ANCIENT MAORI PERFUMES.

Mr W. Oolonso writes in tfaturt a« follows :— I have already more tha once, and in former papers read W b«f ore the Institute, touched on th superior powers of sight of the ancient Maoris ; and it has often occurred to my mind that they also possessed a very keen developed sense of smell which was largely and quickly shown whenever anything sweetly odorif er ous, however fine and subtle, had been used— as eau de Cologne, essence of lavender, &c. Indeed, this sense was the more clearly exhibited in the use of their own native perfumes all highly odorous and collected 'with labour. Yet this sensitive organisa tion always appeared to be the lno*« strange when the horribly strnW smells of two of their common articles of food— often, in ihe olden times in daily use— are considered : rotton co» (maize, dry and hard, , in the cob? long steeped in water to soften it and dried shark. The former, however has long been abandoned ; yet at one period every village at the North had its steeping pit. There were two or thtee ferns— viz., Hymenophyllum sanguinolentum, a very strong smelling species, hence, too, its specific name ; dried specimens not only retain their powerful o^our, butinpart it to the drying papers: Polypodium pu^tulatum, having an agreeable delicate scent, and Doodia fragrans, a neat little species;' this last was so far esteemed as sometimes to give name to the locality where it grew, as Ptffce mokimoki, the little isolated hill wßfch once stood where the Recreation Ground now is in Napier, that M having been levelled to fill in the deep middle swamp in Monroe street. One of the Pittosporum trees, tawhiri (P. tenuifoliim), also yielded a frag, ant gum; but the ohoicest and the rarest wsb obtained from the peculiar plant taxamea {Aewhylh Vekmoi) t Whioh inhabits the Alphine zone, and whioh I have only met with near the summits of the Buahine mounttia range, where it is vety troubksomgfo the traveller that way. The gain fit this plant was only collected throufrli much labour, toil and difficulty, oompanied, too, with certain cere, monial (taboo) observances. An old tohungha (skilled man, and priest) ! once informed me that the taramea gum could only be got by very young women— virgins, and by them* only after certain prayers, charms, &L duly said by the tohunga. The§ is a sweet little nursery song of endearment, expressive of much love containing the names of all four of their perfumes, which I have not unfrequently heard affectionately and sooth, ingly sung by a Maori mother to her child while nursing and fondlinjr it •>£. "raku hei pipipui, B Taku hei mokimoki, ' " Taku hei tawhiri, Taku kati-taramea."

"My little neck-satchel of sweetscented moss, < My little neck-satchel of fragaat fern, My little neck-satceel of odoriferous 4 gum, My sweet-smelling neck-locket of sharp-pointed taramea."