NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 1514, 9 November 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BY J. DEUMMO.VD, F.L.S., F.Z.3. When* tlio Right Hon. James Bryce* British Ambassador to the United States, was in Christchurch. during his visit to New Zealand, soino months ago, ho made many inquiries in regard to the Maori dog, an animal which has ail interest now largoly. because there is hardly any doubt whatever that it is 110 longer with us. It is impossible to obtain reliable information of tho date of its passing, but in the Journal of the Polynesian Society for September last Mr. S. Percy Smith expresses an opinion that some of these dogs were alive in 1895, or 1896. If this is correct, the extinction of tlio variety may bo set down at about that time. The evidence which supports this theory is supplied by Mr. C. Clayton, a, surveyor. In 1895 this gentleman, accompanied by an old Maori, travelled through the forests on the upper Rangitata River, near the base of the Ruahine Mountains. On the side of the path along which they tramped they found the body of a dog. Tlio Maori was deeply concerned at the discovery. With tears in his eyes he sat down close to tbo dead body and gave way to lamentations, saying that the dog belonged to the breed which liia ancestors had brought to New Zealand from Hawaiki, and which ho had known well in his young days. Mr. Smith's own evidence is that he saw several Maori dogs in a native village at Waraa, near Cap® Egmont, in 1852. They were long-bodied, fox-eared, sharp-nosed, long-haired, bushytailed, yellowish-brown and almost black—and stood about eighteen inches high, and he seems to feel that, ho is doing them no injustice by branding lliem as I curs. His description of tie Maori dog confirms statements by Cook, J. R. and G.i Forster, Sydney Parkinson, and the Rev. W. Coleiifio. The Maori dog, in fact, seems to have been, a very poor specimen. When alive, it was a plaything and ai pampered pet; when dead, its flesh waa used for food, its skin for clothing and its hair for ornaments. • It was a.'dull, stupid, quiet, lazy, sullen and ugly,' "dumb dog.'' From the old Maoris of his day, Mr. Colenso learnt that it was small. Each! village or pa had only a few specimens. The variety, therefore, was never plentiful. It did not; bark properly, but only howled plaintively. It lived partly on rats and birds, and did not bite ;aien. Its owners were greatly attached to. it. Sometimes it was trained to catch wekas, kiwis, and other ground birds, but in this work, evidently, the master had to display most} of the strategy. It was sometimes lost on account of its stupidity and laziness, bub never became wild in the woods. When it was stolen, or killed, reprisals followed, and these occasionally led to war and murder. The untimely death of a pet dog was lamented'in songs and monodies. It was specially valued if it had white hair and • a long-liaired tail; it slept in,a house on clean mats, in order that the whiteness of the tail should not be soiled. The tail was strangely and regularly shaved, , and the hair was preserved for ornamental use. The operation of shaving tlio tail, - which was quite unique, was never performed by. a common person. Tlio flesh was regarded as a dainty, and was a sacred dish. It) was- eaten by a priest when he performed religious ceremonies - over the children o£ chiefs, and tattooed chief's faces, and on other great occasions. As numbers of dogs were kept for that purpose, the increase was checked. The skins, when flayed, were gleaned' stretcli&P in 1 " ''h£Uow frame, and' were then hung in the wind to dry gradually, protected from the sun, rain and dew. Men made tho dog skin garments worn by tho people, but women wove the inner flax lining. The garments, several of which are in Canterbury Museum, wore reversible. The hairy side was usually worn out, but on canoe voyages at sea the hairy side was turned in to protect tho hairs from tlio salt water*

As early as 1877, Colenso, realising that' the dog had been doomed, mad© an effort to preserve all knowledge of it. The results of his work appear in the tenth "volume of the "Transactions" of the NeviJ Zealand Institute, whero there is a sunnmary of references made to the dog in. a fairly largo number of publications, some of which are rare. The first reference .is from Cook's account of his voyages. Ho first saw the dog at Tolago Bay, on the East Coast, north of Gisborne. "No tame animals were seen among the Natives,"' ho wrote, "except dogs, which., were very small and ugly/'" When, he left tha bay he entered in his diary : "We saw no four-footed animals, nor the appearance of any, either 'tame or wild, except dogs and rats, and these were very scarce; tho people eat ; the dogs, like our friends 'at Tahiti." Sydney Parkinson, who was Cook's draughtsman, while at Tolago Bay, recorded the fact that dogs ' were" seen "like those on the island of Tahiti, and but few." On Cook's second- voyage, George Forster, the naturalist, saw Maori dogs in Queen Charlotte Sound. They were in Maori canoes, and the Maoris, who seemed to bo very fond of them, held them in captivity with strings found their bodies. They 'were a rough, long-haired sort, with pricked ears, and much resembled the common shepherd's cur. They were of different colours, some spotted, some quite black, and others perfectly white." '

Forster and his comrades bought several dogs from the Maoris on that occasion, and were impressed with the sullen disposition, of the adults. As soon as 'they passed; into the possession of the Europeans they became sulky and refused to take any sustenance. "In New Zealand,". he wrote, 4 dogs are the most stupid, , dull animals imaginable and do not seem to have til© least advantages, in point of sagacity, over sheep which are commonly made, the emblems of silliness." Experiments convinced him that they were cannibals by instinct. On board there was a New Zealand puppy, which had had 110 opportunity .for tasting anything buit its mother's milk before it was purchased. The officers dined one day on a dog killed for the meal. Portions of the flesh were eagerly devoured by the New Zealander, while European dogs, taken on board at the Cape, turned from the flesh without touching it. His observations showed that the New Zealand dogs "seldom, if over, barked, but howled sometimes, and wero shy of strangers, to the degree of aversion." In spite of their stupidity, however, they were in high favour with the Maori women, who could not have nursed them with a more ridiculous affection if they had really been ladies of fashion in Europe. ' The Maoris called their dog Kurt and also Peropero, and it is classified in scientific publications as "Canis familiaris, variety maorium."