MAORI IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9307, 16 September 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAORI IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS.

[Lecture delivered at the Auckland Institute by Mr. X. 11. Smith.] No. V.

In Sir G. Grey's "Polynesian Mythology" there is a description of the killing of a monster named Jlolupuku. After tho creature was despatched, it was opened, and in the stomach was found—besides the bodies of men, women, and children, which had been swallowed whole—what the narrator of the story calls a perfect armoury of weapons, mere - pounamu, kotiate, pcilupa-rao-a, maipi, tewhatcwha, pouivhenua, tokotoko (lao), paraon-roa; also a fine collection of ornaments, the enumeration of all which forms a tolerably complete list of such articles. The instruments used in the autopsy also are given, making a fair list of Maori cutting implements. The miratuatini there mentioned is a jtatushaped wooden instrument, with viako, sharks' teeth, set in the outer curved edge. It was, I believe, used in cutting up human bodies at cannibal feasts. A formidable weapon was the iiohoupu {specimen), an adze-shaped affair. The blade was of pounamu or other stone, the handle elaborately carved and decked with feathers.. It was specially the weapon of a chief, and was used to cleave skulls withal. Polack in his book refers to one of these thus :— " At a future period many aboriginal curiosities will be discovered by the European colonists in tilling the ground that will give much satisfaction to the antiquary, as the New Zealanders have been from time immemorial in the habit of burying with their dead the favourite axes and implements of stono that were highly prized by their chiefs while in this existence. The removal of such articles, a few years after being once deposited in a sacred place, would be accounted the height of impiety and sacrilege, either by a foreigner or native; the former would bo subjected to lose every article of property he might possess, the latter to death. This feeling is now fast giving way, but the knowledge of the places where those precious articles ' have been placed is lost, the priesthood only originally knowing the secret, and they are long since numbered with the dead. In 1835 an influential priest was bribed by us to dispose of an ancient adze, called Lolci-putangata by the people ; it was extremely ancient, and had been buried in the sandy soil for many years ; the place of its intermenb was only known to the priest, who had noted the spot by the branching of a particular tree called rata. Wo afterwards discovered that had the circumstance been known of the priest having sold ib,' probably the infuriated sticklers for sanctity would have sacrificed the seller to their resentment. The adze was formed of a blue granite inserted in a handleof the rata or red pine (?) wood, carved agreeably to native taste. This instrument, from disuse, is scarcely to be met with in the country."—(Polack : s "Manners and Customs in New Zealand," vol. i., p. 71.) Weapons of stone were much used by the Maori. Several kinds of stone were used, but the one most prized was the pounamu. The weapon made from this stone was called Amere-pounamu (specimen), and was perhaps the most valuable article a Maori could possess, more especially in the North, so tar from the place whence the stone is obtained. There is some uncertainty as to the period when this stone was discovered or camo into use by the Maoris. There is a legend or myth in which ib is spoken of as a treasure owned by a personage named Ngahue, who brought ib to New Zealand, having been driven away from his home Hawaiki—by a female named Hine-tu -a-ho-anga. After much travelling in search of a suitable location for poulini or pounamu, his ika or valued possession, one was- found for

Ib on the West Coast of the Middle Island* where it remained, and is still found. The legend is given in Sir George Grey's "Polynesian Mythology," p. 82. (Tho foot-notes on that page require correction. Poutini is the greenstone, or pounanm; waiapu is obsidian.) r-OUTINI AND WAIAPO. " Now pay attention to tho cause of the contention which arose between Poutini and Waiapu, which led them to emigrate to New Zealand. For a long time they both rested in the same place, and Hino-tu-a-hoanga, to whom the stone Waiapu (Mata) belonged, became excessively enraged with Ngahue, and with his stone Pontini. At last she drove Ngahuo out and forced him to leave the place, and Ngahuo departed and went to a strange land, taking his jade stone (Poutini, or Pounamu). When Hine-tu-a-hoanga saw that he was departing with his precious stone, she followed after him, and Ngahuo arrived at Tuhua with his stone. Hine-tu-a-hoanga also arrived and landed there at the same bimo with him, and began to drive him away again. Then Ngahuo went to seek a place where his jade stone might remain in peace, and he found, in the sea, this island Ao-te-aroa (the Northern island of New Zealand), and he thought ho would land there. "Then ho thought again, lest he and his enemy should be too close to ono another, and should quarrel again, that ib would be better for him to go further off with his jade stono, a very long way off. So ho carried it off with him, and they coasted along, and at length arrived at Arahura (on the West Coast of the Middlo Island), and ho made that an everlasting restingplace for his jade stone ; then he broke off a portion of his jado stone, and took ib with him and returned, and as he coasted along he at length reached Wairere (believed to be upon the east coast of the Northern Island), and lie visited Whangaparaoa and Tauranga, and from thence he returned to Hawaiki, and reported that ho had discovered a new country which produced the Moa and jade stone in abundance. He now manufactured sharp axes from his jado stone ; two axes" were made from it; Tutauru and Hau-hau-te-ranyi. llemanufacturod some portions of one piece of it into images for neck ornaments, and some portions into ear ornaments ; the name of one of these ear ornaments was Kaukaumatua, which was recently in the possession of To Heuheu, and was only lost in 1846, when he was killed with so many of his tribe by a'landslip. Tho axe, Tutauru, was only lately lost." The legend goes on to tell how the canoes were made which brought the ancestors of the Maori to this land, giving their name*, etc., and proceeds:—"The names of the axes with which they hewed out these canoes were Jlauhau le rangi and Tutauru. Tutauru was the axe with which they cut off the head of Uenuku. All these axes wera made from the block of greenstone brought back by Ngahue to Hawaiki, which was called The Fish of Ngahue.'" The signification of this legend is not clear; but it is, 1 think, symbolical. Iloamja is the name of the sandstone with which the pounamu or greenstone is cut, ground down, and polished. Hine-tu-a-hoanga (the Lady of tho Sandstone) is the cause of a contest or rivalry between and Waiapu or Mala (obsidian), which had previously rested quietly together is the same place. Both are used to make cutting instruments, but tho Pounamu could be ground down or attacked by the Hoanga only, and Ngahue endeavours to place it beyond the reach of this enemy, he being the guardian of Poutini as Hine-tu-a-hoanga appears to bo of Waiapu. May not this legend restupona foundation of truth ? The idea is suggested that Ngahue, having discovered the pounamu in New Zealand, and taken a specimen to Hawaiki on his return thither, failed to give those who came here afterwards such directions as were needed to enable them to find the locality; and that their failure to do so, until comparatively recent times, led to the myth of Ngahue having hidden Poutini to preserve it from injurious contact with Te Hoanga. When- the Ngaitahu crossed from the North Island to the Middlo Island they wore not acquainted with the pounamu. This appears certain from their tradition given in White's "Ancient History of the Maori," vol. pp. 175 and 253 : —"lt is nob till the Ngaitahu conquests reach Horowhenua that we hear anything of Ngatiwairangi, the tribe occupying the West ('oast, who, like Ngati-mamoe and Nga-i-tahu, were descendants of Tura, and crossed over to the South Island almosb the same time with them. Hitherto they had been shut off from communication with the East Coast by what were thought to be impassable natural barriers of mountains, till a woman named Rau-reka discovered a way through them. Wandering from her home this woman went up the bed of the Hokltika river, and then across what is known as Browning's Pass, and thence down to the East Coast. There, in the neighbourhood of Horowhenua, she found some men engaged in making a canoe, and, taking notice of their tools, remarked how blunt they were. The men asked if she knew of any better. She replied by taking a little packet from her bosom, which she carefully unfolded, and displayed a sharp fragment of greenstone. This was the first the natives there had ever seen; and they were so delighted with the discovery that they sent a party immediately over the ranges to fetch some, and ib subsequently came into general use for tools and weapons, those made of inferior materials being discarded." " The descendants of Maru-tu-ahu atHauraki show a heitiki (greenstone ornament) which they say Marutuahu wore when ho arrived in New Zealand. lb has been handed down from generation to generation, being alternately in possession of his Taranaki and Hauraki descendants. Ib is quite possible that traffic in greenstone between Ngatiwairangi (of the West Coast, Middle Island) and the North Island tribes bordering on Cook Strait may have been in existence for many years before it became known bo Ngaitahu." Mr. White says :—" There are four sorts of obsidian— Tuhua, Waiapu, Paneta-o, and Kahurangi, each having its appropriate use, as for cutting the skin at tangihang-a, for cubbing the hair, and for various other uses."

Judge Mailing tells us:—"Flint and obsidian knives were always used by the Maoris at the same time that they had the well-polished tools and weapons of stone. The polished tools were used for canoe-building, making paddles, spears, clubs, agricultural instruments, etc., and were exceedingly valuable. The obsidian splinters were not worth the trouble of making into a regular shape. The edge was as keen as a razor, bub so brittle that it could nob be used for cutting wood, to any advantage. These knives were used for cutting flesh, flax, hair, and for surgical operations. The edge soon came off, when another chip would bo split off the large lump of obsidian, which every family that could afford ib would have lying by the house or concealed somewhere near ab hand. These blocks were usually brought from the island' of Tuhua by the Ngapuhi, when returning from Southern expeditions, and were articles which fetched a"considerable price in the way of barter (specimen). When I first came to the colony, in many inland villages the obsidian knife was still much usod. It was merely a sharp chip, but, when split off artistically, extremely sharp."