
 
 Glossary of Maori Words .... .... .... ... 79 
 
 Index .... .... .... .... • .... .... ... 80
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS little book is an endeavour to set down the results 
 of careful investigations extending over many years on 
 the subject of pounamti or New Zealand greenstone, and 
 the special uses to which it was applied by the Maori. For 
 savage art, rude though it be, and doomed to extinction as 
 civilization advances, has an individuality of its own which makes 
 it of importance to the ethnologist and of interest to the student ; 
 and it is the duty, no less than the pleasure, of those who have 
 studied it to place on record what they have been able to learn 
 of its achievements. 
 
 Ever since the Pakeha, the first European visitors to New 
 Zealand, regained their ship there has been much carrying away 
 of examples of old Maori craftsmanship, and those in greenstone 
 have always had a special attraction for collectors. So many 
 specimens of worked pounamu, indeed, have been brought to the 
 British Isles since Captain Cook's return to England in 1771, that 
 the silver streak might almost be called te wai ponnaniu. The old 
 worked greenstone now sees no more wars, but it is still the 
 object of the rivalry of collectors, who value it, as its former 
 possessors had done, for its beauty and rarity, and for the strange 
 and interesting forms into which it has been wrought.
 
 Vlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A glossary of Maori words and phrases used in this book is 
 given on page 79. It will, perhaps, be of use to those readers 
 who are not acquainted with the native tongue. 
 
 In the hope that these notes on pounamu, and the drawings 
 which have been made by the Author to illustrate them, may prove 
 of interest to the general reader and of use to the student, they 
 are offered, as the Maori says, Mo a muri mo a nehe — for the 
 days that follow after. 
 
 Reader, I salute you. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 -I^Ml^J^^ 
 
 ■^^
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 CONCERNING POUNAMU. 
 
 THE ordinary words used by the Maori to express the colour 
 green are kakariki and pounamu. Kakariki is the native 
 name of the small green paroquet as well as of the green 
 lizard, and it is considered by some students that this word is 
 thence applied to their colour. But it appears more probable that 
 kakariki is an ancient word for " green," and that it was given to 
 the two creatures by the ancestors of the Maori who, centuries 
 ago, invaded the islands which now we call New Zealand, and 
 found the green bird and the green reptile there. 
 
 The history of the word pounamu would seem to be somewhat 
 less involved. Its last two syllables, namu, are a pure Tahitian word 
 meaning "green," and they with the affix pou, make up the Maori 
 word applied both to the colour and the precious greenstone 
 or jade. 
 
 Jade, as is pointed out by Mr. G. F. Smith in his Gem Stones, 
 is a general term that includes properly two distinct mineral 
 species, nephrite or New Zealand greenstone, which is the com- 
 moner of the two, and jadeite. They are very similar in appearance, 
 both being tough and fibrous silicates of ferrous oxide and calcium 
 more or less greenish in colour, the variations of colour from grey 
 to deep green depending on the relative amount of iron in the
 
 lo POUNAMU. 
 
 composition, while the brown markings which are sometimes seen 
 in the stone are due to oxide of iron. Nephrite is about as 
 hard as glass, and is found principall) in New Zealand, 
 Turkestan, China and Siberia. With the rarer jadeite, the choicest 
 gem of the Chinese, our notes are not concerned ; it must suffice 
 to say that it is harder than nephrite ; its green is more brilliant 
 in hue ; and that the finest specimens are found in Burma. 
 
 The word "jade" has a curious etymology. The Spaniards 
 early discovered that eastern peoples held this stone in high regard 
 on account of its hardness and beautiful colour no less than for 
 its supposed magical and medicinal qualities. The Indians, the 
 Chinese and the Japanese alike believed that worn as amulets or 
 fashioned into drinking cups it was a bringer of good fortune, a 
 prolonger of life, a guardian against the bite of venomous reptiles, 
 a specific for internal illnesses ; while by the Mexicans it was 
 considered to be a protection against disease of the kidneys. It 
 was on account of this superstition that the name piedra de ijada, 
 of which our word "jade" is a corruption, or more correctly a 
 contraction, was given by the early Spanish discoverers to this 
 beautiful and remarkable mineral. 
 
 The word pounamu represented to the Maori everything that 
 is precious. The figurative expression tatau pounamu^ meaning 
 literally " greenstone door," was used, as Mr. Elsdon Best remarks 
 in his Notes on the Art of War, as a picturesque synonym for the 
 making of peace, a happy and precious closing of the door on war 
 and strife. An ambassador conducting peace negotiations would 
 use some such formula as Karanga ! karanga ! tenei te haere nei, 
 "Welcome us! welcome us! here we come," and naming some 
 well known hill would add te tatau pounamu ko mea maunga, " Our 
 greenstone door (that is, our place of peace) is such a hill."
 
 CONCERNING POUNAMU. ii 
 
 After the war between the tribes of Tuhoe and Ngati 
 Tuwharetoa the tataii poiinamu was " erected," as the sayinjf is, 
 at Opepe. Again, when peace followed the long feud between 
 Tuhoe and Ngati Awa, Hatua of Awa said to Te Ika Poto of Tuhoe, 
 " See the clump of bush at Ohui that has been so reduced by fire. 
 No fire shall be kindled there in the days to come. It is our 
 'greenstone door.' It shall be as a sanctuary, that even the women 
 and the children may come there and no harm shall befall them." 
 And the tatau pounamu was erected duly at Ohui where 
 it still stands. "It has not fallen even to this day," say 
 the Maori, meaning thereby that the peace then made has never 
 been broken. 
 
 Again, when Tuhoe and the tribes of Waikare-moana and the 
 coast, weary of their bloody and protracted war, resolved to make 
 peace Hipara, chief of the Waikare, said, " I will give my daughter 
 Hine-ki-runga in wife to Tuhoe for the ending of the war." But 
 Nga-rangi-mataeo, to make the pact more sure replied, " Let us 
 raise a tatau pounamu that peace may never be broken." So the 
 hill Kuha-tarewa was named as a wife, and another hill, Tuhi-o-kahu, 
 as a husband, and by the mystic union of the two, tatau pounamu 
 was erected and unbroken peace reigned thenceforward between 
 the war-weary peoples. " Have a care," says the Maori warning, 
 " lest you forget the precepts of your fathers and the support 
 of the door of jade be broken in the after days." 
 
 The only locality known to the ancient Maori where greenstone 
 was to be found was on the west coast of the South Island of 
 New Zealand. It could therefore be obtained by the tribes of the 
 North only by barter or as booty after a successful war. 
 
 Canon Stack, in his South Island Maoris, tells how a woman 
 named Raureka, wandering from her home, went up the bed of
 
 12 POUNAMU. 
 
 the Hokitika river, and in the neighbourhood of Horowhenua came 
 upon some men engaged in shaping a canoe. She remarked on 
 the bluntness of their tools, and being asked if she knew of any 
 better she took from her bosom a httle package which, when 
 carefully unwrapped, disclosed a sharp fragment of greenstone. 
 This was the first specimen that the natives of those parts had 
 ever seen ; and they were so delighted with the discovery that 
 without delay they sent a party over to the ranges to fetch more 
 of the precious mineral. From that time greenstone gradually came 
 into general use for edged tools and weapons, those made of 
 inferior materials being discarded. If, as is believed, she was a 
 contemporary of Moki, Raureka must have arrived at Hokitika 
 about the year 1700. But this does not necessarily imply that 
 greenstone and its value and uses were unknown to the Maori 
 living at that period in other parts of New Zealand. 
 
 The natives of Hawaiki undoubtedly knew of its existence 
 in the South Island long before they came to live in the country, 
 having heard of it from the celebrated navigator Ngahue, who, 
 about the year 1400 of our era, discovered New Zealand. 
 Driven from his own land, so the story goes, by the enmity of 
 a powerful and vindictive woman named Hine Tuao Hoanga 
 whose ill will he had incurred, he escaped on the back of a 
 poutini or sea-god.* He first sighted Tuhua, now called Mayor 
 Island, in the Bay of Plenty, and then Aotearoa, the mainland 
 of the North Island; but, knowing that his enemy was still 
 
 * Njiahue's sea god must have been simply a proa or canoe. Sea-going vessels were always 
 regarded with great reverence by the Maori ; they even deified the first European ships that visited 
 the country, calling them atuas or gods. Greenstone was regarded with such reverence by the 
 Maoris that it, too, was deified as a poutini, a son of Tangaroa, no doubt from the fact that it had 
 been discovered by the sea shore. Under this aspect it was often called whatii-o-poutint, and 
 represented symbolically by a star. So high a value attached to it that in old days, when the 
 greenstone was very hard to get, an artist would not hesitate to spend much time and labour 
 on a piece of indifferent quality.
 
 CONCERNING POUNAMU. 13 
 
 pursuing him, he continued his voyage till he reached the 
 mouth of the Arahura river, where he settled and found the 
 greenstone. 
 
 Ngahue was so convinced of its value that he ventured to 
 return to Hawaiki with a cargo of the stone, confident that the 
 service which he was doing his fellow countrymen hy bringing 
 so useful a material to their knowledge would ensure their favour 
 and protection. It is said that it was with tools made of Ngahue's 
 greenstone that the canoes were shaped which carried the first 
 immigrants to New Zealand. 
 
 " Every tribe of Maoridom," says Canon Stack, " valued this 
 jade above everything else, and strove to acquire it. The locality 
 in which it was found was known by report to all, and the popular 
 imagination pictured unknown wealth to the explorer of that region. 
 But the difficulties which beset the journey to this Maori Eldorado 
 were practically unsurmountable, and frustrated the efforts of those 
 who attempted to reach it. The stormy straits of Raukawa 
 (Cook's) had first to be crossed, and then a land journey of great 
 length and difficulty undertaken over rugged and lofty mountain 
 ranges, so steep in places that the travellers were obliged to 
 use ladders formed of supplejack, or other tough woodbines, to 
 enable them to get past. Pathless and seemingly interminable 
 forests had to be traversed, whose dark shades were made still 
 more gloomy by the incessant rainfall which kept the thick 
 undergrowth of moss and ferns always dripping wet. Deep and 
 rapid rivers had to be crossed either on rafts of dry fiax stalks 
 or on foot, the waders being only able to avoid being swept away 
 by the swift current by a number of them entering the water 
 together, and holding on tightly to a pole which they bore 
 across the river in their hands. The scarcity of food throughout
 
 14 POUNAMU. 
 
 the region to be traversed by the searchers after greenstone 
 added to the dangers of the task, for beyond the small quantity 
 they were able to carry with them, travellers were entirely 
 dependent for their food upon the wekas and eels, which they 
 were able to catch as they went along. Besides all these 
 difficulties they were in constant danger of encountering hostile 
 bands of men bound on the same errand as themselves. But 
 when even the joiu'ney was so far successful that the treasure 
 sought after was found, its great weight made it impossible 
 for the discoverers to carry back more than a few fragments, 
 and these were obtained by breaking them off with stone 
 hammers. In spite of the longing desire of the northern Maori 
 to enrich themselves with the treasures of greenstone which 
 existed on the west coast of the South Island, the serious 
 obstacles which beset the approach to that region deterred them 
 from making the attempt to get there, and they had to content 
 themselves with what they were able to acquire from their 
 fellow countrymen in the south, in exchange for mats and canoes 
 and such other manufactures as their southern neighbours were 
 willing to accept. The constant and bloody wars in the history 
 of the South Island were caused by many pretexts, but behind 
 all was the covetous desire to possess the land of xvai pounamu, 
 the valuable greenstone." 
 
 These picturesque passages well describe at once the difficulties 
 of the acquisition of greenstone and the constant efforts that were 
 made to obtain the coveted mineral. But they do not exhaust 
 the means, fair and foul, by which the Maori obtained possession 
 of it. Ornaments and weapons, as well as rough unworked 
 blocks of the stone were given as presents. They were paid as 
 utn, that is, compensation for injury inflicted or v.rong committed;
 
 CONCERNING POUNAMU. 15 
 
 they were taken as booty after a victorious war, and, as some- 
 times occurred, were handed over to cement a peace. 
 
 "We are told," wrote Captain Cook in his Voyages, "a hundred 
 fabulous stories about this stone, not one of which cari'ied with 
 it the least probability of truth, though some of their most sensible 
 men would have us believe them." 
 
 " According to an ancient legend," says Canon Stack, " the 
 reason why greenstone is found in such an inaccessible region is 
 that the locality was chosen by the three wives of Tamatea, the 
 circumnavigator, when they deserted him, as the hiding place most 
 likely to escape discovery. Tamatea's search along the east 
 coast was unsuccessful ; and after passing Foveaux Straits he 
 continued to skirt the shore, listening at the entrance of every 
 inlet for any sound that might indicate the whereabouts of the 
 runaways. But it was not till he arrived off the mouth of the 
 Arahura river that he heard voices. There he landed, but failed 
 to find his wives, being unable to recognize them in the enchanted 
 blocks of greenstone over which the water murmured incessantly. 
 He did not know that the canoe in which his wives escaped from 
 him had been capsized at Arahura, and that its occupants had 
 been changed into stone, and so he passed them by and continued 
 his fruitless search." 
 
 Mr. J. Cowan in his book, Maoris of New Zealand, relates 
 the legend as he heard it from the South Island people. They 
 added the detail that Tamatea went as far down as Milford Sound 
 where he found one of his missing wives transformed into green- 
 stone. As he wept over her, Tama's tears flowed so copiously 
 that they penetrated the rock, and that is why the clear kind of 
 bowenite found on the slopes and beaches of Milford Peak in that 
 great sound, is called tangiwai, or tear water.
 
 i6 POUNAMU. 
 
 Another tradition tells how Tamatea pokai-whenua (fair son), 
 accompanied by a slave went inland to Mount Kaniere, and on 
 the way stopped to cook some birds that he had killed. The 
 slave accidentally burnt his finger while preparing the meal and 
 thoughtlessly touched it with the tip of his tongue. For this 
 impious act he was punished by being transformed into a mountain, 
 ever since known by his name Tumu-aki. Another consequence 
 of his breach of the tapii was that Tamatea never found his wives, 
 and, so the story goes, the best parts of the enchanted greenstone 
 into which they were changed is often found to be spoilt by flaws 
 known as ttitae koka, the dung of the bird which the slave was 
 cooking when he licked his burnt finger. 
 
 From Haimona Tuakau, a very intelligent native of the North 
 Island who spent many years at Arahura, Hohonu and other 
 places on the west coast of the South Island, and knew a great 
 deal about greenstone. Canon Stack ascertained the following 
 particulars respecting the native names of various kinds of 
 poiinamii and their respective colours. Kahotea is stone of a dark 
 vivid green and is distinguished by the spots of black and brown 
 which diversify its colour. Kawakawa is stone of a pure rich 
 green colour, and is not spotted or veined with dark or light 
 markings. Auhii-nga is slightly paler than kaivakawa. Inanga has 
 a colour paler still, so that in parts it approaches grey or creamy 
 white. Aote.a, as its name implies, is of a cloudy white. 
 
 All of these are semi-opaque. Of a different quality, but most 
 valuable of all kinds of poimamii, is kahurangi, a translucent stone 
 of pale green. Of this there are two kinds, one entirely devoid of 
 markings, the other known by the whiteish streaks of the colour 
 of inanga which run through it. Kokotangiwai is a transparent 
 greenstone, soft and brittle, with characteristic markings having the
 
 CONCERNING POUNAMU. 17 
 
 appearance of drops of water enclosed within it.* These are the 
 principal varieties ; but the natives, with a keen eye for subtleties 
 of colour and quality, have invented names, such as fongarewa, 
 totoeka, korito, kutukutu, tuapaka and many others for the different 
 shades that are met with. Kohuwai, the name of a moss-like 
 water plant, is a term that is applied to nephrite in which similar 
 markings appear. 
 
 * See page 15 for the legend connected with this variety,
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 WORKING POUNAMU. 
 
 ROCKS have been discovered in various localities in New 
 Zealand whose surfaces are scored with deep grooves. 
 There the men of old were wont to perform the grinding 
 and rubbing processes whereby greenstone implements were 
 smoothed and made symmetrical. It is astonishing how well 
 formed and true in outline are these stone implements of the 
 Maori. The labour involved in their manufacture was enormous. 
 Weapons, tools and ornaments formed from rough pieces of 
 greenstone by appliances of the most primitive character, were 
 brought to a \ery high degree of finish by grinding them by 
 hand with pieces of rough sandstone, the work being expedited 
 by the use of sand- grit and water. The stone was sawn by 
 rubbing the edge of one slab with another, water being allowed 
 to drip continuously but slowly from a calabash hung above the 
 stone, a constant supply of the finest quartz sand being meanwhile 
 dropped into the groove by the workman. 
 
 The only mechanical appliance of which we have any 
 knowledge, that can safely be described as the invention of these 
 workers of stone, is the tuwiri, an implement used for boring holes. 
 Of this ingenious drill, with which the Maori were very expert, a 
 
 19
 
 20 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 Figure 2. 
 
 Specimen may be seen in the museum at Auckland. It consists, 
 
 as our illustration shews, of four parts. The 
 first is a rod of wood called the pou, about 
 two feet in length and three-quarters of an 
 inch in thickness, shewn upright in the 
 accompanying illustration. To the lower end 
 of the pou is fastened the boring point of 
 mata (obsidian), kiripapa (flint), or some 
 other hard stone, chipped to a rough point. 
 The pou passes through a hole in the middle 
 of the porotiti, a disk of heavy wood [maire 
 is that most often used) which is firmly 
 fastened to the pou at about one-third of its height, and serves 
 the purpose of increasing by its weight the momentum of the im- 
 plement. The kurupae, that is, the cross-piece shewn in Figure 2, 
 is a shaped piece of wood, twenty inches long and two inches 
 wide in the middle, where there is a hole through which the pou 
 passes, fitting loosely. The aho is a cord of plaited fibre fastened 
 to the top of the pott and having its two ends tied to either 
 extremity of the kurupae, which thus is held at right angles to 
 the pou. 
 
 The method of operating the drill is as follows : — the 
 boring point at the lower end of the rod being placed upon the 
 spot where a hole is to be made, the cross-piece is twirled round 
 until the cord, now twisted about the upper part of the upright 
 rod, raises the cross-piece up the rod, up which it slides easily. 
 A dovv^nward pressure of the operator's hand upon the cross-piece 
 now causes it to slide back down the rod, unwinding the 
 cord as it descends. The rotation thus given, which is both 
 increased and controlled by the heavy disk, causes the cord
 
 WORKING POUNAMU. 21 
 
 to wind round the rod in the opposite direction and a<»ain to 
 raise the horizontal cross-piece. The operator's hand constantly 
 resting upon the cross-piece, exercises pressure only in a downward 
 direction. Sand and water are employed to increase the cutting 
 power of the boring point, which needs frequent renewal or 
 reohipping, and the boring is done from alternate sides of the 
 stone operated upon until a hole is pierced. 
 
 In light work, such for instance as grooving an eardrop, 
 only one hand would be placed upon the kurupae, but in the 
 heavier work required for boring a patu or stone club, pressure 
 is exercised by both hands in order to give additional force to the 
 boring point. 
 
 Another and more primitive drill consisted of a wooden rod 
 pointed with a small piece of basalt or obsidian and weighted 
 with two heavy stones lashed to opposite sides of it. A string 
 attached to the other end of the rod caused it to revolve, and a 
 piece of perforated wood placed upon the object kept the point 
 of the instrument continually in the same spot. 
 
 Canon Stack, in 1879, obtained from Henare Tawha, a 
 Ngaitahu chief who lived at Wairewa, some interesting particulars 
 about the working of greenstone, and the other tools used by the 
 native craftsmen. The father of the chief was Te Pi, a skilful 
 maker of weapons, tools and ornaments of pounamu, who lived at 
 Taumutu, where a great many people were employed in this 
 manufacture. The stone was brought on men's backs from the 
 west coast over the ranges by way of the Kaniere pass. The 
 tools employed by these workers were as follows : — 
 
 Kuru was a hammer of greenstone, rather larger than a 
 man's head, with which great blocks of pounamu were broken up, 
 grooves being first made in the blocks by friction with kiripaka
 
 22 POUNAMU. 
 
 or mica schist in order to control the direction of the fractures. 
 Hoanga was the stone used for cutting and pohshing. Parihi 
 kohatii was a sharp fragment of kara^ which seems to be a 
 generic term for trap or any other hard stone. Pirori was the 
 name given by Mr. Stack's informant to the drill. 
 
 Many of the Maori weapons were made by old men who were 
 past the age for serving as warriors. The war-adze, however, 
 which, as will be seen later, was a special emblem of chieftainship, 
 was made by no one but chiefs, who, being themselves tapu 
 conferred a certain sacredness on this particular weapon.
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 GREENSTONE IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 THE principal mechanical tools of the iMaori of the old days 
 were toki or stone adzes (Figure 3), of which the most 
 highly prized were made of greenstone. It is convenient 
 to describe these tools as adzes inasmuch as they were helved 
 in the same way as our adzes ; 
 but with the important distinc- 
 tion that the Maori never 
 inserted the handle in the 
 stone head, but always lashed 
 the head to the helve. Toki 
 were of various kinds and 
 sizes, each being known by 
 its own particular name. Mr. 
 Elsdon Best enumerates four 
 kinds : — ngao pae, the large 
 heavy tool for roughing out 
 work ; ngao tu, an adze of 
 medium size ; ngao matariki, 
 a small finishing tool ; and 
 toki whakaran^ the smallest 
 of the set, used for giving 
 the final smoothness to the 
 
 surface. Figure 3. 
 
 23
 
 24 POUNAMU. 
 
 With the largest toki trees of great size were felled, but 
 the process was naturally tedious and lengthy. Maning, writing in 
 Old New Zealand, says : " With rude and blunt stones they felled 
 the giant kauri — toughest of pines ; and from it, in process of 
 time, at an expense of labour, perseverance, and ingenuity, perfectly 
 astounding to those who knew what it really was — produced, 
 carved, painted, and inlaid, a masterpiece of art, and an object of 
 beauty — the war canoe, capable of carrying a hundred men on 
 a distant expedition, through the boisterous seas surrounding 
 their island." 
 
 Spells (karakia) were pronounced over the larger toki which 
 were used for felling and working timber intended for the 
 making of canoes or the timbers of an important house, in order 
 that they might do the work effectually and that no harm might 
 happen to the work, the workers or the material. In a somewhat 
 similar way a workman when beginning to whakarau or smooth 
 the surface of a canoe would cast a small stone into it to save 
 his knowledge of the art of timber-working from being lost. 
 
 Many of the toki of the old Maori had special names given to 
 them and are famous in song and legend. In at least one case a 
 noted weapon changed hands to mark the transfer of land. When 
 in 1856 the land hitherto in the possession of the Maori was sold 
 at Waikawa, to European settlers, the chief, Ropoama Te One, 
 addressed the commissioners in these words as he struck into 
 the ground at their feet a greenstone adze: — "Now that we 
 have for ever launched this land into the sea, we hereby make 
 over to you this axe, Pae whenua, always highly prized because 
 we regained it in battle after it had been used to kill two of 
 our most famous chiefs. Money vanishes and is lost, but this 
 greenstone shall endure as a lasting witness of our act that the
 
 GREENSTONE IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 25 
 
 land itself which now is ours has been on this day transferred 
 to you for ever." 
 
 Mr. James Cowan has preserved a tradition of a famous adze 
 which was regarded as the abiding place of a spirit and possessing 
 a special niana of its own. This implement, named Papataunaki, 
 was the property of one Rua three centuries ago. 
 
 4^j|^ 
 
 Figure 4. 
 
 A very curious adze-head (Figure 4) was exhibited in London 
 in 1910. It was formed from a tiki* ^ the head of which had 
 
 See Chapter VI.
 
 26 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 been ground Bat and sharpened to a cutting edge. The rest of 
 the ornament had been but Httle interfered with, and still shewed 
 the form of the body, arms and legs. It was evident that the 
 owner or captor of the tiki had had more need for a cutting tool 
 than for an ornament, while the piercings of the tiki thus altered 
 would conveniently serve to aid the lashing of the tool to its 
 helve. There is strong presumption that toki of the ordinary 
 form were sometimes pierced with a view to facilitate the lashing 
 of them to their helves. 
 
 Another kind of greenstone toki, of small size and thin in 
 section, was the war-adze (Figure 5) to which the names toki pou 
 
 tangata, toki honu pou and toki wha- 
 whao pou were given. It is said that 
 this tool was sometimes used for fine 
 wood- carving ; but its normal use was 
 ceremonial. It was carried by chiefs 
 ,.;^ as a token of chieftainship either in 
 the belt or in the hand when speech- 
 making ; sometimes it was used in 
 battle as a convenient weapon to dis- 
 patch a fallen foe. Its handle was 
 less than two feet in length, and was 
 adorned with elaborate carving at both 
 ends, the flax cord lashing of the 
 blade being often ornamented with 
 brightly coloured feathers or dog's 
 hair. A loop of cord which went 
 through a hole at the butt end of the 
 handle was passed round the wrist of 
 the holder to save him from losing the precious token.
 
 GREENSTONE IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 27 
 
 Ml'. Polack, writing* in 1885, speaks of the war-adze as an 
 uncommon weapon, and tells of the difficulty that he had found 
 in gettino a specimen from an aged /ohiui^a, or priest. 
 
 John Rutherford, a sailor who had been for nearly ten years 
 
 Figure 6. 
 
 a captive in the hands of the Maori, was sent by the natives, 9th 
 January, 1826, to decoy an English ship to land in order that 
 they might plunder it. "I was then dressed," he says, "in a 
 feathered cloak, belt and turban, and armed with a battle-axe, the 
 head of which was formed of a stone w^iich resembled green 
 glass, but was so hard as to turn the heaviest blow of the hardest
 
 28 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 steel. The handle was of dark black wood, handsomely carved 
 and adorned with feathers." Rutherford failed his hosts in every 
 particular. He not only warned the English sailors of their 
 danger, but being taken off by the ship, a free man but no 
 longer a Maori chief, he made a present of the ceremonial dress 
 
 ,-^^f' 
 
 f 
 
 \ 
 
 A 
 
 W 
 
 B. 
 
 Figure 7. 
 
 C. 
 
 and the war-adze to Captain Johnson, the commander of the ship 
 which took him back to freedom and civilization. 
 
 A war-adze, similar, no doubt, to that which was entrusted to 
 Rutherford, is illustrated in Figure 6 from a drawing by the Author. 
 
 It was only rarely that the Maori used tools or weapons 
 shaped like our axes, and the reason is obvious. The greenstone 
 never being drilled or cut to receive the tool handle, an axe with
 
 GREENSTONE IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 29 
 
 its edge parallel with the line of the handle was an impossibility, 
 and an axe-like tool made by lashing the stone head to the side 
 of the handle would be clumsy and ineffective. 
 
 Captain Cook remarking that " without the use of any metal 
 tools they make everything," mentions " the chisel and goudge of 
 green serpent stone or jasper." These were set in handles of hard 
 wood to which they were attached with flax cord. The illustration 
 (Figure 7) on page 28 shews at A. a chisel [puriipuru) now in 
 the British Museum. A greenstone drill with a facetted point, 
 used for making the holes by which the top strakes of war 
 canoes were lashed, is shewn at B. A gouge is represented at 
 C. in the same drawing. 
 
 Chisel work and extraordi- 
 nary skill with it produced 
 those masterpieces of wood 
 carving of the Maori which 
 are to be seen in their 
 houses and gates, their war 
 canoes and their monuments. 
 Sir George Grey gave a 
 remarkable instance of the 
 pride of the native wood-carvers when he told how chiefs who 
 had been late for an appointment with him, though he was the 
 kawana, that is, the governor, excused themselves by explaining 
 that they had been engrossed with their chisels. 
 
 Barbs made of greenstone and lashed to curved pieces of wood 
 to serve as fish hooks are not common ; two specimens, now in the 
 British Museum, are illustrated in Figure 8. They were hard to 
 make and easy to lose, and the material was too valuable to risk 
 when bone, wood and shell answered as well for the purpose. 
 
 Figure 8.
 
 30 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 Mr. Elsdon Best, speaking in his Forest Lore of bird-spears, 
 says " seldom were greenstone points used, they were very rare." 
 
 Figure 9 shews an implement which is 
 possibly the point of a bird-spear. 
 
 There is a tradition of one that belonged 
 to Tamatea-kai-taharua, who flourished about 
 250 years ago. It is said that one day when 
 hunting he speared a pigeon, and the point 
 becoming detached from his weapon the bird 
 flew away with it sticking in its body. The 
 agile hunter is said to have followed the 
 wounded pigeon for fifty miles before he 
 recovered his tara pounamu; and men still point 
 to Tara Pounamu hill, so named in memory of 
 the event, as proof of the truth of the tale. 
 
 Other implements such as wedges, cutting 
 tools, circular knives, rasps with worn edges 
 that have been used in sawing blocks of stone, 
 burnishers and even needles, are to be seen in 
 museums among collections of articles made 
 of this wonderful stone. 
 
 Figure 9.
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 CONCERNING WAR-CLUBS. 
 
 DEAR to the heart of the Neolithic Maori was the mere, or 
 as it is sometimes called, patu pounainu, the war-club of 
 greenstone which was the principal emblem of chieftain- 
 ship, and the most valuable of all objects made of the New Zea- 
 land nephrite. It took so many years of careful and patient toil 
 to bring a war-club to the desired condition of finish, that it became 
 an heirloom, and it was considered to hold the luck of the tribe. 
 Tales bordering on the supernatural gathered about famous mere. 
 Chiefs were incited to acts of reckless bravery, young warriors 
 were roused to deeds of valour by those memorials of past 
 struggles ; and European observers have ever been impressed by 
 the extraordinary influence which appeared to reside in these 
 prized weapons. The Rev. \V. Yate, one of the early missionaries 
 to New Zealand, told that " the 7nere was made of green talc in 
 the shape of a beaver's tail. This is the only native weapon 
 which has not been laid aside by the chiefs ; it was a mark of 
 distinction (carried) under their outer garment or suspended to 
 their girdle. The finest of these beautiful specimens of native 
 workmanship descend from father to son, and for scarcely any 
 consideration are they ever parted with. Pieces of pounamii suit- 
 able for a chief's mere were of a value which can hardly be 
 realized by us in the present time. No weapon of warfare was 
 
 31
 
 32 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 more affectionately regarded than these legacies of ancestors, and 
 to take one in battle was like capturing a colour with us." 
 
 The conventional shape of this weapon, which never varied, is 
 shown in Figure 10. 
 
 Figure 10. 
 
 The mere is an oval-bladed weapon, in length from about 14 
 to 16 inches, flattened on both sides and having a double edge 
 to the blade, which diminishes with two subtle curves to end in 
 almost imperceptible shoulders at the handle, as is shewn in 
 greater detail in Figure 11. 
 
 Figure 11. 
 
 This swells out again to the butt or pommel, called reke, which 
 has some simple decoration such as the concentric grooves shewn 
 in the example illustrated above. 
 
 One of the mere in the British Museum collection has the 
 butt carved with the partially finished head of a manaia* but 
 
 * See Chapter V. page 42.
 
 CONCERNING WAR-CLUBS. 33 
 
 it was not usual for the maker to put anything more than the 
 simplest ornament on these weapons, nor at any part of it except 
 the reke. 
 
 Between the butt and the handle is a hole for the thong, 
 or loop of strong cord. The hand was passed through the loop ; 
 a few turns of the club caused the cord to close upon the holder's 
 wrist, and the mere being grasped just forward of the reke the 
 warrior was ready for battle or palaver. That was theoretically 
 its use ; but more often the thumb or fingers only were inserted 
 in the loop of the thong, so that the wielder of the club might 
 be in less danger of being dragged off his balance by an enemy 
 who could successfully grasp the blade of it. 
 
 The mere^ being a short weapon, was usually carried thrust in 
 the belt. In time of war weapons shared in the tapu with which 
 the warriors were imbued, and mere, being thus themselves 
 tapu, were always carefully guarded. 
 
 Though mere are commonly spoken of as " war-clubs," they 
 are actually stabbing and cutting weapons, and the only blow^s 
 given with them were thrusts and sweeping cuts. If the blow was 
 a forward stab in an enemy's face or ribs, it was called tipi ; a 
 back-handed lunge was named ripi. With this weapon prisoners 
 were slain by the chief before their bodies went into the oven. 
 The thrust was given into the temple of the doomed men, and 
 with a sharp turn of the wrist the top of the head was jerked 
 open. It was with a patu that, after one of his victories, 
 Te Wherowhero, father of the chief Potatau, who was proclaimed 
 king of the Maori nation in 1858, slew two hundred and fifty 
 prisoners of war. Hochstetter describes this weapon, made from 
 a piece of beautiful transparent nephrite which was shewn to him 
 by the chief's successor, and tells that a notch in the edge was
 
 34 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 caused by the last fatal blow struck at a hard skull. Another 
 renowned greenstone weapon, known as Hau Kapua, was 
 surrendered to the Government of New Zealand at the end of 
 the late war. 
 
 Enormous care was taken to preserve famous mere from loss 
 or accidental damage. Hamilton, in his Maori Art, gives illustra- 
 tions of two wooden boxes, 22 and 25 inches in length respectively, 
 covered with carving of the most elaborate and intricate designs 
 of mythological figures and distorted monsters, which he pronounced 
 to have been used as receptacles for noble weapons. 
 
 If by chance a mere should be broken the precious fragments 
 were carefully preserved in order that they might be made into 
 tools, implements or ornaments according to their size. Figure 12 
 shews an adze-head made from a broken mere. 
 
 Much might be written about famous 
 mere and the mark that they made in 
 Maori history ; and books on New Zealand 
 and the native race will be found to 
 contain many tales about these weapons 
 and their owners. 
 
 The famous chief Te Heuheu was 
 overwhelmed with all his people, save one 
 man, on 7th May, 1846. His mere was one 
 of the most celebrated in New Zealand. 
 Years afterwards a hundred men were 
 employed to dig at the place of the 
 catastrophe, and they worked with such 
 diligence and care that the mere was 
 eventually found, and is still in the 
 possession of the tribe. 
 
 Figure 12.
 
 CONCERNING WAR-CLUBS. 35 
 
 War-clubs were generally buried with the chiefs, but were 
 seldom allowed to remain permanently in the grave. Other 
 articles of value might be allowed to stay in the earth ; but the 
 mere^ being the principal badge of leadership, was recovered when 
 the dead chief's bones were taken up for the second burial. It is 
 well known that many mere have been hidden in the North Island, 
 and in some cases subsequent mortality in the tribe has obliter- 
 ated all knowledge of the hiding places. 
 
 Occasionally tnere that had been lost were found and recognized 
 to the great joy of the tribe. In 1864, just after the Gate Pa affair, 
 a soldier of the 68th Light Infantry, one of a burial party at the 
 cemetery at Te Papa, near Tauranga, came across a long buried 
 greenstone mere, which he shewed to a party of Maori passing 
 the spot in a canoe. They at once landed and claimed it at head- 
 quarters, on the ground that it had belonged to one of their 
 famous chiefs interred at that place ; and the English commander 
 gave it up without demur, as was tika or correct. 
 
 A Maori warrior, faced with violent death, would elect to be 
 killed by a patu rangatira, a chief's patu, and would calmly await 
 the death stroke, content to be despatched to reinga, the next 
 world, even with his own good mere, comforted by the knowledge 
 that it was no mean weapon that touched his proud head. Mr. 
 Elsdon Best, in Notes on the Art of War, tells how a chief named 
 Potiki pursued his enemy Kahu and ran down the fugitive, who 
 was burdened by the weight of his child. But when Potiki 
 raised his hatchet to slay his enemy, Kahu cried " Let me not 
 be slain with a one-edged hatchet," and drawing his own good 
 greenstone mere, Te Heketua, from his belt he surrendered it to 
 Potiki, saying, " Here is the weapon to slay me with. Let me
 
 36 POUNAMU. 
 
 feel the softness of its stroke." And the chivah'ous chief, not to 
 be outdone in courtesy, forebore to kill him, and giving his own 
 patiti to the conquered foe, bade him take it and go in peace with 
 his child. 
 
 During the intertribal wars a leader of the Ngai Tai was 
 slain by the Whakatohea who cut up the body, the head falling 
 to the share of the Ngati Rua tribe. At a later time the Ngai 
 Tai redeemed the head, giving a mere named Wawahi Rangi in 
 exchange for it. 
 
 The longest mere in the British Museum belonged to Te 
 Hiko-o-te-rangi, son of the chief Te Pehi, who visited England in 
 1826. The name of this weapon is Tuhi-wai. Another historic 
 mere in the same collection is Papa-tahi, which was once in the 
 possession of Rauparaha. Both were presented by Sir George 
 Grey. Unfortunately they were injured in a fire that occurred 
 at Government House, Auckland, while he owned them. 
 
 Another famous patu was Piwari, formerly the property of 
 Ripa, one of the chiefs of the Bay of Islands. In Canon Stack's 
 Kaiapohia mention is made of Te Kaoreore, the greenstone patu 
 of a chief named Te Aratangata, who in a very fierce fight 
 against a hostile tribe did great execution with it till it broke, 
 leaving only the handle in his hand. Seven other northern chiefs 
 who had been driving bargains in greenstone fell on that day in 
 the same pa- 
 There is something of simple and touching dignity in the 
 story of the first presentation of a mere by a Maori chief to 
 the King of England. H.M.S. Buffalo, Captain Sadler, came 
 to New Zealand in 1834 to buy kauri spars for the British 
 Navy. When the English officer had accomplished his mission,
 
 CONCERNING WAR-CLUBS. 37 
 
 Titore, chief of the Ngapuhi, sent a message to King WiUiam IV. 
 of which the following is a translation : — 
 
 " King William. Here am I, the friend of Captain Sadler, 
 The ship is full and is now about to sail. 1 have heard that 
 you aforetime were the captain of a ship. Do you therefore 
 examine the spars, whether they are good, or whether they are 
 bad. Should you and the French quarrel here are some trees 
 for your warships. 1 am now beginning to think about a ship 
 for myself. A native canoe is my vessel, and I have nothing 
 else. The native canoes upset when they are filled with potatoes 
 and other matters for your people. I have put on board the 
 'Buffalo' a greenstone war -club and two garments. These are 
 all the things which New Zealanders possess. If I had anything 
 better I would give it to Captain Sadler for you. This is all 
 mine to you — mine — Titore to William, King of England." 
 
 In due course a letter of thanks was sent to Titore by the 
 Earl of Aberdeen, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, 
 together with a present from the king, "a suit of armour, such 
 as was worn in former times by his warriors, but which is now 
 only used by his own bodyguard." This armour is now in the 
 Dominion Museum at Wellington. 
 
 "A good mere poutiauiu," says Maning in his Old New 
 Zealand, " would be a temptation. I had once a mere, a present 
 from a Maori friend, the most beautiful thing of the kind ever 
 seen. It was nearly as transparent as glass; in it there were 
 beautiful marks like fern-leaves, trees, fishes, and — I would not give 
 much for a person who could not see almost anything in it. 
 Never shall I cease to regret having parted with it. The Emperor 
 of Brazil, I think, has it now ; but he does not know the proper
 
 ^8 POUNAMA. 
 
 use of it. It vsent to the Minister long ago. I did not sell 
 it; I would have scorned to do that; but I did expect to be 
 made knight of the golden pig knife, or elephant and watch box, 
 or something of that nature."
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS. 
 
 ^¥ AHE Maori possessed a remarkable variety of ornaments, of 
 I great diversity of form, motif and size ; for in spite of 
 
 the dangers and the difficulties which attended the 
 acquisition of greenstone, there were very few natives of either 
 island who did not possess something made of it. All such orna- 
 ments were worn by men and women alike, suspended from a 
 cord which passed through a hole bored through the stone at 
 the top, either at the neck, or hanging from the lobes of the ears, 
 or as long pendants to adorn the cloak. 
 
 The most common ornaments were the straight cylindrical 
 ear-pendants called kiirii, and straight Hat pieces of stone, to 
 which the name whakakai was given. But simple pendants of 
 this kind were of all sorts of shapes, the form depending on the 
 size and shape of the fragment of stone at the artist's disposal. 
 Ornaments of this simple type were noticed by Captain Cook, 
 who remarks that " in the ears both of men and women, which 
 are pierced or rather slit, are hung small pieces of jasper." The 
 great variety of their shapes, which is shewn in Figure 13, is no 
 doubt due to the fact that the greenstone was so highly prized 
 that any small fragment of it which could not be utilised in any 
 
 39
 
 40 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 other way would be treasured and adapted, no matter what its 
 shape might be. 
 
 Figure 13 
 
 But many of the Maori ornaments were of far more elabo- 
 rate character. The most important of the ear-ornaments was 
 
 * A ♦ 
 
 ^I^J^W^^t^ , 
 
 /. 
 
 Figure 14. 
 
 the pekapeka (Figure 14), or bat, so called from its fancied resem- 
 blance to that animal. It was worked, with the figures rounded
 
 GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS. 
 
 41 
 
 on both sides, into a conventional representation of two bird- 
 headed snakes, the mythological inanaia*, placed back to back. 
 
 Figure 15. 
 
 Figure 15 is an illustration of a carved piece of greenstone 
 now preserved in the University Museum at Cambridge, which 
 will be seen to have a great likeness to the pekapeka shewn in 
 Figure 14. It is, however, obviously a representation of a single 
 nianaia. 
 
 Figure 16- 
 
 The remarkable pendant illustrated in Figure 16 is worked on 
 both sides in the form of a bird-headed monster, the leg having 
 
 *The esoteric meaning of this symbol is lost, and will probably never be discovered. It 
 is suggested, however, that it may perhaps have some connection with the ancient religion of 
 India. It is at least a coincidence that the Maori symbolical group of two iiiaitaias pecking at 
 a god is paralleled by Vishu peeked by his sacred bird Garnda. Ari was one name of Vishnu, 
 and the ariori mummery of Tahiti bears a strong resemblance to a degraded form of Vishnu 
 worship. It is remarkable, too, that the eleventh day of the moon was in India sacred to Ari, 
 while the Maori name for the eleventh night of the moon is ari.
 
 42 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 two claws. It is clearly a variant of the same type of ornament ; 
 but it presents a daring departure from the usual form, very un- 
 common in the work of the Maori, who were slaves to traditional 
 
 conventions. 
 
 The single manaia was usually fashioned in the spiral form 
 illustrated from two actual examples in Figure 17. 
 
 4p-®|l^ 
 
 Figure 17. 
 
 This malignant spirit, which figures in so many ancient carvings 
 of the Maori, is commonly shewn attacking man and viciously 
 biting his ear or body. A small carved pendant (Figure 18) 
 in the British Museum represents the head of a manaia. 
 
 Figure 18. 
 
 In Figure 19 is shewn the mako, which was a very popular 
 ornament, highly valued as a keepsake. It is a representation
 
 GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS. 
 
 43 
 
 of a shark's tooth with its root, the graceful curves of 
 the orii^inal beini* faithfull\ copied. When correctly worn 
 
 it hun<4 from tlie ear with 
 the point to the front The 
 natural white tooth of the 
 shark was also much prized 
 as an ornament, but its in- 
 feriority to a jewel of kahu- 
 rangi, jade of the finest 
 quality, is recognised in a 
 native poem which has been translated as follows : — 
 
 Figure 19. 
 
 That is worthless, 
 
 That is the bone of a fish ; 
 But if it were the little pounamu, 
 
 That ancient source of evil, 
 
 The fame whereof reaches 
 Beyond the limits of the sky — eh ! 
 
 /^ V 
 
 The porta (Figure 20), otherwise called inoria, was a 
 small double ring of round or oval section, made for the leg 
 of a decoy or the large russet 
 brown parrots {nestor meridion- 
 alis) called kaka, which were 
 kept as pets by the Maori. 
 Through the smaller ring shewn 
 at the top of the two examples 
 here figured, was passed the 
 
 cord by which the bird was Figure 20. 
 
 secured to its perch. 
 
 L^^^J>^
 
 44 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 The kapeu or tautau (Figure 21) was a 
 long eardrop of oval section, straight for the 
 greater part of its length, but having a slight 
 curve at its lower end. The difficulty of 
 cutting this ornament was much increased by 
 its pecuhar shape, which is believed to be 
 suggested by that of a face-strigil. An 
 unusually long and very valuable specimen, 
 called by the ancient name of Tikirau, was 
 given to the Hon. Victor Alexander Herbert Huia 
 Onslow, the second son of the fifth Earl of 
 Onslow, on the occasion of his presentation 
 to the Ngatihuia tribe at Otaki, 12th Septem- 
 ber, 1891, Huia's father being at that time 
 Governor of New Zealand. 
 
 Some years ago a very ancient green- 
 stone ear-drop came into the possession of 
 the Author. This ornament, which is of con- 
 siderable value on account of its age and 
 beautiful workmanship, was sent to him from 
 New Zealand by an aged chief against whom 
 ^ he had fought in the Maori wars. The touching letter that 
 accompanied the gift, with its pathetic mingling of the musical 
 native language and prosaic matter-of-fact English phrasing, 
 shewed that with the lapse of years the old antagonism had 
 completely passed away, and the gallant and honourable foe 
 of the old days had become a loyal citizen of the Empire. 
 We make no apology for printing this interesting communica- 
 tion in full. 
 
 Figure 21.
 
 GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS. 45 
 
 Tauranga, New Zealand, 
 
 30 No%>., 1901. 
 
 Te Teniere Rope re. 
 E hoa, tena koe, 
 
 Kia ora koe. Ma te atua koe e tiaki. Heoi te mihi. I have 
 
 received your letter of 12th October, and my heart is exceedingly 
 
 glad. Of all your old friends mentioned in your letter I alone 
 
 am left ; all are gone. When the Duke of Cornwall came to 
 
 Rotorua I was presented to him, and as the chief of the Bay 
 
 of Plenty tribes received a medal in honor of his visit, and, on 
 
 behalf of the natives generally, would now like to express their 
 
 extreme pleasure at the royal visit. I am now^ an old man and 
 
 am unable to say all I would wish to say to you ; but 1 am 
 
 sending you by this mail a pounamu whakakai e mati ana ki te 
 
 taringa o te tangata, and I hope that you will w^ear it in 
 
 remembrance of the old days when we fought together side by 
 
 side. 
 
 Heoi ano 
 
 Na^ tail hoa aroha 
 
 Na 
 
 HORI NGATAl.
 
 46 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 The hei* niafaii (Figure 22) is a neck ornament with the 
 
 general shape of 
 a fish-hook, but 
 made in a large 
 variety of shapes 
 and sizes. Spells 
 were recited over 
 them, and they 
 seem to have 
 been regarded as 
 charms to ensure 
 Figure 22. succcss in sea- 
 
 fishing. It has been suggested that the hook form commemorates 
 
 Fij.iire 23. 
 * For the signiKcance of the word liei thus prefixed to a .Maori word see page 55
 
 GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS. 
 
 47 
 
 the drawing up of the North Island from the depths of Wainui, 
 the mother of waters, by the demi-god Maui, a legend that 
 is current also among the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific. 
 A very curious matau is shewn in Figure 23, which illus- 
 trates one in the British Museum. It is evident that it was the 
 first intention of the carver to make a tiki (see Chapter VI.) of 
 
 the piece of stone from which it is fashioned; the artist, how- 
 ever, changed his mind before he got to work on the upper part. 
 The oldest matau, of which a typical example, preserved 
 in the University Museum at Cambridge, is shewn in Figure 24, 
 are to be recognized by their rude workmanship and coarse 
 form, as well as by the rough edges, which indicate an early 
 period when the native lapidaries had not attained to the high
 
 48 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 pitch of excellence in the art of cutting and grinding green- 
 stone which they afterwards reached. 
 
 Mention may also be made here of two curious pendants of 
 
 eel-like form (Figure 25), now in the 
 Dominion Museum of New Zealand. 
 Possibly they were charms for eel- 
 fishing. They are made of different 
 qualities of greenstone. That to the 
 right of the illustration, which is bored, 
 is of fine translucent kahurangi. 
 
 This list only gives the most im- 
 portant of these trinkets, which were. so 
 highly prized that, as Mr. Elsdon Best 
 records, during the wars of Ruatoki a 
 man's life was redeemed by the gift to 
 his captor of a greenstone ear-ornament. 
 It would be difficult to describe and 
 to figure the many curious shapes into 
 which pieces of stone were ground and 
 fashioned. Figure 26 shews one of cres- 
 cent form. It is perhaps an amulet, 
 although its inner edge, which is 
 
 sharpened, suggests a scraper or a 
 cutting tool ; but the little pierced pro- 
 jection on its upper side shews that it 
 was designed to be worn as a pendant. 
 'w Figure 27 shews another of somewhat 
 similar form from the Island of Ruapuke 
 
 in Foveaux Straits, made of a fine fragment of translucent stone. 
 
 Some ornaments shaped as the barbs of fish-hooks have been 
 
 Figure 25. 
 
 Figure 26.
 
 GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS. 
 
 49 
 
 found; an example is illustrated in Figure 13. It may be 
 stated as a general rule that the larger ornaments were hung 
 from the neck, while those of smaller size were used as 
 ear-drops. 
 
 Favourite pendants, like famous implements and weapons, 
 were distinguished by having names given to them, and some, 
 of course, are very ancient. One mentioned by Mr. James Cowan 
 
 ■^ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 x-^- 
 
 Figure 27. 
 
 is said to have been fashioned from a piece of the greenstone 
 taken by Ngahue to Hawaiki and brought back to New Zealand 
 in the Arawa canoe when the islands w^ere settled at the 
 immigration. It was jealously preserved until quite recent times 
 when it was unfortunately lost by its wearer, a woman of 
 the Heuheu family, in the waters of Lake Taupo. Its name 
 w^as Kaukaumatua. 
 
 Now and again worked pieces of greenstone, ancient work 
 of the Maori, are discovered. Polack's prediction, made over half 
 
 D
 
 50 POUNAMU. 
 
 a century ago, that in future years many aboriginal curiosities 
 would be discovered by European colonists, has been fully 
 realised. It is at the Maori burying places that the most 
 important finds have been made; for, as we have already 
 seen, it has always been the custom of this people to bury with 
 their dead the favourite weapons, ornaments and tools which 
 their chiefs had held in high esteem. 
 
 %
 
 Chapter VI, 
 
 HEI-TIKL 
 
 THERE is one special class of ornaments which, from their 
 remarkable form, the extreme care lavished upon their 
 production and preservation, and the feeling almost 
 approaching veneration with which the Maori regarded them, 
 demand detailed notice. These are the hei-tiki, neck-ornaments, 
 c/ grotesquely shaped as male or female human figures, which were 
 worn by the Maori as memorials of specially dear relatives or 
 venerated ancestors. The illustration (Figure 28) given on the 
 next page is a full-sized drawing of a typical hei-tiki, shewing 
 the front and back of the ornament. 
 
 The wearing of tiki by the Maori was as common as that 
 of lockets among Europeans., and they were freely parted with 
 as gifts or in exchange unless the value of an individual specimen 
 consisted in the fact that it had been worn and handled by dead 
 relations. If that were the case, reverence for the ancestor 
 attached, as it were, to the ornament, which thereby became an 
 object to be treasured as oha or an heirloom. 
 
 Canon Stack considers that the custom of carving and 
 wearing hei-tiki was brought to their new home in New Zealand 
 
 51
 
 52 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 by the immigrants from Hawaiki. He notes how Maori art 
 deteriorated after the white man came to the country. He could 
 remember large tiki being worn by old Maori between 1840 and 
 1850; after the latter year they practically disappeared. Possibly 
 
 Figure 28. 
 
 the adoption by the natives of European clothing partly accounts 
 for the disuse of native ornaments. Certainly the acquisitiveness 
 of curio hunters hastened their disappearance. Anyhow the best 
 expression of Maori art is a thing of the past ; and though 
 countless copies and replicas have been made by lapidaries and 
 jewellers they lack the characteristic touch and skill of the old 
 workers and can never deceive a connoisseur. 
 
 A curious instance of the native reverence for their orna- 
 ments and their customs is recorded by Angus, who relates that
 
 HE1-TIKL 53 
 
 he saw a fiki on a child's f^rave which the fapu made absolutely 
 safe, although it would naturally be an object of envy and a prize 
 easily to be secured by anyone who passed the spot. 
 
 It is agreed by all students of Maori art that tiki were not 
 representations of deities. As early as 1830 Mr. Yate, the 
 missionary, who was an industrious collector of native lore, had 
 come to this conclusion ; and Canon Stack, whose earliest 
 recollections of New Zealand date from the year 1840, maintains 
 that the tiki " did not represent a god, but the spirit of a deceased 
 relative. It was worn," he says, "to keep in memory some beloved 
 one, for the same reason that our ladies wear lockets containing 
 the likenesses of those who had passed into the other world." 
 
 The same authority considers that all tiki, whether of wood 
 or stone, were purposely made grotesque, because the artist 
 wished to show that these objects of his skill were not represen- 
 tations of living human beings but symbolical memorials of the 
 dead. The Maori never attempted to copy the human form and 
 features exactly ; perhaps they had not the requisite artistic skill 
 to enable them to do so ; nor did they ever make statues or 
 other representations of living men. Their carved figures were 
 made to preserve the memory of deceased relatives or in honour 
 of some god ; not that they worshipped the effigy, e\en if it 
 were that of a god; it was merely a symbol of the unseen. 
 They seem to have believed, however, that a spiritual being 
 could, when rightly invoked, enter into the image made to 
 represent it and in some way manifest its presence to the person 
 invoking it. 
 
 The Maori themselves declare that these figures were 
 deliberately made imperfect, and are not to be regarded as like- 
 nesses of ancestors. Any harm, therefore, which might happen
 
 54 POUNAMA. 
 
 to the figure or any insLilt offered to it, could not liarm the spirit 
 of the deceased. Mr. Polack says " The most valued ornament 
 that has stood the test of many generations is the tiki, made of 
 the potuiamu or green serpent-stone in the form of a distorted 
 monster. There is no reason given for the otitre shape in which 
 this figure is invariably made Gods or lares are not in this 
 land ; and they are equally unlike departed friends, for the 
 resemblance is neither like anything above the earth or perhaps 
 beneath the waters. These ornaments stand paramount in public 
 estimation ; the original cause of their manufacture is forgotten." 
 
 The Maori themselves have lost any traditional knowledge 
 that they may once have possessed of the origin of these remark- 
 able objects ; and it is unfortunate that the old priests who knew 
 the symbolic meaning of these figures have all passed away. The 
 Maori who now pose as authorities are untrustworthy. They 
 are at best theorists and less likely to theorize correctly than 
 Europeans, because of their limited knowledge. For while the 
 knowledge of the white man ranges over the whole race, that of 
 the native New Zealander is confined to customs and practices 
 of the particular family or tribe to which he belongs. 
 
 Perhaps in its origin the tiki was a symbol of an ancient 
 creed or a representation of a being worshipped in some long 
 forgotten religion, and its persistent retention of its archaic form 
 would seem to lend support to this theory. Some students, 
 observing the superstitious dread which the Maori have of the spirits 
 of unborn children, consider that the doubled-up attitude of the 
 tiki is suggested by that of the human foetus, and that the ornament, 
 in its original intention, was a talisman to guard the wearer 
 against the maleficent influence of those spirits. Others believe 
 it to be possible that the curious compressed appearance which
 
 HEI-TIKI. 55 
 
 the tiki presents may be remotely connected with the custom of 
 doubHng up the corpse which obtained in many ancient burial 
 customs."*^ However that may be the tiki had among the Maori 
 no religious significance. iMr. Yate refers to this theory only to 
 demolish it. It was held, he acknowledges, by the earliest 
 European settlers, who observed that when a few Maori friends 
 met together they were accustomed to lay a hei-tiki ceremoniously 
 on a leaf or tuft of grass in the middle of the assembled people 
 while they wept and sang dirges over it. It was addressed by 
 the name of its late possessor, those present weeping and caress- 
 ing it with loving gestures, and cutting themselves deeply and 
 c/^everely in token of the regard which they bore to the deceased. 
 But this, he declares, was only done to bring more vividly 
 to mind the dead person to whom the liei-tiki had once belonged. 
 These ornaments, he states emphatically, were preserved and 
 worn in remembrance of the dead, not only of the ancestors who 
 last wore them, but of all those in whose possession they 
 had been. 
 
 The noun hei means neck ; but when conjoined with another 
 noun it has an adjectival force as is shewn in the native lullaby: — 
 
 Taku hei piripiri — my necklace of scented moss ; 
 
 Taku hei inokimoki — my necklace of fragrant fern ; 
 
 Taku hei tawhiri — my necklace of odorous shrubs ; 
 
 Taku kati taramea — my sweet locket of taramea. 
 Tiki are cut from a single piece of greenstone, and var\- in 
 length from two to eight inches. They are carved on the front 
 side with rude representations of the face, neck, arms, body and 
 legs. The back is usually plain (see Figure 28), shewing only 
 the piercings which shape the limbs and the reverse side of the 
 
 * cf. Hewitt. Primitive Traditional History, pp. 216-218, 377-389.
 
 56 POUNAMU. 
 
 hole bored in the upper part of the figure for the purpose of 
 suspension. Tiki worked on the back as well as the front are 
 very rare. One of these is in the Ethnological Collection at the 
 British Museum, where it is exhibited on a raised stand placed 
 above a mirror, to shew the carving on its back. 
 
 The face of the figure is consistently of conventional form, 
 with a curious raised band or ridge down the forehead, branch- 
 ing to the eyes and continued as the nose, where it again 
 branches into strongly marked and acutely arched nostrils. The 
 eyes are shewn as little circular shallow pits under heavy over- 
 hanging brows. In the more ancient tiki, as was noticed by 
 Captain Cook, the whites of the eyes (Figure 30) were repre- 
 sented by pierced disks of the irridiscent paua 
 shell, which are sometimes marked with serra- 
 ted edges, apparently to represent eyelashes. 
 When in the middle of the nineteenth century 
 objects of European manufacture began to be 
 introduced by traders it was found that red sealing 
 wax* had a peculiar fascination for the Maori, 
 who often used it to fill the eyes of tiki and for the adornment 
 of other greenstone articles. 
 
 The curious heart-shaped mouth is always shewn open, with 
 coarse, thick lips, and the prominence given to the tongue 
 is thought to suggest the grimace of Maori defiance. No 
 marks representing tattoo are ever found on the faces of green- 
 stone tiki. The arms are carefully cut out, and the hands 
 are placed in various positions according to the type to which 
 
 * Red was the colour of mourning among the Maori, and stains of red ochre may still 
 be seen on ornaments which have been buried with the dead, or whose wearers had daubed 
 themselves with it,
 
 HEI-TIKI. 57 
 
 the ornament belongs. The thumbs are always shewn, but never 
 more than three fingers appear. 
 
 This fashion of carving the hand has puzzled many students 
 of the ancient New Zealand art. The Maori have the ingenious, 
 but perhaps hardly credible, explanation of this phenomenon, that 
 the first man to carve and decorate was an ancestor who had 
 himself only three fingers on each hand. Whether this is true 
 or not the fashion has been rigidly followed since the legendary 
 Nuku-mai-teko, the skilful worker, deceived Tangaroa with his 
 art. This representation of three-fingered hands is not, however, 
 peculiar to the Maori. Hands of this rude form have been noted 
 in ancient Chinese ideographs and in other Eastern sculptures, 
 in the relics of the Peruvian Incas and in other forms of 
 primitive art, as is remarked by Mr. Cowan in his Maoris of 
 New Zealand. 
 
 From this general description it will be seen that tiki con- 
 form to a certain conventional shape, which is that which was 
 handed down from generation to generation ; for the Maori con- 
 sidered that it was aiitia, an ill omen, to depart from the lines 
 laid down by their forefathers. Some of these little effigies are 
 squat and others more elongated, a result no doubt due to the 
 dimensions of the piece of stone at the artist's disposal. They 
 vary in form, as our illustrations shew, but a close inspection 
 shews that they fall into two main types, in both of which the 
 head is inclined to right or left, and in many cases resting, 
 as it were, upon the shoulders. 
 
 In both types the legs are shewn with the knees bent, and 
 the feet, with what appear to be sometimes two and sometimes 
 three pairs of toes, gathered under the body. But these limbs 
 are really an attempt to represent the motif of the manaia
 
 58 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 (see page 41) pecking the body. Figure 29 is an illustration 
 of a wooden Hki which shews these fabulous monsters very 
 clearly. Tiki made of bone* have also been preserved which 
 distinctly shew that the parts, which in greenstone fiki 
 degenerated into a rude likeness to the legs of the figure, are in 
 their origin not legs but manaia. 
 
 Figure 29. 
 
 Type A, of which Figure 28 at the beginning of this chapter 
 is a well marked example, shews the arms akimbo with the 
 outspread hands resting upon the thighs. It has four teeth 
 in the mouth, indicated by knobs at the middle and ends of 
 the lips, beyond which the tongue does not extend. 
 
 In the British Museum there are two specimens of liei-tiki made from pieces of human skull.
 
 H EI -TIKI. 
 
 59 
 
 Fiitures 81-37 shew these various points in more or less detail. 
 In Figures 31 and 32 we give examples of fihi that haxe cut-out 
 necks. The former of these is a full-sized representation of the 
 
 Figure 31. 
 
 Figure 32. 
 
 head of the figure only. It will be observed that it has the 
 
 eyes of shell, and the additional peculiarity of a projection 
 
 at the top of the head pierced for the cord hy 
 was suspended. 
 
 which it
 
 6o 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 Another method of suspension is shewn in Figure 33. 
 Here it will be seen that the cord by which the figure was 
 hung at the wearer's neck was tied round a knob at the top 
 of its head. 
 
 Figure 33. 
 
 Fi-«uie :U. 
 
 Figure 34 is an illustration of a very ancient tiki brought 
 from New Zealand by Midshipman Burr, who sailed with 
 Captain Cook on his last voyage. In this case the boring is 
 through the right eye.
 
 HEI-TIKI. 
 
 6i 
 
 In the tiki illustrated in Figure 35, the boring is through 
 the right ear, while that in Figure 3(S was suspended by the 
 hole at the left elbow, where the wearing of the hard green- 
 stone by the friction of the suspending cord is plainly visible. 
 
 Figure 35. 
 
 Fig me 36. 
 
 A comparison of this ornament with those illustrated on pages 72 
 and 76 shews that hei-fiki suspended by the elbow naturalh' 
 hang in a horizontal, instead of an upright, position. In 
 Figure 37 overleaf the cutting out of the neck is shewn only 
 on the right side. 
 
 It will be observed that the tiki illustrated in Figures 33, 34 
 and 35, have the necks not cut out; the heads rest solidly upon the
 
 62 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 shoulders. The ornament shewn in Figure 36 has, on the other 
 hand, its head quite clear of the body. 
 
 In tiki of the A type the ribs, either one or two pairs, 
 are indicated by raised ridges forked at their lower ends, where 
 in some cases (see Figs. 28, 33 and 34) the navel is shown. 
 
 Figure 37. 
 
 y A historic tiki of the A type, over six inches in height and 
 of very fine workmanship, was brought to England in 1820 by 
 the chief Hongi and presented by him to the Rev. Basil Wood, 
 a life governor of the Church Missionary Society, who received 
 him and his companion, the chief Waikato. After many 
 vicissitudes this ornament is now preserved in the Dominion 
 Museum at Wellington, having been secured for that national 
 institution by Mr. T. E. Donne.
 
 HEl-TIKI. 
 
 63 
 
 In the Tourist Department at Wellington is an oil painting by 
 J. Barry, presented by the Church Missionary Society, through Mr. 
 Donne's instrumentality shewing Hongi wearing a iiki and a feather 
 cloak, and accompanied by Wail<ato and Kendall the missionary. 
 
 Figure 38. 
 
 In tiki of the B type, of which Figure 38 is a good example, 
 the design varies from those of the A type in several important 
 particulars. The head is generally cut free of the shoulders and 
 not resting upon them, the ears are usually shewn, and the neck 
 is thicker. One hand with its outspread fingers and thumb is 
 placed on the breast. The other hand, which is always that
 
 64 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 on the side towards which the chin points, rests on the 
 thigh. The eyes in this type are smaller in proportion to 
 the size of the head than those of type A. As a rule it 
 
 has no ribs. Its tongue, called 
 arero rua, is forked and its 
 teeth are two or three in num- 
 ber. In some cases the navel 
 is shewn. Figures 38-44 illus- 
 trate this type. Figure 38 is an 
 example shewing in admirable 
 detail all the characteristics 
 just enumerated. 
 
 Figure 39 shews a tiki of 
 B type, now in the Museum of 
 Archaeology and Ethnology at 
 Cambridge, with the characteris- 
 tic double tongue which, however, 
 is of unusual form, being given 
 in relief by the holes at either 
 
 /a 
 
 \ 
 
 Figure 39. 
 
 L 
 
 side of it and going to the chin 
 instead of to the side of the mouth. 
 The little tiki illustrated in Figure 40 is excep- 
 tional in having three ribs on the right side. 
 
 The tiki shewn in Figure 41 indicates 
 a change of motif on the part of the 
 
 ,N?y / 
 
 ), 

 
 HEI-TIKI. 
 
 65 
 
 artist during the process of manufacture. It is evident tliat 
 the- right hand of the figure was at first designed to rest on 
 the thigh. But this hand was awkwardly changed to the B 
 
 N^ w-y/ 
 
 r^ 
 
 y^ , 
 
 Figure 41. 
 
 position on the breast, and thus a tiki begun in the style of 
 type A was changed to the conventional rendering of type B, 
 to which also the double tongue belongs.
 
 66 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 A comparison of this very remarkable tiki with the illustra- 
 tion of the three pieces of jade in Figure 42 shews quite 
 plainly that the original intention to make it of the A type. 
 For the illustration of the partially formed ornaments proves 
 that the first cuts in the greenstone were those that outlined 
 
 Figure 42. 
 
 the legs and arms. This point appears to be emphasised by 
 the drawing in the middle of Figure 42, where the beginnings 
 of the work upon the head prove that though the Maori 
 artists were not always particular to finish the lower part 
 of their figures first, they began work on the limbs with a 
 clear intention as to the type to which the figure was to belong.
 
 HEI-TIKI. 
 
 67 
 
 A fiki, now in the Salford Museum, illustrated in Figure 43 
 .s noteworthy in having little cuts on its hands, as if to denote' 
 the jomts of the fingers and thumbs. It is drawn here in 
 
 Figure 43. 
 
 outhne to make this peculiarity more clearly visible. The tiki 
 shewn in Figure 44 is an admirable e.x-ample of the B type 
 It was presented to Colonel Mundy, the author of Our Antipodes
 
 68 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 by Tamihana, son of the notorious chief Rauparaha, who about 
 the year 1828 devastated the South Island in his relentless 
 greed for greenstone. Less than two decades later Tamihana, 
 
 ^.-^ 
 
 Figure 44. 
 
 helped by his cousin Matene-te-whiwhi, nobly atoned for his 
 father's cruelty by winning the Southern Islanders to Christianity. 
 A greenstone neck-ornament of rare form (Figure 45), now at 
 Dresden and known as Heke's tiki, has great affinity with the 
 B type, but is exceptional in having both hands placed upon the 
 breast. This attitude is very unusual in figures made of jade ;
 
 HEI-TIKI. 
 
 69 
 
 it is, however, common in wood carvings. Mr. Elsdon Best, in 
 a recent letter to the Author, speaks of a very fine hei-tiki 
 belonging to Mr. John Baillie, which is said to have been 
 
 Figure 45. 
 
 taken home by the mate of the " Endeavour." Its length 
 is 6| inches and its width 3J inches. This ornament is remark- 
 able in having both the arms extending downwards with the 
 hands clasping the thighs, an attitude also found in some tiki of 
 bone. The tiki shewn in Figure 46 also resembles those of 
 the B type, but departs from the regular design in the upright
 
 70 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 position of the head, 
 is also unusual. This 
 
 M — »_ til 
 
 The support under the figure's left arm 
 ornament shews signs of long use. Its 
 surface is greatly worn ; the legs 
 are broken off ; and the original 
 hole has been broken or worn 
 through and a fresh hole has 
 been been bored on the other side 
 of the nose ridge. 
 
 The British Museum possesses 
 two curious little greenstone figures 
 of tiki form, shewn in Figure 47, 
 which have the right arms raised 
 to the head. They have the 
 appearance of great age, and are 
 
 Figure 46. 
 
 Figure 47. 
 
 perhaps relics of a time before the form of these ornaments 
 had settled down into the two normal types. It will be
 
 HEI-TIKI. 
 
 71 
 
 Figure 48. 
 
 observed that the tiki illustrated at the right of Figure 47 has 
 the fingers of the raised hand carefully worked with perforations 
 
 between the fingers. This figure has lost 
 its legs. Figure 48 shews part of another 
 remarkable tiki with the upright head that 
 has already been remarked as a departure 
 from the usual form, and with the fingers 
 of the left hand raised to its mouth. It 
 is possible that this attitude is a memorial 
 of the legend of Tamatea's slave who was 
 punished for breaking tapu. 
 
 Hei-tiki were difficult to make, and 
 
 only the most skilful tohungas who were 
 
 experts in the arts of carving and tattooing 
 
 undertook their manufacture. A pointed 
 
 stick, sand and water were the simple 
 
 tools that they employed, together with the shell of the pipi 
 
 or common cockle, which was used as a ready-made tool by 
 
 the Maori craftsmen. 
 
 After the stone had been polished, the last operation was 
 the boring of the hole for suspension, a piece of work requiring 
 great care. 
 
 The hole, like all other holes pierced in greenstone was, 
 as is mentioned above, made by boring from both sides of 
 the stone, and being usually bored at the top of the head of 
 the effigy, the tiki was normally worn so that it hung upright. 
 But if it so pleased the wearer, the ornament might be 
 worn hanging from that arm which allowed the face to look 
 downward. The chin always pointed downward ; that rule 
 was invariable.
 
 72 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 Figure 49, which is a drawing 
 of part of an ancient wooden monu- 
 ment raised to a Maori chief, shews 
 in careful detail the tattoo marks 
 on his face. For our present pur- 
 pose it is of special interest as 
 shewing that he wore a tiki of .the 
 B type suspended, in the same 
 way as is shewn in Figure 36, by 
 the left arm. 
 
 The left-hand drawing in Figure 
 42 shews a tiki in process of forma- 
 tion from a water-worn piece of 
 greenstone, which is now in the 
 British Museum. The work, as has 
 already been noted, began with the 
 fashioning of the limbs. The same 
 illustration shews two adze-blades of 
 greenstone on which are the begin- 
 ings of the perforations, which prove 
 Figure 49. that it was also intended to make 
 
 tiki of them.. When iron axes supplanted the native adzes 
 many tiki and other ornaments were made out of the discarded 
 blades of greenstone. Tiki made from these blades can be readily 
 recognised, because the adzes being thin in section the ornaments 
 made from them are not so plump as those more ancient 
 specimens that were cut from rough blocks or water-worn 
 fragments of nephrite. 
 
 Famous tiki were named in the same way as famous weapons. 
 The largest in the British Museum collection, which was given
 
 HEI-TIKI. 73 
 
 to Sir George Grey in 1848 by Hone Heke, had the title 
 Ko vvakatere kohu kohu. Another noted hei-iiki is mentioned by 
 Canon Stack, who describes how he made the acquaintance at 
 Grahamstown, near Auckland, of a native clergyman named 
 Hohepa Paraone. This man showed the Canon a highly prized 
 tiki called Mihi rawhiti, that is, 'object of lament and greeting in 
 the East,' which was an heirloom in the two branches of the 
 family into which Maru Tuahu's descendants had split, being held 
 alternately by the one which lived at the Thames and by the 
 other which had settled at Taranaki. The ornament was always 
 buried with the person who happened to be wearing it at the 
 time of his death. When his bones were taken up in due time 
 to be placed in the tribal sepulchre, the ceremony of the second 
 burial was performed by members of the other branch of the 
 family, who returning to their own home took back with them 
 the family heirloom. They then kept it until it passed once 
 more into the hands of the other branch who in their turn 
 performed the funeral rites of the last wearer of it. 
 
 There is a tradition that this venerable and crudely formed 
 ornament was worn by Maru Tuahu when he arrived in New 
 Zealand ; and Canon Stack, who had an opportunity of examining it, 
 was confirmed in his belief that finely wrought specimens were not 
 produced till the art of working greenstone had been practised 
 for many generations after the coming of the first canoes. 
 
 One of the three tiki deposited in the Auckland Museum by 
 Mr. Arthur Eady, has the name of Maungarongo, that is, the 
 peacemaker, It belonged at one time to Rangi Purewa, a priest 
 of the Wairau Valley, who allowed Te Rauparaha to see and 
 handle the precious trinket. It chanced that that chief had a 
 feud with a man named Pukekohatu, and seized and imprisoned
 
 74 POUNAMU. 
 
 a kinsman of his enemy. Whereupon Pukekohatu, in fear for his 
 relative's Hfe, asked the aid of the priest Purewa, who lent him his 
 tiki, saying " Here is a tiki that will make peace. Put it round 
 the neck of your wife's slave girl and offer both as payment ; 
 and your wish that your kinsman may be restored will be 
 granted." And so it fell out. But some time afterwards one 
 of Rauparaha's relations became ill, and the priest was accused of 
 having bewitched the man. Purewa maintained that the patient 
 was ill because he had broken tapu in wearing the sacred tiki, and 
 would surely die if it were not returned to its rightful owner ; 
 which being done the sick man was restored to health. Afterwards 
 the tiki had many owners till at length it passed into the 
 possession of Europeans and eventually found a resting place in 
 the Auckland Museum. 
 
 Henare Tawha, a Maori chief whose remarks on the working 
 of pounama are quoted in Chapter II., once told Canon Stack that 
 very few people know how to make hei-tiki, the natives of the 
 North Island being more skilful in their manufacture than those 
 of the South. It did not require, he said, very great skill to 
 make weapons and tools and the simpler ornaments, but only 
 very clever workers could make tiki. 
 
 Hakopa-te-atu-o-tu, a noted chief of the Ngai Tahu, who 
 won great fame for his defence of Kaiapoi against Rauparaha's 
 besieging army, wrote, in July 1882 when he was upwards of 
 eighty years of age, a letter to Canon Stack, which is so striking 
 a confirmation of much that has been said above that we are 
 glad to have the opportunity of reproducing it here. 
 
 " Friend, greeting. I never saw the making of a hei-tiki in 
 my childhood. The North Island natives were the people who 
 made hei-tiki. The tools used to perforate the greenstone when
 
 HEI-TIKI. 
 
 75 
 
 forming it into ornaments were not chisels, but pieces of obsidian 
 and flint with which drills were pointed. The shaping of the 
 holes when made was done by rubbing with gritty stone. Maoris 
 never worshipped the hei-tiki. It was only an oka tiipuna^ he tohu 
 ki ona tin, a relic of an ancestor, a sign to his descendants. 
 The names of the different kinds of greenstone were hauhunga, 
 kawakawa, inanga, kaJiiiraugi, taugiicai, iiiatakirikiri, aofea, 
 
 Figure 50. 
 
 kahotea. The places where greenstone was formerl} found were 
 Arahura, Waininihi, Hohonu {i.e., Taramakau) and Pio pio tahi 
 {i.e , Milford Sound). Some pounautu was so hard that it could 
 only be broken by using hammers of greenstone." 
 
 The detail drawing (Figure 50) illustrates the method of 
 fastening the ornament to the kaui-tiki, the cord which went
 
 76 
 
 POUNAMU. 
 
 round the wearer's neck. The tiki was firmly fixed to the kaui 
 by its own separate fastening, which was a loop passing through 
 the suspension hole and made of the wiry fibre of the tot or 
 mountain palm {cordyline indivisa), a material of very great 
 strength obtained from the outer part of the mid-rib {tuaka) 
 
 Figure 51. 
 
 of the palm leaf. This fastening fairly filled the perforation, to 
 prevent, as far as possible, friction of the stone. The kaui with 
 the tiki so attached by its fibrous fastening had at one end 
 a small loop, and at the other a toggle about two inches long, 
 called puau if made of wood, or poro toroa if of albatross bone. 
 The cord being now clasped by toggle and loop about the 
 wearer's neck the hei-tiki lay suspended as is shewn in Figure 51.
 
 HEI-TIKI. 77 
 
 Our last illustration (Figure 52) of these singular and 
 characteristic ornaments represents a beautiful little greenstone 
 tiki of the A type. Although, no doubt, it was originally a 
 hei-tiki, it was not so used by its last Maori possessor. It was 
 worn as an ear-pendant by a Ngatipikiao warrior, and was taken 
 from him in battle on 21st June, 1864. It is here shewn in its 
 exact size, as indeed are all the tihi illustrated in this chapter. 
 
 Figure 52. 
 
 A striking contrast to this diminutive piece is exhibited by 
 the remarkable hei-tiki of Izawakawa in the Museum of Geology, 
 in Jermyn Street, London. It is an unusually large figure of the 
 A type, having eyes of irridiscent shell, and is quite 8 inches 
 high with a width of nearly 5 inches from knee to knee. 
 This ornament shows signs of a great age. Its surface is in 
 parts worn almost smooth by constant wear, and it has had 
 no less than three suspension holes bored through the upper 
 part of the head, two of which are broken through.
 
 78 POUNAMU. 
 
 Nowadays old and good specimens of tiki and other orna- 
 ments and implements of the native greenstone are rare in 
 New Zealand. Very many have left the country ; and those 
 that remain in private hands are for the most part in the 
 possession of rich natives, who are keenly alive to their value, 
 and can rarely be induced to part with those treasured 
 memorials of their ancestors. 
 
 When, however, in the course of their memorable journey 
 to the Dominions beyond the seas, their present Majesties visited 
 New Zealand, in 1901, the Maori chiefs loyally presented to 
 the royal visitors many valuable heirlooms and works of art, 
 which are now exhibited in the British Museum by command 
 the King.
 
 GLOSSARY. 
 
 Aho, the cord of a drill. 
 aittia, an ill omen. 
 aotea, clouded white jade. 
 Aotearoa, " the Long White Cloud." 
 arero rua, the forked tongue of a tihi. 
 atua, a guardian deity. 
 anhunga, light green jade. 
 
 E hoa, friend 
 
 e 7nau ana hi te tarituja a te tanyata, 
 which is fixed to the ear of a man. 
 
 Hei, neck. 
 
 hei-tiki, neck ornaments of grotesque 
 human form. 
 
 heoi te viihi, that is all the greeting. 
 
 hoanga, stone for cutting and polish- 
 ing greenstone. 
 
 Iiianga, grey jade. 
 
 Kaliotea, dark spotted greenstone. 
 
 haliiivangi, translucent greenstone. 
 
 kaka, the large russet parrot. 
 
 kapeu, see tantan. 
 
 kara, hard stone other than greenstone. 
 
 karakia, spells. 
 
 kakariki, the colour green, also a small 
 green parrot and a green lizard. 
 
 kaianga, welcome ! 
 
 kaui, the neck cord of the hei-tiki. 
 
 kauri, a New Zealand pine. 
 
 kawakawa, dark jade without spots. 
 
 kia or a koe, may you he well ! 
 
 kiripaka, flint. 
 
 kohuwai, jade with moss-like marks. 
 
 kvm,, a greenstone hammer, also a cylin- 
 drical ear-pendant. 
 
 kvriijmc, the cross-piece of a di-ill. 
 
 Mako, an oi'iiameiit like a shark's tooth. 
 tnana, supernatui-al excellence. 
 manaia, a malignant spirit. 
 ma te atua koe r tiaki, ma>' God keep 
 
 you ! 
 niata, the obsidian point of a drill. 
 niatau, a hook-shaped neck ornament. 
 mere, the war-club. 
 moria, see poria. 
 
 Na tail Jioa aroJia, by your loving friend. 
 }tgao matariki, the small finishing ad/.e. 
 iigao pae, the largest adze. 
 ngao tii, the medium sized adze. 
 
 Olia, an heirloom. 
 o)ia, his. 
 
 Pa, a Maori fort. 
 
 pakclia, a white foreigner. 
 
 parihi poliatn, a sharp fragment of liaid 
 
 stone. 
 patiti, a hatchet. 
 i)atii, the war-club. 
 
 pekapeka, an ornament shaped like a bat. 
 pirori, see tuiri. 
 poria, a parrot ring. 
 porotiti, disk of a drilling machine. 
 poro toroa, a toggle of albatross bone. 
 jjoit, the rod of a drill. 
 powiamii, greenstone, also the colour 
 
 green. 
 puau, a w^ooden toggle. 
 
 Rangatira, a chief. 
 
 rciiiga, the next world. 
 
 reke, the butt or pommel of a war-club. 
 
 ripi, a backward thrust with a war-club. 
 
 Tapu, a prohibition forbidding contact 
 with persons or things considered 
 sacred. 
 
 tautau, a long eardrop. 
 
 ten a koe, there you are. 
 
 tika, correct. 
 
 tiki, see hei-tiki. 
 
 tipi, a forward thrust with a wai-club. 
 
 tohu, a sign. 
 
 tohiuiga, a priest. 
 
 toi, the mountain palm. 
 
 toki, the greenstone adze. 
 
 toki lohakarau, the smoothing adze. 
 
 tuaka, the mid rib of a palm-leaf. 
 
 tapuna, an ancestor. 
 
 tinriri, a drill for boring holes in jade. 
 
 Uri, descoiulants. 
 
 iitii, compensation for injury. 
 
 Whakakai, a flat ear-pendant. 
 
 79
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A PAGE 
 
 Adze, the Maori ... ... ... 23 
 
 adze-he.ad made from a broken 7nere ... 34 
 
 „ ,, from a tili ... 25 
 
 alio ... ... ... ... 20 
 
 aitua ... ... ... ... 57 
 
 amulets and charms ... 46, 48, 49 
 
 Angus, cited ... ... ... 52 
 
 aotea ... ... ... ... 16 
 
 Aotearoa ... ... 12, 79 
 
 Arahura river ... ' ... 13, 15, 16, 75 
 
 arero riia ... ... ... 64 
 
 ari ... ... ... 41 note 
 
 (ifiKi ... ... 12 note, 45, 79 
 
 Auckland museum, fiAi in ... ... 73 
 
 auliiDUja ... ... ... ... 16 
 
 axes ... ... ... ... 28 
 
 Barbs of fish-hooks, greenstone ... 29 
 
 ,, ,, illustrated ... 29 
 
 Best, Elsdon, Forest Lore quoted ... 30 
 
 Notes 0)1 tJie Art of War 35 
 
 remarks by ...10,23,48,69 
 
 bird-spear, greenstone, legend of ... 30 
 
 ,, ,, ,, illustrated ... 30 
 
 boxes for weapons ... ... 34 
 
 British Museum, adze-blades in ... 72 
 
 ,, ,, barbs in ... ... 29 
 
 „ ,, greenstone in ... 72 
 
 „ „ Maori works of art 
 
 exhibited by the 
 
 King in ... 78 
 
 „ ,, head of )iia)iaia in 42 
 
 „ ,, inatau in, illustrated 46 
 
 „ ,, ,, described 47 
 
 „ ,, 7nere in ... 32, 36 
 
 tiki in 56, 58 vote, 70, 72 
 
 Buffalo, H.M.S. ... ... 36,37 
 
 Burr, tili belonging to Midshipman ... 60 
 
 Cambridge University Museum — 
 
 manaia in, illustrated ... 41 
 
 „ ,, matau in, illustrated ... 47 
 
 „ „ tiki in, illustrated ... 64 
 
 canoe, making of a 
 chisel, greenstone .. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ... 24 
 ... 29 
 
 „ „ illustrated ... 28 
 
 Cook, Captain ... 7, 15, 29, 39, 56, 60 
 Cowan, James ... ... 25, 49 
 
 ,, ,, Maoris of Neiv Zealand, 
 
 cited ... 15, 57 
 
 D 
 
 Donne, T. E. ... ... 62, 63 
 
 Dresden, f/Ai of rare form at, illustrated 69 
 drill, the Maori ... ... 19,20 
 
 ,, ,, illustrated ... ... 20 
 
 ,, ,, how operated 20, 21 
 
 ,, ,, primitive form of ... 21 
 
 ,, greenstone, with facetted point... 29 
 
 illustrated ... ... 28 
 
 Ead>', Arthur 
 eel 
 
 Flint 
 
 Foveaux Straits 
 
 . . . 73 
 14, 48 
 
 20, 74 
 ,.. 15 
 
 G 
 
 Geology, tiki in Museum of... ... 77 
 
 gouge of greenstone ... ... 29 
 
 illustrated ... 28 
 
 green, Maori words for the colour 9 
 
 greenstone, colours of ... ... 16 
 
 ,, difficulty of obtaining ... 13 
 
 ,, early user of ... ... 12 
 
 ,, flaws in, see t^itae koka 
 
 „ known to natives of 
 
 Hawaiki ... ... 12 
 
 „ legends concerning ... 15 
 
 ,, native names of... 16, 17, 75 
 
 ,, boring of ornaments ... 72 
 
 where found ...10,11,14,75 
 
 " greenstone door " ... ... 10 
 
 Grey, Sir George ... ... 29,36,73 
 
 80
 
 INDEX — coil fi lined. 
 
 81 
 
 H PAGE 
 
 Hakopu-te-atu-o-tu, letter ol' ... 74 
 
 Hamilton, Maori Art cited ... ... H4 
 
 hands, tlu'ee-flnfjcred ... ... 57 
 
 Hatua ... ... ... ... 11 
 
 /ie/ = neck ... ... ... 55 
 
 hei niataii, illustrated and described 40, 47 
 
 ,, ,, legend referring" to ... 47 
 
 jic i -tiki, how yvovn ... ... 51 
 
 ,, significance of ... ... 5H 
 
 Heke's tiki, see Dresden 
 
 Hewitt, Primitive Traditional Histor.ij 
 
 cited ... ... ... 55 
 
 Hiko-o-te-rangi ... ... ... '56 
 
 Hine-ki-runga ... ... ... 11 
 
 Hipara ... ... ... ... 11 
 
 Iioaiifja ... ... ... ... 22 
 
 Hochstetter cited ... ... ... 38 
 
 Hohonu ... ... ... IG, 75 
 
 Hokitika river ... ... ... 12 
 
 Hongi ... ... ... 62,68 
 
 Hone Heke ... ... ... 78 
 
 Hoi'owhenna ... ... ... 12 
 
 I 
 
 Implements, miscellaneous greenstone 80 
 inaiifja ... ... ... ... 16 
 
 kiini 
 kiinipac 
 
 PAGE 
 
 21, 39 
 20. 21 
 
 M 
 
 Mako, liow worn 
 ,, i II usl rated 
 iiiaiKi 
 
 ... 43 
 ... 43 
 25,79 
 iiKiiKiid ... ..." 82, 41 note, 57 
 
 ,, head of, illustrated ... 42 
 
 illustrated ... ... 41 
 
 ,, single, illustrated ... ... 42 
 
 Maning, Old Neir Zealand, (luoted 24, 37 
 
 " Jade," et>niolog> of 
 jadeite 
 
 10 
 
 Maori art 
 
 ,, burial customs 
 
 ,, burying places 
 
 ,, mourning colour 
 
 „ supei'stitions 
 
 ,, warrior, characteristics of 
 
 ,, untrustworthy authorities 
 Maori customs 
 Maru Tuahu 
 mat a, see obsidian 
 Matene-te-whiwhi ... 
 Maui 
 
 Mayor Island, see Tuhua 
 mere, see war-club 
 mica schist 
 Mil ford Peak 
 
 ,, Sound 
 Moki 
 nioria, see porta 
 
 monument, ancient wooden, illustrated 72 
 Mund>-, Colonel, author of Our 
 
 Aiitijiodeii ... ... ... 6H 
 
 52, 53, 77 
 85,50,78 
 ... 50 
 56 note 
 24, 46, 4H, 58, 54 
 . . . 35 
 on 
 
 ... 54 
 78, 74 
 
 ... 68 
 ... 47 
 
 .. 22 
 .. 15 
 15, 75 
 .. 12 
 
 K 
 
 Kaliotea ... 
 kahuraiifji 
 Kaiapoi ... 
 Kaniere, Mount 
 
 Pass 
 kapeu 
 kara 
 
 karakia, see spells 
 kaui-tiki ... 
 kaicakaica 
 
 kiripaka, see mica schist 
 kiripapa, see flint 
 koliiiirai ... 
 kokotangiicai 
 Kuha-tarewa hill ... 
 
 N 
 
 16, 4; 
 
 
 Nephrite ... 
 
 
 9 
 
 16 
 
 ,, where found ... 10, 
 
 11, 14, 
 
 75 
 
 48 
 
 New Zealand, Dominion INIuseum 
 
 
 74 
 
 of 
 
 48, 62, 
 
 68 
 
 16 
 
 Nga-rangi-mataeo ... 
 
 
 11 
 
 21 
 
 Ngahue, discoverer of New Zeal; 
 
 nd 12, 
 
 18 
 
 44 
 
 Ngai Rua tribe 
 
 
 36 
 
 22 
 
 Ngai Tahu tribe ... 
 
 
 74 
 
 
 Ngai Tai tribe 
 
 
 36 
 
 75 
 
 iifjao )natariki 
 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 iKjao pac ... 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 iifjao tu 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 Ngatai, liori, letter of to Authoi 
 
 
 45 
 
 17 
 
 Ngati Awa 
 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 Ngati Tiiwhai'etoa... 
 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 Nuku-mai-teko 
 
 
 57
 
 H2 
 
 I'^DBX— continued. 
 
 o 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 Obsidian ... ... ••• ^0. 
 
 Oliui 
 olid 
 
 Onslow, Earl of 
 Onslow, Hon. V. A. H. Huia 
 Opepe 
 
 ornaments of greenstone, how worn... 
 varied forms of, illustrated 
 
 74 
 11 
 51 
 44 
 44 
 11 
 89 
 40 
 
 Paraone, Hohepa ... 
 
 
 78 
 
 parrots as Maori pets 
 
 
 48 
 
 pa til,, see war- club 
 
 
 
 pehapel-a, illustrated 
 
 40, 
 
 41 
 
 pendants, Maori names given to 
 
 
 49 
 
 pirori 
 
 
 22 
 
 Polack cited 
 
 27, 49 
 
 54 
 
 povia, illustrated, its use 
 
 
 48 
 
 po)-otiti 
 
 
 20 
 
 Potatau ... 
 
 
 88 
 
 Potiki 
 
 
 85 
 
 pou 
 
 
 20 
 
 poidiiii 
 
 
 12 
 
 Pukekohatu 
 
 
 78 
 
 2)nfii/)iii'i(, see chisel 
 
 
 
 R 
 
 Rangi Purewa 
 
 
 
 ... 78 
 
 Rauparaha 
 
 
 .. 86, 
 
 (3H, 78, 74 
 
 Raureka ... 
 
 
 
 ... 11 
 
 reA'e = butt of mere, see 
 
 wai 
 
 -club 
 
 
 Ripa 
 
 
 
 . . . 8G 
 
 ripi 
 
 
 
 ... 88 
 
 Ropoama Te One ... 
 
 
 
 ... 24 
 
 Rua 
 
 
 
 ... 25 
 
 Rutherford, John ... 
 
 
 
 27, 28 
 
 Salford Museum, tiki in, illustrated 
 
 and descril)ed... ... ... 67 
 
 sealing wax ... ... ... 56 
 
 slave of Tamatea, legend of... 1(), 71 
 
 Smith, G. F., Gem Stones, remarks on 
 
 nephrite and jadeite ... ... 9 
 
 South Island Maoris ... ... 11 
 
 spells ... ... ... ... 24 
 
 Stack, Canon, remarks by ... 11, 18, 21 
 „ ,, cited ... 78, 74 
 
 „ „ Kaiapohia, quoted ... 86 
 
 ,, „ on tihi, cited... 52, 58 
 
 Tamatea ... 
 
 Tamatea-kai-taharua 
 
 Tamihana 
 
 Tangaroa... 
 
 taiif/iirai, legend concerning 
 
 PAGE 
 
 15, 16 
 ... 80 
 
 ... 68 
 12 note 
 ... 15 
 
 16, 22, 88, 58, 71, 74, 79 
 ... 75 
 
 tajjn 
 
 Taramakau 
 
 Taumutu... ... ... ... 21 
 
 Tauranga ... ... 85, 45 
 
 tavtaii, see kapev 
 
 Tawha, Henare ... ... 21, 74 
 
 Te Aratangata, death of chief ... 86 
 
 Te Heuheu ... ... ... 84 
 
 Te Ika Poto ... ... ... 11 
 
 Te Papa ... ... ... ... 35 
 
 Te Pehi ... ... ... ... 36 
 
 Te Pi, worker in greenstone ... 21 
 
 Te Wherowhero ... ... ... 33 
 
 tihi, ancient examples, illustrated and 
 
 described ... ... ... 70 
 
 ,, antiquity of ... ... ... 74 
 
 ,, as ear- pendant ... ... 77 
 
 „ bone ... ... 58 note, 69 
 
 ,, change from. A to B type 64, 65, 66 
 ,, eyes of shell ... ... 56, 59 
 
 ,, how to distinguish modern ... 72 
 
 ,, in process of making, illustrated... 66 
 ,, makers of ... ... ... 74 
 
 ,, Maori names given to ... 72, 73 
 
 ,, methods of suspension... 59,60,61,75 
 ,, method of wearing, illustrated 72, 76 
 „ of rare form ... ... 69, 70, 71 
 
 ,, theories as to origin of ... 54,55 
 
 ,, tools used in making 71 
 
 ,, t^■pes of ... ... ... 57 
 
 „ type A. . . 52, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 66, 67 
 „ typeB ... 63,64,65,67,68,70 
 
 ,, wooden ... ... ... 58 
 
 ... 33 
 ... 37 
 ... 76 
 ... 23 
 ... 24 
 ... 24 
 ... 23 
 
 ti^ri 
 
 Titore, chief of the Ngapuhi 
 
 toggles 
 
 toli, see also adzes 
 
 ,, exchange of ... 
 
 ,, Maori names given to 
 toki ivhakaran 
 Tuakau, Haimona, information con- 
 cerning greenstone given by 
 Tuhi-o-kahu hill ... 
 Tuhoe 
 
 Tuhua=Mayor Island 
 tiiiviri, see drill 
 Tumu-aki mountain 
 tutae koka 
 
 16 
 11 
 11 
 12 
 
 16 
 16
 
 mD'EX— con tin !(<'(]. 
 
 88 
 
 u 
 
 UtN 
 
 Vislimi 
 
 Waikare moana 
 ^Yaikato . . 
 AVaikawa .. 
 Waininilii 
 Wainui 
 Wairewa . 
 wai-adze, the 
 
 w 
 
 illustrated 
 
 pagp: page 
 
 14 wai-cliil), i^i-eenstoue, illiist rated 
 „ its shape 
 
 ,, Maori names given to 
 
 „ owned b>' Maning 
 
 ,, sent to King William IV. 
 
 ..41 „ recover> of 
 
 weapons, makers of 
 irhdkalni... 
 
 ancient, owned by Author 
 irluikaniu =to smooth a surface 
 11 Whakatoliea ti'ibe ... 
 62, G;-) wood carving of the Maori — 
 
 2i 24,20,29,84, 
 
 7'""' \Yood, Rev. Basil ... 
 47 
 
 21 Y 
 
 2G 
 26,27 Yate, Rev. W., quoted ... 81,58 
 
 
 81 
 
 
 82 
 
 85, 
 
 86 
 
 
 87 
 
 
 86 
 
 84, 
 
 85 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 89 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 24 
 
 
 86 
 
 69 
 
 72 
 
 
 62 
 
 T. J. S. Guilford & Co., Ltd., Printers, Ceres Road, Kingston-on-Thames.
 
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