MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 8 January 1936, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

(By J.H.S. for “The Daily Times.” MOKO. Many races of women in tho world have disfigured their faces by attempting to beautify them —but Maori men have deliberately beaten all records in making themselves repulsive in order to terrify an enemy. Tattoo is a Polynesian word for tapping. Used on the. face, the Maori name for it is “Moko,” on the body, “Whakairo.” It is an ancient art practiced in many countries. Maori men are thus decorated .on face, liips, and thighs: women on lips, chin, and eyelids. It is stated with authority that they copy the marks on the backs of various fish. Originally it was a mark of high rank. Princes in India regard tho image of a fish as a badge of royalty. Tattoo artists have fame among the Maoris similar to that of portraiture in Europe. The art is difficult. A light mallet and a lancet tipped with bone, stone, hard wood, or shell, is used. This is dipped in the juice of Hinau after each performation, following the lines first painted on the skin. Charcoal from kauri gum is also used as a pigment. Tho process is exceedingly painful, especially when used on eyelid, face, or lip. Inflammation follows, so that the art is very slow, and may require ten years to complete. Tattooed heads, permanently preserved by some unknown process, were sold to European speculators for a blanket, an axe, or a gun, and traded to collectors for fabulous sums.

An Ariki (High Priest) was skilled in the art of Moko. Sometimes a lowborn slave was put through the daily torture of facial Moko for a month, and with the express object of selling the head, but if this became known, the perpetrator had his skull cracked in the act, and died mercifully without premonition. In the case of warriors and others the process was very gradual, and to inspire fortitude or to allay the pain, songs were chanted by beautiful maidens who smiled upon these victims of fashion, many of whom were deluded by the hopes of a lover. Of these charmers it may well be said: “To beguile and to hurt with a smile, and desert, is the wile of a flirt.” On the arrival of the first Missionaries the art of Moko quickly lost its charm, mainly because they described it as ‘ ‘ Mahi Tohunga o to Wliiro ’ ’ (the fine art of the Devil).