paint was shark-oil, but when required for personal adornment it was often mixed with vegetable oils expressed from the seeds of the titoki (Alectryon), the kohia (Passiflora), the miro (Podocarpus ferruginea), or the tangiao (Tetranthera calycaris), which were more or less sweet-scented (“Maori Art,” p. 300). A convenient vessel for mixing the paint was found in the paua-shell (Haliotis). The small holes in these were stopped with a flax cord inserted in them and joined so as to form a handle (“Maori Art,” p. 300). When required in a greater quantity a large vessel such as a calabash was employed. Various modes were adopted in the application of the kokowai, each depending on the purpose for which it was required. For the treating of woodwork the mixture was made up into the consistency of ordinary paint and smeared over and rubbed in with a bunch of muka, or flax-fibre. When required for a cosmetic it was used in a more liquid state. Polack, in describing a hahunga, or feast at the ceremonial scraping of the bones of a chief, says, “Red paint was much in requisition. A quantity of the mixture was arranged in a broken calabash, into which some of these antipodal exquisites absolutely dipped the entire head and face” (“Manners and Customs of the New-Zealanders,” vol. i., p. 81). In this form it was also used for saturating the clothes, which was sometimes done. Occasionally it was used in a form of greater consistency. One of the old writers relates that a Maori who was completely covered with kokowai kept a small lump of it in his hand, which he was constantly rubbing on to any portion of his body from which the colour had worn off. Fortunately, the raw material for this much-sought-for pigment was pretty widely distributed; but as there was much difference in quality a good deposit of kokowai formed a valuable possession, and the question of ownership sometimes gave rise to tribal disputes. One important kokowai-field which supplied the wants of the people over a large portion of the Bay of Islands district is situated at a place called Te Ngau Areha, on the highest point of a range of hills which forms the watershed of the Waitangi and Waihou Rivers. Here are still to be seen several extensive excavations, each of which was under separate ownership, and of which one was always kept tapu, its product being reserved for sacred purposes. A similar field lies on the right bank of the Mangonui River, near the harbour, and probably many others now forgotten might be found in several places. Mr. Elsdon Best gives the name of a famous spring which deposited the red pigment near Ohaua. It was known as Nga Toto o Tawera (the Blood of the Morning Star). In Hawke's Bay four varieties are recognised—kokowai, taupo, tareha, and taramea. In Taranaki the material does not seem to be so