Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 1903. I.-Miscellaneous.

Art. I.—Notes on Two Maori Calabashes, with Carved Wooden Necks called Tuki or Ko-ano-ano. By A. K. Newman. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 4th November, 1903.] Plates I. and II. The Maoris having abandoned their original arts, and their old methods of fashioning weapons and utensils, and their charming quaint carvings, it is desirable that real original relics of all kinds should be described and depicted ere they become lost; and this is all the more necessary as the country is being flooded with cheap untrustworthy imitations. Originally the Maoris devoted much labour to carving ornaments, and such carvings abounded in the pas, but through time and neglect many of the commonest have become rare. Recently I bought these two large calabashes, with their artistically carved wooden necks or mouthpieces, and as I cannot find any detailed account of them in our literature or in the Transactions I put on record this description, their history, and their uses. My pair were discovered lying neglected in a Maori outhouse in the Wairarapa. They belonged to a Maori who said they belonged to his grandfather, and are believed to be a hundred years old. This is probably true, for the making of such articles has long been abandoned, and the few now existing show marked signs of age. Each calabash consists of the rind of a gourd called hue, the seed-vessel of a plant brought in the canoes from Hawaiki. To the neck of each gourd is affixed, at its narrowest part, a wooden collar or mouthpiece quaintly carved. The whole is called a taha; the neck is commonly known as tuki,