PASSING MAORI MEMORIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 7 December 1935, Page 2

PASSING MAORI MEMORIES

Recorded by J.H.S. for the “Manawatu Evening Standard.”

Whaka paipai—Adornment

The numerous ornaments of women and men conveyed suggestions too subtle for expression even by the artless outspoken Maori. Their significance therefore is lost to us.

Au rei (mat pins) were rarely made of greenstone, being generally of hard wood, teeth of the sperm whale, or paua shell. Each had its significant message for friend or foe, lover or husband.

Ta uri (anklets) were bands of -woven flax with patterned borders, or strings of shells lor chiefs only.

Huruhuru (the hair), worn long and dressed or adorned with heru (wooden or bone combs), gave endless variety to decoration, especially among the chiefs. Mokai (captives and slaves) were not permitted to dress their flowing locks. Rahiri was a method of turning the hair up and binding it with strips of bark. Both men and women of fashion used the porowhita, a ring through which the hair was drawn and fastened in a circle. Women’s hair and that of men in war time was cut short with a sharp shell. ' Green leaves and chaplets of karate ke or kiekie were worn as mourning. Widows wore feathers of various birds, each conveying its sepcial message to her admirers.

Piki kotuku, plume feathers of the white heron, were for a man of high rank only. If a woman ate food in his presence she was said to shed her hair and eyebrows. Huia feathers were highly valued as ornaments. Splendidly carved boxes (waka huia) were made to keep these treasures in safety, for which purpose they were ceremonially sanctified by tapu, against which no man dared to infringe. The skin of the purple pukeko, dried oyer a round stick and scented with oil of the titoki and the fragrant tarata gum, was tied to the ear or worn round the neck.

Hcitiki, carved of greenstone, was a neck ornament used as the memento of an ancestor. It was buried with the last survivor of his line. Of such pendants, the transparent tangiwai was the most highly valued. It is not, as we supposed, a true pounamu, but a softer stone found at -Milford Sound.

Moko—Tattoo. , Though it sounds like Maori, the foreign word tattoo is always resented as an indignity to the divine art of moko. Though tattoo is common to many lands, that of the Maori is distinctive because of its graceful symmetry. The various lines, curves and marks originally had each its own meaning. The sacred art of reading it correctly has been lost with the decline of the toliunga to whom it was entrusted. The moko of the Maori was mainly on the face —that of all other races hidden by clothing. The Maori art of moko was the divine mark of manhood, giving the impress of ability to take a man’s part and the aspect of determination. The face of a papatea (without marks) had no attraction for women. The painful operation, often induced by sheer vanity, required months of endurance to complete. Acute inflammation followed each section of the process. The victim of it lay on his back, and to aid his fortitude a man would sit on each arm and each leg, whilst another held his head. The pattern was outlined in charcoal, then cut with the uhi (whalebone chisel) and struck by a ta (mallet). The chisel was dipped in black pigment made of soot mixed with pigeon fat, then passed through the body of a, hungry dog.

The art of moko is said to have arisen when Tamanui Raki, an ugly man, visited the gods with prayers to be made presentable to his wife. “They transformed his features, and on his return after months of agony, she greeted him with radiant smiles as one of great beauty.” The moko of women was generally only on the lips and chin, always in delicate curves. She was invariably tattooed on the lips before marriage. No one would marry a re'd lip (ngutu whero). To this day, the use of the lipstick among us simply means forbidden fruit. A chief had a tattoo mark of rank on the “ham bone,” and what we regarded as a gesture of contempt or a gross indignity when he lifted his rapaki (girdle) and exposed it was merely a delicate suggestion that he was no mokai (commoner) to take part in a petty quarrel.

Houses—Nga Whare

I The home of the Maori, built wtih loving care and infinite pleasure in the work, lasting over years, meant more to them than any' machine made dwelling of ours to us. A Maori house, whether to shelter half a dozen or a score, was never divided into compartments. The great whare puni, in which a hundred men and women, boys, and girls were accommodated, was originally the gathering place (for sleep) but now regarded as a meeting house or for the shelter of a visiting tribe. Familiarity and contiguity, with the absence of conventions, caused these simple folk to live in safe atmosphere of brotherly and sisterly affection, quite unknown to us. The whare tao, or cook house, was an open shed, well apart from the dwelling, for chiefs and food must be separated lest the man be defiled and the food forbidden by tapu. All houses were oblong with walls only four to five feet high, the ridge pole generally from six to ten feet up. The frame was of selected wood elaborately carved. The roof and sides thickly and warmly thatched with raupo or toitoi leaves. The inner linings were of toi canes laced in elaborate patterns with dyed flax or cabbage tree fibre. Considering tlieir inflammable nature, the houses were seldom burned, though warmed by a log fire on the middle of the clay floor. They had no tobacco, matches, or candles. The whata (storehouse) was built on high carved pillars for fresh air and protection against hordes of hungry kiore (rats). The barge boards of the whata and of the front porch of the whare were elaborately carved and ornamented with iridiseent paua shell eyes and tongue. A. carved image was placed at the apex of the barge boards to ward off evil. Every visitor should see the beautiful carved house at Whaka Rewarewa and the less known but still more wonderful whare puni at Thames which is eighty feet long, with twenty life sized carved figures as posts. Maori homes always were built pointing north and south, so that spirits departing for Te Remga should not cross the tahu (ridge pole) and so bewitch the sleepers.