PRESERVED HEADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 5

PRESERVED HEADS.

OLD MAORI CUSTOM.

SOME SOLD TO TRADERS.

TATTOOING RITUAI,.

A Maori practice on which quite a profitable industry was built in the early days of the visits of traders to New Zealand was that 'of preserving heads. There are two of these, gruesome or decorative as you will, in the Maori section of the Dominion Museum, Wellington (says the "Dominion"). These heads were preserved by a steaming and smoke-drying process known as pakipaki mahunga. In Maori days the heads of relatives and also of enemies were frequently so preserved — the former to be greeted and wept over; the latter to be exposed and insulted. They were regarded as high prizes by the traders who visited New Zealand ir the early part of the nineteenth century and high prices were obtained When the supply was insufficient t< meet the demand, the enterprising native employed slaves' heads for th< purpose, and in some specimens it if said the tattooing was done after deatl"

The trade in these heads was eventually stopped by the New South Wales Gov' ernment. Fine examples of the Maori art of tattooing are preserved in these heads, in the Museum. Tattoo, or ta moko, was the custom of making permanent patterns on the face and 'body by small punctures in the skin filled in with a suitable pigment. It reached a high stage of perfection among the Maoris. The patterns were drawn with great accuracy by a master craftsman, or tohunga, and a mallet was used to tap the tattooing chisel, or uhi. The pigment was usually secured from the soot, or awe, of the heart wood, or mapara, from a well-known tree called kaihua. Various other substances, including resins, were also-used. Tha.jggiaeiit,

was well rubbed into the cuts made, and this caused much pain to the patient. Extremely Severe Operation. During tattooing operations both the operator and the subject were under a stato of tapu. The work was carried out in the open and the epot where a person of rank was tattooed might be held tapu for generations. "In the art of tattooing we encounter the grandest effort of the Maori in connection with adornment of the person and in order to acquire this coveted decoration ho was compelled to undergo an extremely severe operation," writesi Elsdon Best. The principal myth connected with the origin of tattooing by puncture, Best says, is that in which a person of ancient times named Mataora is, said to have visited the Underworld of spirits, where he found the art practised. On his return to the upper world, he brought with him the knowledge of the arts of tattooing and weaving. Possibly the story may be a perverted account of an old-time voyage to some isle or land where true tattooing was in vogue. Tattoo is a word utterly foreign to the New Zealand native tongue. As the work of tattooing proceeded the relatives of the sufferer assembled and sang songs that were supposed to soothe him and enable him to bear the pain with equanimity.' Occasionally a person was slain to add eclat to the I tattooing of a young woman of rank. I