Moko; or Maori Tattooing

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Back Cover

Title Page

A Strange Trade Deals in Maori Heads Pioneer Artists (By T. Dunbabin)

In 1814, the year in which Senior-Chaplain Marsden first preached the Gospel to the heathen of New Zealand and brought back a cargo of pork and pine, another pioneer showed something new in art to the connoisseurs and dealers of Sydney. This was William Tucker, to whom the South Island Maoris amongst whom he had lived for some time had given the more poetical name of Wioree. Amongst other articles of trade Wioree brought up with him a masterpiece of savage art. On an oval surface had been traced a bewildering variety of designs in which a spiral that might have been inspired by the just uncurling baby fronds of the tree-fern was conspicuous. Other curved lines recalled the arabesques of Moslem art, while the color scheme was a rich blue on a brown ground.

It was, in fact, a Maori head, a fine specimen of the tattooer's art, carefully smoke-dried and preserved. Art collectors were rare in the Sydney of that day, but such a work as this was bound to attract respectful attention. If local patrons failed, there was a market overseas for such a treasure. So Wioree benefited by his enterprise to the extent of £20, which gave a very fair profit on the few shillings' worth of old iron which he had laid out for the head in New Zealand.

But like many another before and since, Wioree lost his head as a result of his success. In 1817 he sailed with James Kelly, master mariner, of Hobart Town, on a sealing and trading voyage to New Zealand. The Otago Maoris, no doubt resenting Tucker's earlier interference with the Dunedin art gallery of the day, fell upon the unlucky dealer and clubbed him to death.

Boom in Art

In spite of this untoward ending for the pioneer in the popularisation of Maori art, the trade in heads flourished apace.

Dried heads soon took their place with pork, pine spars, and flax amongst the chief exports of New Zealand. It was not necessary to rob the tribal art galleries of the ancestral heads, for the eminent Maori who loved a fight for its own sake, but liked to make war pay, too soon took to this new trade. After eating the rest of his slaughtered enemies he could sell the heads to the Sydney traders at a good price in gunpowder and other munitions of war, and thus acquire the means of collecting more heads. A raid was an easier and more sporting way of securing muskets, powder and tomahawks than the alternative of scraping flax or cutting and hauling spars.

Sometimes a chief would enter into a contract to supply so many heads, at that moment still on their owners' shoulders, taking payment in advance. He always tried to deliver the goods, but occasionally lost his own head instead.

It is related of the chief Te Hiko that he used to parade his moving pictures before the dealers, who picked out the heads that pleased them best. Te Hiko would then have them taken off and nicely dried all ready for export.

It must be admitted that trickery did occasionally creep into art, and that old masters were faked. Slaves were usually not tattooed, but some unscrupulous chiefs had the heads of their slaves specially tattooed and then cut them off, dried them, and sold them as genuine works of art. Apart from the doubtful morality of this practice, the slaves sometimes ran away with their master's property after their heads had been tattooed and before the next step was taken.

One or two chiefs of the baser sort descended to even greater depths of trickery. They had the heads tattooed after they had been cut off, and tried to pass them off as genuine works of art. Such a fraud was soon detected, for tattoo marks made in this way faded after a short period.

With the waves of war and slaughter which rolled over New Zealand just about a century ago as a result of the introduction of firearms and of the organisation of raids on a great scale by such chiefs as Hongi Ika and Te Rauparaha, the supply of heads began to outrun the demand. The price, once as high as £20, slumped to £2. Art was brought within the reach of the middle classes.

In 1826, when the bottom was nearly out of the market, a Sydney merchant was walking down George-street when he met a seaman with something rolled up in a handkerchief. Thinking that it was a cocoanut or some such thing from the islands he asked the sailor what he was carrying. The latter obligingly unrolled the bundle and displayed a dried head with long black hair. This, he said, was the head of a New Zealander which he was going to sell for two guineas to a gentleman about to embark for England.

Importation Prohibited

Not long after this Governor Darling put his foot down. He prohibited under heavy penalties any importation of or dealing in Maori heads. Had the demand been really brisk the heads would no doubt have been smuggled into Sydney; but with the market so dull it was not worth while.

In New Zealand itself there was of little deal in heads nearly 40 years later, but it was not a matter of art. During the Hau-Hau outbreaks in Taranaki an officer, weary of chasing elusive Hau-Haus through the bush, and sickened by evidences of their savagery, said in the hearing of some Maori auxiliaries that he would gladly pay £5 each for the heads of the Hau-Haus.

That night a little deputation of Maoris came to his tent bearing bags. They opened the bags, and out rolled a dozen Hau-Hau heads.

Sydney "Sun" 21-1-1923.

The Evening Post, Saturday, September 4, 1920. The Maori Wars Major-General Robley Soldier and Artist (A Sketch by H. Fildes.)

During a portion of last year I had the privilege of being stationed in London, where I experienced the pleasure of meeting Major-General Horatio~~Henry~~ Gordon Robley, a veteran of the Tauranga Maori campaign of 1865–66, and from him I was able to learn a few particulars of his interesting career. Perhaps with the possible exception of the late Major-General Sir James E. Alexander, it is doubtful if any Imperial, officer who took part in those stirring times so closely identified himself with this country, or subsequently showed the same interest in it as Major-General Robley. He was born on the 28th June, 1840, when the colonisation of New Zealand was in its early processes, and is, therefore, now over the four-score. When the second unfortunate Maori War of 1860 a young man of twenty, was stationed in India with the 68th Regiment, now known as the Durham Light Infantry, and subsequent to the siege of Delhi, followed by the capture of its old, feeble, and senile King, Bahadur Shah II., with his banishment to Rangoon, was in charge of the guard placed over that dusky potentate. The two or three years Major-General Robley was quartered in Burmah with his regiment, gave him the opportunity to study the arts, mythology, and beliefs of the Burmese, and, being proficient in the use of both pencil and brush, he has left on record many striking sketches of that application; besides illustrations of incidental experiences and strange things witnessed. His sojourn in Burmah was terminated with the outbreak of the Maori War of 1860, a conflict that, perhaps, could have been avoided if the governing powers of the day had displayed more skill and tact than were shown. The province of Taranaki was the scene of the initial conflict, where the measures taken to subjugate it were far from successful; and in a very short time the Ngati-Maniapoto, a powerful Waikato tribe, were sending bands of fighting men to the assistance of the Taranaki tribes; while elsewhere in the Auckland province other tribes were engendering a strong feeling of antagonism to the Europeans. Meanwhile Governor Gore-Browne had been recalled, Sir George Grey appointed in his stead, and in the space of two years some 6000 British troops from England, India, China, and Australia had been poured into the colony, commanded by officers who had rendered distinguished services in the Crimean and Indian Wars.

A Landing in Auckland.

In 1863 the 68th Regiment was ordered to leave Burmah for active service in New Zealand, and with the headquarters' staff went Ensign Robley, landing at Auckland from the transport Australian on the 8th January, 1864, in wet and wintry weather conditions, he having the honour of carrying ashore the Queen's colours. So soon as the regiments were quartered in Albert Barracks-square to the tune of their own quick step, Ensign Robley went into the embryo city, where he purchased a Maori vocabulary and Judge Maning's fine book on Maori life and the war in the North, called “Old New Zealand.” This work had just then been published. From a study of both of them he obtained his first insight of Maori customs and a knowledge of the language, which, by further study, led to him becoming an authority on these subjects. Prior to this the war had spread into the Waikato, and by April, 1864, it had in a way been terminated, whereas General Cameron removed his headquarters to Tauranga, where an outbreak was threatened, the 68th Regiment, commanded by Colonel Greer, being ordered there. The campaign that soon followed was made memorable by the disastrous reverse for our troops at Gate Pa and the victory at Te Ranga. Ensign Robley, who was now a lieutenant, and an Instructor of Musketry, served through the whole of this campaign, and was able to leave on record scores of drawings and water-colour views, depicting scenes he went through and personalities met. That he came through the campaign unscathed is a matter for wonder. It would seem as if through his sojourn in the East the mysti~~ficatio~~n mysticism of that part of the world had somewhat impressed him, for he relates that prior to leaving for New Zealand a friend of his, an old yellow-robed Bhuddist monk, in whose monastery at Rangoon he had been permitted to make sketches, prevailed upon him to have pricked on his right arm a sacred red emblem which would make him invulnerable to the hurt of all weapons. This General Robley afterwards humourously characterised as quite a one-sided arrangement, and unfair to the Maoris.

Following the capitulation of the Maori chief William Thompson in June, 1865, the necessity of retaining the British troops in New Zealand no longer prevailed; the country had been won over to the self-reliant policy, whereby the termination of the war was to be effected by the employment of colonial-raised troops, and amongst other regiments that were evacuated was the 68th, which was ordered ~~to Cape Colony and Zululand, in 18.~~Home. In 1870 Captain Robley linked up with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, subsequently serving with them in South Africa It was wh~~ile~~en in 1884 in Zululand that ~~Lieutenant~~ Robley first met an officer who became famous in the Great War, Major-General Allenby, and their friendship has continued to the present time. ~~From Cape Colony the 68th Regiment was ordered home, Lieutenant Robley obtaining a transfer to the 1st Batallion Argyll and Sutherland, Highlanders who for a period were quartered at Stirling, and~~ Sso proud was he of his connection with this famous regiment, of which he subsequently became Colonel, that he wrote and published its history, extending from 1794 to 1887, in which latter year he retired with the rank of Major-General and took up his residence in London, where he has ever since resided.

The leisure he now enjoyed gave him the opportunity of further pursuing the search for knowledge of all that appertained to Maori life and customs, and in 1896 he published that remarkable and unique work entitled “Moko, or Maori Tattooing,” the first part of which relates to its subject name, while the second half of the book, named “Mokomokai,” is devoted to dried Maori heads. It should be explained that the word “tattoo” is not a New Zealand Maori word, but a Polynesian one; a native of this country, in early times at any rate, would refer to the moko, not tattoo, lines on his body, while the word “mokoamokai” simply means “dried head.” This valuable work is enriched with numerous illustrations, many of which the author is responsible for, and it is well it is so, as photography was not at all suitable for placing on record the wonderful facial and body delineations of this now vanished art of the Maori. It is extremely doubtful if there is now a native to be found whose face is well covered with tattoo, while twenty-five and thirty years ago cases were fairly numerous. The two subjects which comprise this work are quite akin, as every dried head would have an elaborate facial design. It is true, however, that when European and American museums were keenly desirous of obtaining specimens, and the demand for such exceeded the supply, many a poor unfortunate Maori slave or prisoner, whose face perhaps bore no tattoo scroll and line pattern, was killed for the express purpose of having his face incised with the art of the tattooer. This is referred to as post-mortem moko, and can be recognised as such through the cuttings in the flesh not healing as they would in life, but remaining striated, while another curious fact relating to it, and not generally known to those who have seen specimens in our Dominion museums, is that if the head was that of a friend the lips would be brought together in the process of embalming, while in that of an enemy they would be drawn far back, exposing the white teeth in the paroxyism of death.

A Collector of Heads.

As an authority on this subject General Robley stood alone. No one else had attempted it, so therefore this work of his, based on his own careful investigations and the few brief references made by early voyages, is all that we have. For many years he possessed a collection of thirty-five heads, obtained by him at great trouble and expense from the British and other curio dealers, and in 1908 came to the conclusion that the time had arrived to take some steps to preserving the collection as a whole. With this end in view, he twice offered it to the New Zealand Government for the sum of £1100, but though the late Hon. Mr. Seddon was disposed to purchase, other influences in New Zealand prevailed. In 1909 the collection was on view in the Liverpool Museum, and when seen by a representative of a U.S.A. museum, who gathered it was in the market, he immediately cabled to his principals, who promptly and briefly replied “buy,” and so all of them, with the exception of five, found a home in the United States for the sum of £1250, or a matter of £41 for each specimen. The five that were excepted were some of the best, and these General Robley had reserved, trusting that this country would yet see its way to acquire them for the national collection, and so restore these wandering heads to the land of their origin. Notwithstanding he gave New Zealand every opportunity to possess them, no interest was shown, and in course of time they found ready and satisfactory purchasers abroad. There are perhaps not more than seven preserved Maori heads in the whole of New Zealand. Both the Auckland and Christchurch Museums have each possessed two specimens for many years past, but they are not of the best. Those at Auckland are of two chiefs named Moetarau and Koukou, who were killed in a fight at Opua about 1820. The Hocken collection at Dunedin has a rather inferior specimen obtained by Dr. Hocken from General Robley, while of late years the Dominion Museum procured one from Tasmania, while a second specimen on view is privately owned. These two heads are the property of the New Zealand GovtGovernment. & were obtained from Tasmania. Quite a number of European museums possess these heads: the Paris Museum of Natural History has six obtained by early French voyagers, the Berlin Museum has two, while in various museums in the United Kingdom there are at least sixty. At the bottom of the Red Sea are two, keeping company with Pharaoh's army. In 1919 the writer of this article was present at Steven and Co.'s auction rooms, near Covent Garden, and saw a fine specimen sold to a dealer for £30, who would perhaps obtain as much as £50 to £70 for it.

Following the publication of his work, “Moko,” a book which the author considered somewhat hastily written, General Robley assiduously applied himself for a period of ten years collecting additional matter with the view of a second and enlarged edition, but he found that increasing age had placed the task beyond him. At this time Dr. Hocken, of Dunedin, was on a visit to England, where he met the author, who made over to him the whole of his additional notes, besides his own copy of the work, containing marginal corrections and additions, and at the same time Dr. Hocken, with characteristic thoroughness, negotiatated with the publishers for the purchase of the complete set of original printing blooks to the illustrations, and with these in his possession he hoped to issue a second edition, an intention that was frustrated by the death of the Doctor ~~in 1909~~ on the 17 May 1910. The material is now in the Hocken collection, waiting to be taken in hand by some one having the necessary enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject.

The three years General Robley was in New Zealand he used his pen, pencil, and brush to some purpose, placing on record many of the historic scenes he went through or was witness of, besides making water colour sketches of many of the leading Maori warrior chiefs, rebel and friendly. At one time he offered the Tauranga Borough Council a set of portraits of the most prominent chiefs in the Tauranga campaign, but this offer was also refused, as not being of sufficient interest.

However, in 1905, he was more fortunate, when the New Zealand Government purchased seventy of his water colour sketches. These are now in the Dominion Museum, and though poorly displayed, through lack of proper wall space or suitable cases, are deeply interesting. They represent his best work, and all depict scenes and incidents in the Tauranga campaign. It is of interest to note here that the artist was of opinion that the missionary, the Rev. C. S. Volkner, of Opotiki, was put to death by the Hau Hau fanatics on 2nd March, 1865, as utu for the capture of the rebel chief Tupaea, who they believed had been put to death. As an illustrator of Maori physiognomy, carvings, and art generally, Major-General Robley stands almost unrivalled. His drawings of natives are certainly more true to type than are those of that accomplished and ambidextrous artist, George French Angas, who most excels in representing scenes of Maori life, carvings, and habiliments.

Some Little-Known Work.

Some years ago he prepared illustrations for Maning's book “Old New Zealand,” and though these are still in England, and have not been made use of, it is satisfactory to know they were presented by the artist to Mr. R. D. M'Lean, of Hawkes Bay, who has them at his London residence, Cadogan-square, along with other examples of the artist's brush.

The only other written work relating to New Zealand that has been published was one entitled “Pounamu: Notes on New Zealand Greenstone.” This was issued in 1915, and is profusely illustrated with drawings and photos made and taken by the author. The work has not been placed on sale in this country, and it is doubtful if there are even half a dozen copies here. It is dedicated to Mrs. R. D. M'Lean, through whose interest, along with that of Mr. M'Lean's, the publication was undertaken, while elsewhere acknowledgement is made to Mr. Elsdon Best and the late Canon Stack for information supplied.

Taking his collection of Maori heads as models, with those he had seen in various museums in Europe, he made water, colour drawings, both full and side face, of the best of these, and only as late as 1918 offered a set of forty to the New Zealand Government for the modest sum of £20; and it is greatly to be regretted that again advantage was not taken of the opportunity to acquire them. The small recompense solicited by the gifted artist was quite out of proportion to the time, travel, and work involved in their production. From 1886 to 1894, and perhaps later, he contributed quite eighty drawings to the London Graphic, but they do not relate to New Zealand. One of them, a full-page illustration, and full of humour, represents the visit of a unit of Highland Regiment to Paris, and is entitled, “Should Mounted Highland Regiments Wear Kilts?” From 1864 to 1866 the Illustrated London News reproduced quite a number of his drawings relating to the Maori War, with accompanying letterpress furnished by the artist. The originals are still with that newspaper, which is not disposed to negotiate for their transfer elsewhere.

Following General Robley's retirement from the Army, his interest in it was continued in many ways, and for quite a period he acted as Range Officer at Wimbledon Rifle Range, besides acting in the same capacity at the annual championships between the Lords and Commons. Throughout the late war he particularly interested himself in New Zealand troops who happened to be in London, and while perhaps, through belonging to a past generation and unknown to this one, he did not make his identity known, many wounded New Zealand soldiers may recall having been spoken to by an elderly civilian possessing somewhat the cast of countenance and build of the late Lord Roberts, who interrogated them regarding their disablement, and presented them with a hand-painted postcard, generally characteristic of the Dominion's part in the war, with the request they should write on it the date and locality when and where they received their casualty.

In spite of his great age General Robley continues to enjoy fairly good health, and whenever circumstances permit keeps in close touch with the many Maori curios, weapons, etc., that from time to time change hands in the auction rooms, or are deposited in the curio shops of the great metropolis. It is somewhat strange he has never written an account of his New Zealand war experiences, but information recently to hand indicates that within the last few months he has applied himself to this, and before long the manuscript will be sent out to this country, where perhaps some day it may be placed in such form as to be available to all those interested.

That his hand has not lost its cunning as a painter of Maori scenes was demonstrated only so recently as August of last year, when he completed a fine painting, from a sketch furnished by the writer, of a large meeting of natives and settlers held at the Pa Whakairo. Te Aute, in 1863, presided over by Sir Donald M'Lean, and the native chiefs Porokuru, Te Moananui, and Te Hapuko, where the land question was under discussion, and incidentally one of Sir George Grey's famous flour mills was being presented to the natives.

O. Fildes Wellington. N.Z.

from G. Robley. London. 1919.

The M consists of Tattooing Instruments. The remaining Letters are made up of scrolls from moko.

6. Morris St. St James. London. S. W. 1.

6/7/1927 Dear Fildes

6th is next to yours 27 May safely read and to make birthday once more nice so just you a tube to register draw my e as when in RomeMarch 1900. King Humbert accepted as frontispiece to his moko — if you do same it will add a little to Book — Weather tropical, is too much all at once but such a glut of fruit is seen — I did look in letter to see if your dear friend was bettering — I did think of this — you are right about the Brett picture — I never liked — I for my day wishes from -friend of Macleans, as I was able to do be ood turn re the Collection- "Indigenous Races in B. Empire The manuscript book or picture collectn need

seeninservices I will send mail or two later for you to keep I will have war times meeting you

Hope friend is restored to Health

Best wishes with ka Yrs truly H G Robley Register 6th—the Head kept with such care in Rome from source histore & voyage You all killd

The Head at the Archælogical Museum, Rome, was drawn in 1900, and copy placed as frontispiece in MOKO, then presented to King Humbert—in March 1900. Queen Margharita accepted a volume for her Library as the decoration of Maori women was shown therein— H.G. Robley

Description: A watercolour painting of a mokomokai by Robley.

This image is not available for public viewing as it depicts either mokamokai (preserved heads) or human remains. The reasons for non-display are detailed in the policy regarding display of images of mokamokai. If you would like to comment on this decision you can contact NZETC.

A Chief's Tattooing. Tomileo (Dominic) Te Mutu of Tauranga. 1860.

Moko; or Maori Tattooing By Major-General Robley With 180 Illustrations from Drawings by The Author and From Photographs 500 copies published.London: Chapman and Hall, Limited1896Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,London and Bungay.

To Those who have Served Against the Warriors of New Zealand I Dedicate This Little Book

H. G. R.

Preface

My main object in this book is to present a series of illustrations of the art of moko or tattooing, as practised by the Maoris. It is fast vanishing, and a record of it by one who has studied the subject for many years may be worth publication. I have learnt all I could of moko in New Zealand, and from the best sources; and such skill as I have as an artist has long been employed in setting down my notes in the form of drawings. Literary skill I cannot claim; but I have collected all I can get in the way of information from numerous authorities, a list of which is appended. My personal experiences during the Maori campaign of 1864–66 and my subsequent inquiries have enabled me to form and express some opinions of my own and to add a little independent matter. But I wish to express my indebtedness to very many writers whose works I have laid under contribution. It is, however, as a means of publishing my drawings, sketches, and photographs that I have put my notes together in the form they now take.

The beautiful arabesques in moko patterns might, I think, commend themselves to art students and designers, as well as to students of ethnology and folk lore; for the native artist in moko must be entitled to the credit of great originality and taste in his patterns; and his skill was such as to class him among the world's artists. These designs seem to me to contain a mine of wealth to the modern student.

I have to express my sincere gratitude to many respected friends and acquaintances for kind assistance. I am most indebted to many polite strangers in all parts of the world, curators of museums, and others, upon whom I have intruded, and who have courteously responded to my inquiries and to my appeals for help; and the number of these obligations is so large that I can only make this general acknowledgment of them. In conclusion, I wish again to say that I hope my book will be judged of by the illustrations and not by the letterpress. I began to collect my pictures long ago, when the art of moko was a living one. It is now in a state of decay, and my hope is that such little skill as I have in depicting the old art of moko will be appreciated by those who sympathise with art in whatever form it is presented.

Two Letters.

The Right Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B., to the Author. 7 Park Place, St. James's, S.W. 3rd August, 1894.

Dear Sir,—I think your illustrations of Maori tattooing are interesting and valuable, as they give with great correctness some of the patterns of Maori tattooing; and the portraits are equally interesting as they give excellent illustrations of the art of “moko” which is rapidly passing away, and will soon be forgotten.

Faithfully yours, G. Grey

The Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., to the Author. High Elms, Farnborough, R.S.O. 1st December, 1894.

Dear Sir,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and shall be happy to see your book on New Zealand tattooing.

It is most important to preserve all evidence of a life which is rapidly disappearing.

I am, yours truly, John Lubbock.

Contents Part I.—Moko Chapter Page I. How Moko first became known to Europeans 1 II. Men's Moko 20 III. Women's Moko 33 IV. Moko Processes and Tapu 48 V. Patterns and Designs 64 VI. Operators or Artists in Moko 98 VII. Mokoed Europeans and Mokoed Visitors to Europe 102 VIII. Moko in Legend and Song 114 IX. Decadence of Moko 121 Part II.—Mokoamokai X. Tradition, History, and Incidents 131 XI. Methods of Embalming 148 XII. Traffic in Heads 166 XIII. Mokoed Heads in Museums and Collections 183 List of some of the Works consulted 209

Illustrations Fig. Page A Chief's tattooing Frontispiece Tomika te Mutu. 1. From an original drawing for Captain Cook's Voyages 5 2. From one of Sydney Parkinson's drawings 6 3. Specimen drawn by Sydney Parkinson. One of the earliest known patterns 7 4. Head of a Chief from one of Sydney Parkinson's drawings 9 5. Specimen of a moko signature 10 6. A moko signature. Kowiti, Chief of Waimate and Maunganui 11 Kawiti 7. Sketch of his own moko, drawn by the Chief Themoranga 12 Te morenga. 8. Moko signature on a deed 13 Tuha waiki 9. Moko signature on a deed 14 Koroko 10. Tattooing on the face of Te Pehi Kupe, drawn by himself 15 11. From a drawing in Dumont D'Urville's Voyages 17 12. Signatures of Chiefs of the Bay of Islands 18 13. Tracing from a thigh-skin in the possession of the Author 20 14. A well-chiselled head, with deep incision 21 15. From life by the Author, showing good nose-marking 22 Te Kuha, or Te mea. 16. Thigh-tattooing 23 17. Body-tattooing 24 18. Thigh-tattooing 25 19. Warrior fallen in the fern 26 Rawiri Tuaia 20. A Native Preacher 27 21. A Chief's tattooing: a full face of the portrait given as frontispiece 28 22. A young Chief fully tattooed, bayoneted in left eyebrow 29 Te Kani 23. An aged Chief wearing hair over moko 30 Patuone 24. Type of Maori 31 Taraia. 25, 26. Two heads 31 Ane-hana 27. Moko in the war-dance 32 Hoete Pae ti rori 28. Curious tattooing on a girl's forehead 34 29. Usual tattooing on a Maori woman 35 30. A Maori girl, showing two lines over upper lip. three on lower lip, and ornament on chin 36 31. An old woman. well marked 37 32. Tattooed young 38 33. From Dumont D'Urville's Voyages, c. 1826 38 34. A girl's head from Dumont D'Urville's Voyages 39 35. The same, lip and chin 39 36. From Dumont D'Urville's Voyages 40 37. Curious tattooing on a Maori woman 40 38. Half-caste girl 40 39. From a wooden effigy in the British Museum, showing thigh tattooing on a women. The figure was presented by Sir A. W. Franks, K.C.B. 41 40. Right upper-lip unfinished 42 41. Half-caste and child 43 42. An Albino women tattooed 44 43. A sketch from Angas' book (1846) dyed lacerations at a mourning 45 44. Portrait of a Maori girl 46 45. Usual, tattooing: from a photograph 47 46. Uhi, or chisels in the British Museum (actual size). Presented by Sir George Gray, K.C.B. 48 47. Tattooing instruments (after Polack) 49 48. Tattooing a head 51 49. Tattooing a thigh (after Earle) 54 50. Vegetable caterpillar, from which a dye is obtained 56 51. Tapued Chief eating with a fern-stalk. (After Taylor) 59 52. A tattooed gourd 60 53. Funnel for feeding a Chief during time of tattooing 62 54. Ancient moko pattern called moko kuri in Mr. J. White's book 64 55. A forehead, Author's collection 65 56. A forehead 65 57. Left half of a forehead 66 58. A forehead, showing signs of post-mortem work, over living work 67 59. Left half of a forehead 67 60. Forehead 67 61. Variety in scroll-work on forehead: a good specimen 68 62. Specimen of coarse moko on forehead; lop-sided or irregular work 69 63. Forehead 70 64. Patterns of moko at corner of eyes 71 65. Marking over bridge of nose 72 66. Over the nose 72 67. Nose tattooing 72 68. Various patterns on noses 73 69. Upper lip and chin 74 70. From a wooden effigy in the British Museum. Remarkable tattooing on lips, unfinished 74 71. Upper lip and chin 75 72. Over upper lip 75 73. Over upper lip 75 74. Upper lip and chin 76 75. On right cheek 76 76. Lines from nostril to chin, from the outer line commences the lower spiral on jaw 77 77. Spirals on right cheek 78 78. Near left ear; good work 79 79. Near right ear 80 80. Near left ear 81 81. Marking near right ear 81 82. Near left ear 82 83. Near left ear 82 84. Marking near right ear 83 85. Near left ear 83 86. Near left ear 83 87. Near left ear 83 88. Chin patterns 84 89. Chin patterns 84 90. Chin patterns 84 91. A chin pattern 85 92. Chin 85 93. A chin 85 94. Chin 86 95. An unfinished chin 86 96. Chin 87 97. Chin 87 98. Plaster cast of a Rotorua native, 1854 88 Tapue te Whauoa 99. Gateway of a Pa, showing a carved head 89 100. End of a staff, showing pattern of thigh-tattooing 90 101. A Maori and the prow of war-canoe: both showing fine carving 91 102. Tattooing on a bone 91 103. Old wooden effigy good thigh tattooing 92 104. Old wooden earring, probably part of a central post in a house at Hawke's Bay, N.Z. 93 105. An old effigy showing body carving 93 106. Old wooden effigy. Fine head and body carving 94 107. Warning figure against trespass on tapued land 95 108. Very old effigy. Fine head 95 109. Wooden effigy of an ancestor 96 110. A block of Kauri gum, carved as a head 97 111. Aranghie; a portrait after Earle 99 112. Portrait of John Rutherford 103 113. A bust of himself in wood by Hongi 106 114. Portrait of Te Pehi Kupe 108 115. E Gnoni, a Chief of Mukou (Lat. 38 beg. S.). Once resident in London. Drawn by himself on the wood 109 116. Wax model of a Maori who died in Guy's Hospital, London 110 117. King Tawhiao, died August 27, 1894 112 118. Maori father and son, the latter without tattooing 121 119. Unfinished moko 122 Paora. 120. Unfinished tattooing 122 Tamati mauao. 121. Unfinished tattoo 123 122. Partly tattooed 123 123. Unfinished tattoo 124 Ramira te Hiahia. 124. Photograph of Maori wearing hair over tattoo 125 Maihi 125. Old man wearing hair over tattoo 126 126. Incomplete tattoo, hair grown over markings 126 127. Slight tattooing with hair 126 Ihaaka 128. A Maori sailor 127 Anaru 129. The engineer of the Gate Pa 127 Penetaka 130. Wounded Maoris (with slight tattooing) 128 Reweti 131. Preserved heads of Maori warriors arrayed in robes and displayed by their conquerors 131 132. Specimen at Saffron Walden Museum; head of woman, with post-mortem tattooing only, probably done for sale 133 133. Taraia (a Chief who cooked two native Christians in 1842), fully tattooed, fine specimen 143 134. A specimen in Author's collection, head preserved by friends. Showing varying pattern on cheeks 145 135. Preserved head of a Maori baby (in King's College Museum, London) with grey glass eyes added by a European taxidermist 146 136. Specimen in Author's collection 149 137. Specimen in Author's collection; glass eyes added 150 138. Specimen in Author's collection; lips with blue dye 151 139. Specimen in Author's collection, showing tattooing on neck 152 140. Specimen in Author's collection, fully tattooed head 153 141. Specimen in Author's collection, showing work done with fine instruments 154 142. Specimen in Author's collection, forehead and nose completed 155 143. Specimen in Author's collection 156 144. Same head as Fig. 134 157 145. Mourning over the head of a friend. (After the Rev. Mr. Yates) 159 146. Head with false eyes inserted by native taxidermist 161 147. Head of a boy with post-mortem moko, in the possession of J. W. Colmer, Esq. 162 148. Specimen in Author's collection 163 149. Specimen in Army Medical Department at Washington, U.S.A. 164 150. Head of a Chief 165 Paikia 151. Bargaining for a head, on the shore, the Chief running up the price 168 152. Offer of a living mokoed head for sale 171 153. Opening at the neck showing a hoop and sewing of flax 172 154. Group of heads in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, at Paris; one is a skin mounted on a plaster east 174 155. Specimen in Royal college of Surgeons 184 156. Specimen in Royal College of Surgeons 185 157. Specimen in Royal College of Surgeons 186 158. Beared specimen in Royal College of Surgeons 187 159. Specimen showing some post-mortem tattooing. Royal College of Surgeons 188 160. Specimen in Royal College of Surgeons 189 161. Specimen in British Museum. The best in that collection 190 162. Specimen in British Museum. Lips cut after death 191 163. Specimen in British Museum 192 164. Specimen in British Museum 193 165. Specimen in Author's collection 194 166. Specimen in St. George's Hospital, London 195 167. Specimen in Museum at Halifax, Yorks; showing bands of tattooing on cheek 196 168. Specimen in Museum at Halifax, Yorks; showing unfinished nose 197 169. Specimen in Berlin Museum 198 170. Specimen in Berlin Museum 199 171. Specimen in South Kensington Museum 200 172. Baron Von Hügel's collection, Cambridge 201 173. Specimen in Ethnological Museum at Florence. Pattern scratched in 202 174. Specimen in Auckland Museum, N.Z. 203 Moetara, or Koukou 175. Specimen in Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, N.Z. 203 176. Specimen in the Ethnological Museum at Florence 204 177. Specimen in Oxford University Museum 205 178. Specimen in Göttingen Museum 206 179. Specimen owned by Professor Giglioli, of Florence 207 180. Specimen in Plymouth Museum 208

Part I Moko

Moko and MokoamokaiChapter I How Moko First Became Knows to Europeans

History may yet have more to tell us about the Maoris, but the earliest record of them we have is in the journal of the celebrated traveller Abel Tasman. His visit to New Zealand in December, 1642, was very short, and it ended in bloodshed. But Tasman and the artist who accompanied him, though they record much of the personal appearance of the Maori, make no mention of tattooing. We can hardly suppose that this remarkable feature escaped their observation, since the figure, complexion, hair, and dress are all described; and the conclusion is that in Tasman's days moko or tattooing did not exist. The Maori has only legends and oral traditions to account for his presence in New Zealand and for his customs such as moko. Maori tradition sheds little light on the origin of this custom. There is no reference in song or chant to help the investigator; and the most that can be done is to compare the observations of navigators with the latest knowledge. In this way we learn something of its rudiments, of its early simplicity, of its later richness and more perfect design, and ultimately of its decay. After a long gap of one hundred and twenty-seven years, we come upon the next mention of the Maori in history; and during that space of time nothing is known of New Zealand. Not until Captain Cook, the great navigator, visited these Islands in 1769 was anything more known. Captain Cook and the Eudeavour returned to England in June, 1771, and then it was that the subject of this book became known. The treasures he brought back from the Southern Hemisphere and the drawings and journals he made will be referred to presently. In his time moko was much used in New Zealand. Native tradition has it that their first settlers used to mark their faces for battle with charcoal, and that the lines on the face thus made were the beginnings of the tattoo. To save the trouble of this constantly painting their warlike decorations on the face, the lines were made permanent. Hence arose the practice of carving the face, and the body with dyed incisions. The Reverend Mr. Taylor (an accepted authority on matters relating to the natives of New Zealand) is of opinion that moko or tattooing originated otherwise; and he assumes that the chiefs being of a lighter race and having to fight side by side with slaves of darker hues darkened their faces in order to appear of the same race. These two methods of accounting for the origin of moko are not inconsistent, and both may have had their share in bringing about the results which it is proposed to consider. No reliable evidence whatever exists as to the nature, meaning, extent, or elaboration of primitive moko. But the fact need not diminish its interest.

The term tattoo is not known in New Zealand; and the name given to the decorative marks in question, though elsewhere so called, is in New Zealand moko. The subject, it is true, exercised almost a fascination for the great navigator Captain Cook, who practically rediscovered New Zealand after it had first been visited (as already narrated) in 1642 by Tasman; and to Captain Cook we owe the first full and faithful description of moko, for he gave to it the full force of his unrivalled powers of observation. So important are his comments and notes on the subject that I shall refer to them at some length in the course of this chapter. For the moment I will digress to deal with early historical mention of markings of this nature. Herodotus appears to refer to it as being customary among the Thracians, where he says: “To have punctures on their skin is with them a mark of nobility; to be without these is a testimony of mean descent.” This remark suggests a curious analogy between the ancient Thracian noble and the modern Maori chief. Plutarch says that the Thracians of his time made tattoo marks on their wives to avenge the death of Orpheus whom they had murdered in Mœnad fury while celebrating the mysteries of Bacchus. And it is not a little remarkable that a custom should be at one time a punishment to the female sex, when it was or had been an ornament to the other.

There are other references to the custom, and these all tend to show how widely diffused it was. It is, for instance, evidently alluded to (together with the practice of wounding the body to show mourning) in Leviticus (chap. xix). At the twenty-eighth verse we read: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.”also Jeremiah, chap. 16, & 1st King's, chap. 18. It is reasonable to suppose that both injunctions were directed against a practice common amongst neighbouring nations, which the chosen people according to their usual propensity showed a tendency to imitate. Pliny too states that the dye with which the Britons stained themselves was that of a herb glastum: that they introduced the juice with punctures previously made in the skin so as to form permanent delineations of various animals and other objects.

I will now deal with Captain Cook's remarks.

On Sunday, October 8th, 1769, Captain Cook records that the first native with moko was hot, and notes that one side of the face was tattooed in spiral lines of a regular pattern. The navigator calls the tattooing “amoco.” In recounting his first voyage, Captain Cook says each separate tribe seemed to have a different custom in regard to tattooing; for those in some canoes seemed to be covered with the marking; while those in other canoes showed scarcely stain except on the lips, which were black in all cases. He says: “The bodies and faces are marked with black stains they call amoco—broad spirals on each buttock—the thighs of many were almost entirely black, the faces of the old men are almost covered. By adding to the tattooing they grow old and honourable at the same time.”

And again: “The marks in general are spirals drawn with great nicety and even elegance. One side corresponds with the other. The marks in the body resemble the foliage in old chased ornaments, convolutions of filigree work, but in these they have such a luxury of forms that of a hundred which at first appeared exactly the same no two were formed alike on close examination.” And in the course of his first voyage he describes some of the New Zealanders as having their thighs stained entirely black, with the exception only of a few narrow lines, “so that at first

Fig. 1.—From an original drawing for Captain Cook's Voyages. (British Museum, Additional Manuscripts Room.) sight they appeared to wear striped breeches.” He observes that the quantity and form of these marks differ widely in different parts of the coast and islands; and that the older men appeared to be more profusely decorated. One may almost regret that a practice which suited the Maoris and which involves so much art and skill is rapidly dying out under modern influences. In Captain Cook's time it was very generally practised and was carried to a point of ferocious perfection which never failed to

Fig. 2.—From one of Sydney Parkinson' drawings. one of the earliest known and incomplete patterns. attract the visitor who regained his ship. With Captain Cook was Sydney Parkinson, the clever draughtsman employed by Mr. Joseph Banks: and Parkinson's journal gives some account of moko as it was in 1769, besides the first drawings of it. He says; “As to the tattowing, it is done very curiously in spiral

Fig. 3.— Specimen drawn by Sydney Parkinson. One of the earliest known patterns. and other figures; and in many places indented into their skins which looks like carving, though at a distance it appears as if it had been only smeared with a black paint.”

And he adds: “The tattowing is peculiar to the principal men among them.”

Also at another part of the coast, he says: “These people were much like them we had seen heretofore; excepting that they were more tattowed: most of them had the figures of volutes on their lips, and several had their thighs and part of their bellies marked.”

“The tattow on their faces was not done in spirals, but in different figures from what we had ever seen before.”

His account of the tattooing of the women I shall refer to in my chapter devoted to that part of the subject. A great authority. Mr. W. Colenso of Napier, says of Parkinson's portrait of a chief, that it bears a style of tattooing which has long become extinct and of which he only saw a few specimens some 40 years ago. Three of Parkinson's sketches of Maoris tattooed in the style of 1770 or thereabouts are given in my illustrations.

In the Additional Manuscripts Room, British Museum are many of the original drawings in pencil and colour taken during Cook's voyages.

Subsequently to Captain Cook's visits to the New Zealand islands several early navigators, travellers and missionaries have published their observations on the subject of moko, and mention should be made of the works of Mr. Savage and Mr. Nicholas, who were among these earlier visitors. The periodical reports of the Church Missionary Society also have frequently treated of this

Fig. 4.— Head of a Chief from one of Sydney Parkinson's drawings. national decoration. I must also refer to the reports of Crozet's voyages in 1771–2, of which mention will again be made.but is not.

While speaking of the tattooing practised with so much art and skill by the Maoris and other inhabitants of Polynesia, I must quote Sir John Lubbock's valuable opinion. Speaking of Polynesian tattooing, he says that perhaps the most beautiful of all was that of the New Zealanders who were tattooed in spiral lines. The process, he adds, is extremely painful, particularly on the lips, but to shrink from it or even to show any signs of suffering while undergoing the operation was considered unmanly.

The mode of tattooing practised by the Maoris was unlike that of any other race, and their artistic designs were so arranged that the skin of the face was often completely covered up to the corners

Fig. 5.—Specimen of a Moko signature. Ahoodee o Gunna (Turi o Kana) of Rangihoua.24·2·1815. See Missionary Register, 1816, p. 328. of the eyes, and even over the eyelids; and that the stains, though tending to diminish in brilliancy, were indelible. But doubtful as the meaning of moko is, there were uses for it. Some portion of it, some distinctive part, was a mark of identity, and has been copied for Europeans by the Maoris as a signature. For instance, Mr. Wakefield records that in a purchase of land near the Bay of Islands by Mr. Samuel Marsden, the famous missionary, in place of signatures to the deed, facsimiles of the face-moko of the vendors were drawn on the document. This was in 1815. The deeds were witnessed by Messrs. Kendal and Nicholson on the part of the

Fig. 6.—A Moko signature. Kowiti, Chief of Waimate and Maunganui. Kawiti purchasers, and on the part of the vendors by a native carpenter who drew the moko of one of his cheeks in place of a signature. The same writer mentions that the deeds and copies which conveyed the plains of Wairau (in consideration of a ship's gun) were signed with elaborate drawings of the face-moko of the chiefs. Letourneau notices a similar practice which may, in fact, be compared to the use of a seal in our country. Polack, too, speaks of the pride the New Zealanders take in adding the various curvatures of the moko to their signatures: “Our risibility has,” he says, “often been excited in viewing an aged chief, whose scant locks have weathered upwards of seventy winters, drawing with intense care his signature, with inclined head and extended tongue, as is the wont of young European practitioners in the art of penmanship.”

These moko signatures give some interesting history and designs. Here is a curious autograph sketch of the face-moko

Fig. 7.—Sketch of his own moko, drawn by the chief Themoranga.Te Morenga. of a chief named Themoranga, as drawn by himself with a pen—an instrument which he handled on that occasion for the first time in his life. It is dated 9th March, 1815, and was done on board the Active. It shows a face of elaborate moko still

Fig. 8.—Moko signature on a deed. (The original in the possession of Dr. Hocken, of Dunedin, N.Z. This is a land grant signed by Tuawhaiki (alias “Bloody Jack”), a chief of Otago (Ngaitahu tribe). He was a great enemy of Rauparaha, who signed the Wairau deeds. incomplete; the left half of the lips, the left cheek, the left upper forehead, are unfinished. Another remarkable work of art is a drawing of himself by Te Pehi Kupe, a fine piece of moko which must be taken as correct. His body was also plentifully covered with marks; and his fine muscular arms were

Fig. 9.—Moko signature on a deed. (The original in the possession of Dr. Hocken, of Dunedin, N.Z.) This is a land grant by the chief Golontine Korako. Matene Koroko Wara? of Waikouaiti & Taieri. in particular furrowed by numerous single black lines, which he said denoted the number of wounds he had received in battle.

Te Pehi Kupe (whose daughter had been killed and cooked) was in England in 1826 to procure arms to revenge the onslaughts of the northern tribes. He gave some valuable information on the subject of moko when sitting for the portrait, for he was very anxious that the marks on his face should be accurately copied. One mark just over his nose was, he said, his name—“Europee man write with pen his name—Te Pehi's is here” (pointing to his forehead); and he delineated on paper the

Fig. 10.—Tattooing on the face of Te Pehi Kupe, drawn by himself. corresponding marks or names of his brother and of his son. Every line, both on his face and on other parts of his body, was firmly registered on his memory. The portrait of his moko was drawn by him without the aid of a mirror. During his stay in Liverpool he was besieged with applications for specimens of his art, and for a fortnight a large part of his time was occupied in turning out sketches of his face. The depth and profusion of the moko, he said, indicated the dignity of the individual; and little of the original surface of his face remained. Some of his sketches represented moko on other portions of his body. He drew for Dr. Traill the mokos of his brother and of his son; and on finishing the latter, he held it up and gazed on it with a murmur of affectionate delight, kissing it many times and, as he presented it, burst into tears.

Te Pehi's statement that the more elaborate the moko the higher was the rank implied may have been true, but it was by no means the case always among the Maoris. The time he had for the artists, the wishes and power of endurance of the patient, had no doubt much to do with the nature and extent of the pattern. Many of the great chiefs were only partly decorated; and the likeness of the king who was a visitor here in 1884 accompanied by four chiefs will show that even King Tawhiao was far behind Te Pehi in elaborate decoration. It must be admitted that a man with such a pattern drawn on his face as Te Pehi had was entitled to assume the rôle of a critic on tattooing.

Te Pehi failed to obtain the firearms which had made Hongi so successful a warrior. He returned home and was with a number of his friends killed and eaten by a Middle Island tribe, amongst whom he rashly trusted himself. In revenge, an expedition was arranged in 1830; and Captain Stewart of the brig Elizabeth, an Englishman, lent his aid to the revolting scenes which ensued. On the promise of a cargo of flax, he sailed with a war party on board, and entered into communication with the enemy, enticed the enemy's chief on board and lulled his followers into a false idea of security. Captain Stewart's friends then massacred the tribe, and brought 500 baskets of human flesh and 50 prisoners on board his vessel where the ship's coppers were used to prepare the cannibal feast. Stewart on returning failed to obtain payment for these services. He arrived at Sydney January 14th, 1831, where a captain of some vessel had carried the news and where he was shunned, and then was tried, but evidence being out of the way he escaped. Though human vengeance did not reach him, he dropped dead on the deck of the Elizabeth while rounding Cape Horn, and his body reeking with rum was pitched overboard by his crew with little ceremony and no regret.

I am anxious to give the reader all that the best authorities have told us on the subject of moko, and will here add

Fig. 11.—From a drawing in Dumont D'Urville's Voyages. D'Urville's views. He professes to see in Maori moko a complete analogy to European heraldry, but with this difference—that whereas the coat-of-arms attests the merits of ancestors, the Maori moko illustrates the merits of the person decorated with it.

He says: “Tuai one day was calling my attention with great pride to some curious designs cut on his forehead, and when I asked him what there was remarkable about them he answered: “Only the family of Coro-coro in the whole of New Zealand has the right to bear these signs. Congui, most powerful as he is, could not adopt them, for the family of Coro-coro is much more

Hara.of OkaeuwaiWakateri. Titore.Fig. 12.—Signatures of chiefs of the Bay of Islands. (c. 1830–1835.) illustrious than his.’ A New Zealander one day examining the seal of an English officer noticed the arms engraved on it and asked him if the design was the moko of his family.”

But Mr. Tregear states: “I do not think there is any mark distinguishing tribes, still we do not know everything (probably never will know) about the full significance of tattau.”

It has been used as a method of communication, and the Rev. Mr. Taylor says: “The Maori used a kind of hieroglyphic or symbolical way of communication. Thus a chief inviting another to join in a war party sent a tattooed potato and a fig of tobacco bound up together; which was interpreted to mean by the tattoo that the enemy was a Maori, and not European, and by the tobacco that it represented smoke; the other chief, on receiving the missive, roasted the one (the potato) and ate it, and smoked the other (the tobacco) to show he accepted the invitation and would join him with his guns and powder.”

Chapter II Moko Men

Description: Fig. 13.—Tracing from a thigh-skin in the possession of the Author. (Reduced to two-thirds of life size.) This unique specimen was discovered in a London saddlers shop by Major General Robley in 1894.

Some reference has already been made to the uncertainty attaching to the object with which moko was practised by the men of the Maori race; but some further speculations on this

Fig. 14.—A well-chiselled head, with deep incision. subject suggest themselves. Not only to become more terrible in war, when fighting was carried on at close quarters, but to

Fig. 15.—From life by the Author, showing good nose-marking. Te Kuha, also known as Te Mea (i.e. Mair) see p.91 Died at Rotorua June 1901, during the Royal Visit. appear more distinguished and attractive to the female sex, must certainly be included. The great chiefs had their faces and bodies covered with designs of extreme delicacy and beauty; and all the men, except the slaves, were more or less decorated with blue-black; and the fact that slaves were excluded from the art is significant of the views of their masters. It has been said that the tattooing on the bodies was for the purpose of identification in case the head was cut off by the enemy in battle. Moko was a

Fig. 16.—Thigh-tattooing. (From Dumont D'Urville's “Voyages.”) sign of distinction; it told off the noble and freeman from the slave.

Maning, a famous writer on old Maori life before the remembrance of it had quite passed away, thus describes a war party: “As I have said, the men were all stripped for action, but I also notice that the appearance of nakedness is completely taken away by the tattooing, the colour of the skin, and the arms and equipments…. The men, in fact, look much better than when dressed in their Maori clothing. Every man almost without exception is covered with tattooing from the knees to the waist; the face is also covered with dark spiral lines.”

Mr. Edward Tregear remarks that the tattooing of a slave's face was only a vile practice introduced for the horrible purpose of selling the dried head.

Fig. 17.—Body-tattooing. From original rawing for Captain Cook's “Voyages” in the British Museum. Additional Manuscripts Room.)

In 1814 the first three native magistrates were appointed, and being chiefs were also “men of mark.”

Rutherford, whom I shall have other occasion to mention, states that in the part of the country where he was detained in captivity in 1816 the men were usually tattooed on the face, hips, and body, sometimes as low down as the knee; but that none were allowed to be decorated on the forehead, upper lip, and chin, except the

Fig. 18.—Thigh-tattooing. great ones of the tribe. Priests, it seems, were either exempt or forbidden the tattoo.

Mr. Wakefield expressly states that this was so with regard to the tangata tapu, or sacred personages; and Mr. Savage (1807) records that the pantaloons are in general very highly embroidered, of which they are not a little vain; and that the tohungas, or priests, had only a small patch of moko over the right eye.

Of course it was a source of pride to the owner, and in Crozet's voyages (1771–72) it is stated that there were marks on the hands, and noted that the chiefs were very pleased to show the tattooing

Description: Fig. 19.—Warrior fallen in the fern. showing rape on buttocks (from a drawing by the Author, 1864.) Rawiri Tuaia, killed at Gate Pa.29.4.1864..

on their bodies. He notes that the moko on the faces was very diverse, but that on the buttocks it always seems to be the same— a neat spiral line, of which the first or starting point is at the centre of the most fleshy part, then successively embraces the whole circumferences. To have fine tattooed faces was the great ambition among men both to render themselves attractive to the ladies and conspicuous in war. The decorative art of a people reflects their character; and the fierceness of the Maori moko undoubtedly corresponded to fierceness in their nature. For even if killed by the enemy, whilst the heads of the untattooed were treated with indignity and kicked on one side, those which were conspicuous by their beautiful moko were carefully cut off—stuck

Fig. 20.—A Native Preacher. on the turuturu, a pole with a cross on it, and preserved; all of which was highly gratifying to the survivors, and the spirits of their late possessor. One sketch depicts this practice.

To set off moko to advantage it was necessary to give up all idea of a beard and the wearing of hair on the face which was not considered in the light of an ornament. Consequently it was necessary for the men to submit to the pain of pulling out the hair by the roots. The great object of chiefs was to excite fear amongst their enemies by every possible means—the doing so almost insured

Fig. 21.—A Chief' tattooing: a full face of the portrait given as frontispiece. Tomika Te Mutu. success. He rendered his countenance as terrible as possible in the older days with charcoal and red ochre: the face being marked with fines of the former, and the head and person smeared over with the latter. And to give him a permanent dignity the tattoo was invented.

The deep tortuous lines of moko add fierceness to features strongly marked and give hardness and rigour to those muscles which are acted upon by the softer passions.

In former days a pair of mussel shells were employed, but since the acquaintance with Europeans large tweezers have taken their place, and were generally hanging from the garment or neck; and whenever the gentleman could find no other employment he indefatigably occupied himself with them.

To allow the beard to grow was regarded as a sign of old age and proof that the wearer had ceased to care for his appearance; a person with a beard was addressed as E weki, which is a salutation equivalent to old man. “But this,” says the Rev. Mr. Taylor, a missionary in New Zealand for more than thirty years (his book printed 1870), “is no longer the case; since the

Fig. 22.—A young Chief fully tattooed, bayoneted in left eyebrow. (From a drawing by the Author, 1864.) Te Kani killed at Gate Pa. tattoo was given up the beard has been adopted in its place, and that of the natives rivals the most luxuriant one of the Europeans.”

That the face should be unmarked with moko rendered a man liable to the term “Papatea,” or plain-face; anyhow he looked a tutua or poor nobody. It will be seen that the New

Fig. 23.—An aged Chief wearing hair over moko. Patuone. Zealanders attached to the word “plain” a meaning in relation to human appearance far more literal than the use of the term by Europeans.

In 1864–66 when staying in the delightful New Zealand country, I took several sketches of natives showing moko on the face covered with hair, for though the practice of moko was then fairly vigorous, yet the growth of beard and moustache was common among the natives, with the exception of the older men. The older men being well tattooed never used to wear hair on the face.

Fig. 24.—Type of Maori. Taraia, see p.143.

Figs. 25, 26.—Two Heads. Anehana of ade.

The war dance, of which I give an illustration, as showing tattooing on face and body, involved constant thrusting out of the tongue, and so much distortion of the features that the blue lines of the moko formed a quivering network. The time or cadence of the dance was marked by striking the palm of the left hand against the thigh.

Fig. 27.—Moko in the War-dance. Hoete Paetirori, an old Arawa warrior.

Chapter III Moko Women

Fashion and custom required among the Maoris that their women should also receive certain marks of moko; and these portraits fairly well indicate the extent to which this was practised. The lips and chin were the chief objects of attention to the artist in moko; and the idea seems to have been that the woman's lips should be not only full but blue—a combination which was regarded as the height of feminine beauty. It seems quite clear that a red lip was looked on as a reproach or disfigurement. The moko on the lips consisted of horizontal lines, as with the men.

Sydney Parkinson, already referred to as the artist with Captain Cook, says: “Of the women, their lips were in general stained of a blue colour, and several of them were scratched all over their faces as if it had been done with needles or pins.”

And at another part of the coast he speaks of one woman who in particular was very curiously tattooed.

Rutherford (1816–26) says: “The women had a figure worked on the chin resembling an inverted crown; the inside of the lips was also tattooed, the figures on the lips appearing of a blue colour. They had also a mark on each side of the mouth as well as on the forehead and on each side of the nose.”

Savage (1807) remarks on a small spiral figure on each side

Fig. 28.—Curious tattooing on a girl's forehead. Voyages from an original drawing in the British Museum, Additional Manuscripts Room.) of the chin a semicircular figure over each eyebrow, and two or three lines on each lip. Major Cruise, in a work published in 1824, states that the females were slightly tattooed upon the upper lip, centre of chin, and above the eyebrows, and that some had a few lines on their limbs. He mentions that a woman was seen at ShukehangaHokianga, up from the south, whose breast was marked with lines resembling the links of a chain; and that a female prisoner of KrokosHoro Horo was tattooed almost as much as a man. In confirmation of this. I may mention here that Mr. Tregear speaks of some women in the South Island as being tattooed on the face like men. But this was very rare. Darwin (1835) tells us how certain native girls had remarked to missionaries' wives: “We really must have a few lines on our lips, else when we grow old our lips will shrivel up and we shall be ugly.”

This last statement closely represents the object of moko

Fig. 29.—Usual tattooing on a Maori woman. among the women; and a feeble parallel suggests itself in the painless patches with which European belles of the last century used to decorate their faces. I say “painless” for reasons which with regard to moko will be made apparent. Women of all

Fig. 30.—A Maori girl, showing two lines over upper lip, three on lower lip,and ornament on chin. Erena of Maketu Pa. 1864. a great friend of General Robley. countries will submit to much inconvenience and some pain in order to satisfy the recognised standard of fashion for the time being; but it needs something like heroism to submit to the torture of moko, slight as the tattooing was in the case of most

Fig. 31.—An old woman, well marked. (From a drawing by the Author.) of Ngai·te·Rangi tribe, 1865. tatto patterns begin like a man's. native women in New Zealand. I remember seeing in 1865 a white woman, the wife of a native; her undecorated face showed that she had not undergone the painful process. A portrait of her husband, a sailor named Anaru, is sketched from life.

In the memorable massacre of the people on board the ship Boyd, a little girl was saved. In later life she used to recount how during her captivity she received some blue marking on her lips. I mention this as an instance of a white woman tattooed.

(Fig. 128.)

Though custom permitted of only a small quantity of moko on the women's faces, there was no law against the elaboration of design on the rest of their persons, thighs and breast, with a few smaller marks on the different parts of the body as well. Mr. Savage says he believes children were not operated on by the artist until they were eight or ten years of age; but once begun, small moko strokes were frequently made all over their bodies. Sir Walter Buller, K.C.B., tells me that it was the

Fig. 32.—Tattooed young.

Fig. 33.—From Dumont D'Urville's “Voyages,” c. 1826. universal rule amongst the Maori never to commence moko until the subject was adult. Further growth would no doubt tend to distort the curved lines. As a matter of fact, Sir Walter says that in the whole course of his experience he has never seen a Maori boy or girl with a tattooed face. The famous French traveller D'Urville says on this subject: “When I went with Tuai to visit the village of Taowera, the chief Tuao showed

Fig. 34.—A girl's head from Dumont D'Urville's “Voyages.”

Fig. 35.—The same, lip and chin. me his wife while she was in the act of receiving the completion of her moko on the shoulders. Half of her back was already incised with deeply cut designs, similar to those which adorned the faces of Coro-Coro's relatives, and a female slave was engaged

Fig. 36.—From Dumont D'Urville's “Voyages.”

Fig. 37.—Curious tattooing on a Maori woman. (From a drawing by the Author.) Ngai te Rangi tribe

Fig. 38.—Half-caste girl. (From a drawing by the Author.) in decorating the other side of the back with designs of like taste. The unfortunate woman was lying on her chest, and seemed to be suffering greatly, while the blood gushed forth abundantly from her shoulders. Still she did not even utter a sigh, and looked at me merrily with the greatest composure,

Fig. 39.—From a wooden effigy in the British Museum, showing thigh & arm tattooing on a woman. The figure was presented by Sir A. W. Franks, K. C. B. as did also the woman who was operating upon her. Tuao himself seemed to glory in the new honour his wife was receiving by these decorations.”

And I find Mr. Tregear says that “in ‘olden days’ women were tattooed on the back part of the leg or calf.” I shall have occasion to refer to the above account given by D'Urville in connection with the fact that in this instance the artist in moko was a woman.

In Mr. J. C. Bidwell's Rambles in New Zealand (1839)

Fig. 40.—Right upper-lip unfinished. (From a drawing by the Author.) the following remarks on this singular aspect of the subject are to be found. He says: “While crossing one creek where we had to wade above half a mile, a native told me that one of the women was tattooed behind like the men. I asked her if it was the case, and she said yes, and if I would wait and let her get on a bit ahead she would show me, which she accordingly did, to my great edification. It is a very rare thing for women to be tattooed anywhere but about the lips and chin; and this was quite a curiosity. I used to think it very ornamental in the men, but what its use can be in a woman I cannot imagine, as they are always covered. The women are often quite covered with blue marks which might be called

Fig. 41.—Half-caste and child. tattooing in England; it is of the same kind as sailors are so fond of pricking into their arms; but it is a totally different thing to the elaborate engraving on a New Zealander's face or thigh; inasmuch as in one case the skin is cut and remains in the same pattern as the stains, and in the other the marks do not at all affect the smoothness of the skin. I have seen the arms and bodies of the New Zealand women so covered with these powerful blue marks that they looked as if they had on them a tight-fitting figured chintz dress.”

And I will conclude my extracts from the travellers who have noticed moko in New Zealand on women by a reference to Mr. Kerry Nicholls's (1884) mention of an albino woman in New Zealand, with light flaxen hair, pink eyes, and white complexion, with her lips marked in the ordinary manner, and also to a reference on the part of the same authority to a

Fig. 42.—An Albino woman tattooed. custom among the Maori women at Lake Taupo, which he says he had not noticed anywhere else. This consisted of tattooing the legs as well as the lips, in thin cross lines of a dark blue colour.

Another valuable piece of evidence is furnished by Mr. William Colenso. He says that the operator began on both sexes at about the age of puberty. In the female the tattooing was confined to the lips, chin, and space between the eyes and a little up the forehead, and on the back part of the leg from the heel to the calf. The last three mentioned tattooings are, he says, always indicative of rank. The women also were often irregularly marked on the hands, arms, breast, and face with small crosses, short lines, and dots. He says he saw very few women with faces tattooed like a man's; and these belonged to southern tribes, some of whom had a very different style of tattooing long ago, such as is shown in Plate XIII. in the quarto edition of Captain Cook's Voyages.

There was another form of marking among the Maori women which requires some mention. They are always the chief mourners at funerals. At every pause in their wailings and mournful cadence, the custom was in days gone by that they should gash their faces, necks, arms, and bodies with sharp shells until they streamed with blood; the narahu or moko-dye was sometimes applied to the wounds, and the stains commemorated the

Fig. 43.—A sketch from Angas's book (1846) dyed lacerations at a mourning. scenes at which the women assisted, the gashes making a sort of moko to perpetuate the signs of their grief. In Angas's book, The New Zealanders Illustrated (1846), there is a portrait of a woman whose skin has been thus gashed and dyed, and it is noticeable that she shows the more regular moko of women, the lower lip being carved and stained. Maning, to whom I have already referred, also gives a description of the laceration, in his Old New Zealand. He says: “One old woman had marked herself most conspicuously with a piece of volcanic glass, drawing the spouting blood. She had scored her forehead and cheeks before I came…. I noticed that the younger women,

Fig. 44.—Portrait of a Maori girl. although they screamed as loud, did not cut so deep as the old women, especially about the face.”

There can be no doubt that in some of these wild scenes of mourning the cutting was done with considerable method and regularity, so as to make the sears ornamental rather than otherwise.

It should be added that an authority, A. W. Buckland, thinks the tattooed mark on the chin almost always denotes marriage. Of the present time (1896) it may be said that many Maori women still decorate themselves and that it suits them well.

Fig. 45.—Usual tattooing: From a photograph.

Chapter IV Moko Processes

Fig. 46.—Uhi, or chisels in the British Museum (actual size). Presented by Sir George Grey, K. C. B., &c.

Moko was a long and for the patient a painful operation. I have remarked on some of its attributes in the foregoing pages, and need not now repeat what has been said. In several points, however, additional and interesting information is forthcoming.

The instrument used for making the incisions in the flesh was called Uhi, and was very like a small narrow chisel. I give illustrations of some of these chisels preserved in the British Museum. Sometimes they had merely a sharp edge, others were furnished with comb-like teeth. The chisel was sometimes made from a sea-bird's wing-bone; some were made of sharks' teeth, stones, or hard wood, and were usually worked down to a fine edge or point. They were also of different sizes and shapes so that they could be applied to different parts of the flesh, and could be used for coarse or fine work as the case might be. The average breadth of the blade was about a quarter of an inch. The incision into the flesh was made by applying the edge to the skin, and driving it in by means of a smart

Fig. 47.—Tattooing instruments. (After Polack.) tap applied to the handle with a small light mallet, thus causing a deep cut in the flesh. The mallet was called He Mahoe; sometimes it had a broad flattened surface at one end used to wipe away the blood that interfered with the artist's work. The artist sometimes held in his hand a piece of muka or flax dipped into the pigment, and this he applied to the incision as soon as it was made. The Uhi or chisel penetrated quite through the skin and sometimes, as the Rev. Mr. Taylor says, completely through the cheek as well; in which case when the patient took his pipe the smoke found its way out through the cuttings. The pain was of course excruciating, especially in the more tender parts, and caused dreadful swellings. New Zealand tattooing is rough to the touch and deep canals were made in the skin. Under the skin the black charcoal looks blue black, and time renders the pigment less dark. Since iron instruments were used the scars produced were however less rough.

When iron Uhi were introduced much finer work became possible; and thus Sheffield may be said to have something to do with the later development of the art.

Fitzroy mentions this finer work in 1835; Darwin, in the same year, and Wakefield, in the period 1839–44. As was natural, the natives most in contact with Europeans were the first to adopt the iron instrument. In the earliest days chisel work was the only method employed in tattooing; but later on the system of pricking was introduced and allowed the artist far more scope for his elaboration of detail. The general practice of operators in moko undoubtedly was however to dip the Uhi or chisel into the colouring matter before incising the skin, so that the process of cutting and colouring went on at the same time; the chisel was then withdrawn, wiped clean, and dipped again in the pigment for another insertion. Polack says: “The process was one of intense pain, the recumbent figure of the victim wincing and writhing at every stroke of the operator and quivering under the torments inflicted.” The sufferer looked very hideous after the operation, and instances were even known of permanent distortion of the features.

An excellent description of the process (at the date 1839–44) is furnished by Mr. Wakefield: “I saw Iwikau or ‘the Skeleton,’ the head fighting chief of the tribe under Heu-heu, being chipped on the cheek-bone. The instruments used were not of bone as they used formerly to be, but a graduated set of iron tools fitted with handles like adzes supplied their place. The man spoke to me with perfect nonchalance for a quarter of an hour, although the operator continued to strike

Fig. 48.—Tattooing a head. the little adzes into his flesh with a light wooden hammer the whole time, and his face was covered with blood. The worst part of the pain seems to be endured a day or two after the operation, when every part of the wound gathers and the face is swollen considerably. The staining liquid is made of charcoal. I rarely saw a case in which the scars were not completely well in a week.”

Another good account is as follows: “The instrument used to make the punctures is formed out of a piece of whalebone, according to the design intended to be cut, and is bound to a piece of wood in the shape of a carpenter's square. This the tohunga holds in his left hand between his forefinger and thumb. In his right hand between his third and fourth finger is held a piece of fern-stalk, about eight inches long, the outer end of which is bound with a little flax. Between the thumb and forefinger of the same hand is held the black; when the tohunga has made an incision with the Uhi by striking it with the piece of fern-stalk held in his right hand, he again draws the Uhi between the finger and thumb which holds the black, and in so doing it carries with it a portion for the next incision.”

From this I will pass to Rutherford's earlier account, which is of deep interest, though I doubt if the whole operation could have been undergone at one “sitting” as he seems to suggest. Rutherford and five of the crew of the Agnes were captured by the Maoris in 1816; and he remained a prisoner close on ten years.

“The whole of the natives having then seated themselves on the ground in a ring, we were brought into the middle and, being stripped of our clothes and laid on our backs, we were each of us held down by five or six men, while two others commenced the operation of tattooing us. Having taken a bit of charcoal and rubbed it upon a stone with a little water until they had produced a thickish liquid, they then dipped into it an instrument made of bone, having a sharp edge like a chisel and shaped in the fashion of a garden hoe, and immediately applied it to the skin, striking it twice or thrice with a small piece of wood. This made it cut into the flesh as a knife would have done, and caused a great deal of blood to flow which they kept wiping off with the side of the hand, in order to see if the impression was sufficiently clear. When it was not they applied the bone a second time to the same place. They employed, however, various instruments in the course of the operation; one which they sometimes used being made of a shark's tooth, and another having teeth like a saw. They had them also of different sizes to suit different parts of the work. While I was undergoing the operation, although the pain was most acute, I never either moved or uttered a sound, but my comrades moaned dreadfully….. Although the operators were very quick and dexterous, I was four hours under their hands, and during the operation Aimy's (a chief) eldest daughter several times wiped the blood from my face with some dressed flax. After it was over she led me to the river that I might wash myself (for it had made me completely blind)…. and then conducted me to a great fire. They now returned us all our clothes with the exception of our shirts, which the women kept for themselves, wearing them, as we observed, with the fronts behind. In three days the swelling which had been produced by the operation had greatly subsided and I began to recover my sight; but it was six weeks before I was completely well. I had no medical assistance of any kind during my illness.”

The description Rutherford gives agrees with that of other observers; though it is generally concluded that in no case is the operation undergone at once, as appears to have been his experience.

Captain Cruise asserts that the tattooing in New Zealand is occasionally renewed as the lines become fainter by time; and that one of the chiefs who returned home was re-tattooed soon

Fig. 49.—Tattooing a thigh. (After Earle.) after his arrival. Both this authority and Mr. Marsden expressly state that according to their information it always required several months and sometimes years to complete the tattoo of a chief; and that this was so because of the necessity of allowing one part of the face or body to heal before operating on another. Perhaps, too, the prolongation of the process may have been necessary where the amoco is of more intricate pattern, or the surface operated on was larger than that which Rutherford describes; or in his particular case it may have been determined to test his powers of endurance further than would have been necessary in the case of a native. The portrait of Rutherford well represents the tattooing on his body. I will complete the story of Rutherford's experiences later on; but will say here that he has omitted to mention the tracing out of the figure on the flesh prior to the cutting of the skin. This appears to have been invariable in New Zealand and elsewhere. According to Mr. Savage a piece of burnt stick or red earth was used for the purpose.

To tattoo a person fully was, in fact, a matter of time; and if too much was attempted at once it positively endangered life. The Rev. Mr. Taylor tells us of a poor porangi, or lunatic, who during a war was tattooed most unmercifully by some young scoundrels, and his wounds became so inflamed as to occasion death. When once the operation has been performed, it is not possible to erase the moko; not sickness nor death itself has the power of destroying. When a head was preserved every line retained its distinctness; and appeared almost more distinct than when subject to alteration from the muscular motions of the living man.

Letourneau (1881) gives two modes of tattooing. The first, he says, is that done with a sharp stone or a shark's tooth; the second, with a small instrument with sharp teeth. Tattooing by means of cutting is, he says, still the method most employed by the New Zealanders; but the system of pricking allows of more adornment and of an enlargement of the primitive custom. Much importance is, he says, attached to this form of ornamentation which is shown chiefly on the face. It is made by winding arabesques showing off the different features of the face, and is often done with considerable skill.

And now with regard to the pigment or dye with which the process of moko

Fig. 50.—Vegetable caterpillar, from which a dye is obtained. was completed. This was called Narahu or Kapara, and consisted of the burnt and powdered resin of the Kauri pine, Kahikatea, or of Koromico, a veronica. This was said to give the finest tint to the moko, always a blue-black. Aweto Hotete, or vegetable caterpillar, burnt, was also sometimes employed. This plant is a native of New Zealand, and amongst the most remarkable productions on the border line between the vegetable and animal kingdoms. The caterpillar burrowing in the vegetable soil gets a spore of a fungus between the folds of its neck; and, unable to free itself, the insect's body nourishes the fungus which vegetates and occasions the death of the caterpillar by exactly filling the interior of the body with its roots, always preserving its perfect form. The stem grows up like a little bulrush, six to ten inches in height; after being dried, it is burnt into a coal giving an excellent black pigment. Charcoal, too, and even gunpowder have been employed to yield the necessary colour. “At Taupo,” says the Rev. Mr. Taylor, “I went to see the place where this pigment was manufactured; a narrow pit was sunk at a little distance from a precipice, and from the face of the cliff a passage was cut to the bottom of it, over the mouth of which pieces of wood containing the resin were burnt; the residuum falling within it was taken away.”

Sometimes, however, the preparation was rubbed on a stone, and a little water was added to form a thin paste.

Another account gives the following information: “The soot with which they are marked is obtained by making a hole, somewhat like a lime-kiln, in which kauri (to burn black) gum is burnt, or a wood called kapara; on the top of the kiln is placed a Maori basket, made of korari besmeared with fat, to which the soot adheres. The black thus obtained is sacred, and is kept for generations, father and son being tattooed from the black made at one burning. The soot is mixed with oil or dog's fat.”

Gunpowder has often been substituted, leaving a blue mark which time can never wholly efface.

As if the physical torture of moko were not sufficient to set the seal of true martyrdom on a Maori he was subjected during the operation to a species of boycott or Tapu. He was forbidden all communication with people not in the same condition as himself; and in eating was not allowed to use his hands, and was dependent on his attendants for his food. According to the old superstition the man who presumed to raise a finger to his mouth before his moko was finished for the time would certainly find his stomach invaded by the Atua or fiend, who would devour him alive. Earle notices this. He says: “All those chiefs who were under the operating hands of Aranghie the tattooer were under the law. In fact, as we strolled through the village at the time of their evening repast, it appeared as though some dreadful disease had suddenly struck the greater part of the inhabitants and deprived them of the use of their limbs, most of them being either fed by their slaves, or lying flat on the ground and with their mouths eating out of their platters or baskets.”

And Mr. E. Tregear says that a person being tattooed was prohibited from eating fish, unless the fish which is sacred to Tangaroa, the Sea-God, is held up to see the tattooing. No gourd or calabash might be eaten if children had playfully made tattooing marks thereon. Mr. Taylor too has some interesting remarks on this phase of the subject.

“During the time of the tapu,” says the Rev. Mr. Taylor, “he could not be touched by any one, nor even put his own hand to his head; but he was either fed by another who was appointed for the purpose, or took up his food with his mouth from a small

Fig. 51.—Tapued chief eating with a fern-stalk. (After Taylor.) stage with his hands behind him, or by a fern-stalk, and thus conveyed it to his mouth. In drinking water, the water was poured in a very expert manner from a calabash into his mouth, or on his hands when he needed it for washing; so that he should not touch the vessel which otherwise could not have been used again for ordinary purposes.”

Rutherford recounts the fate of one of his tattooed companions left with him. He says: “My comrade and I were left at home with nobody but a few slaves and the chief's mother, an old woman who was sick and attended by a physician. A physician in this country remains with his patients constantly both day and night, never leaving them till they either recover or die…. During the absence of the family at the feast, my comrade

Fig. 52.—A tattooed gourd. (British Museum.) chanced to lend his knife to a slave for him to cut some rushes with in order to repair a house; and when this was done he received it back again. Soon after he and I killed a pig, from which we cut a portion into small pieces and put them into our own pot along with some potatoes which we had also peeled with our knives. When the potatoes were cooked the old woman who was sick desired us to give her some, which we did in the presence of the doctor, and she ate them. Next morning she died, when the chief and the rest of the family immediately returned home …. On the third day after the death they all, to the number of some hundreds, proceeded to cut themselves. The following morning the men armed and alone formed a circle round the dead body, and the doctor appeared walking backwards and forwards in the ring. By this time my companions and I had learned a good deal of the language; and as we stood listening to what was said we heard the doctor relate the particulars of the old woman's illness and death: after which the chiefs began to inquire very closely into what she had eaten for the three days. At last, the doctor having retired from the ring, an old chief stepped forward with three or four white feathers stuck in his hair, and having walked several times up and down in the ring addressed the meeting and said that in his opinion the old woman's death had been occasioned by her having eaten potatoes that had been peeled with a white man's knife after it had been used for cutting rushes to repair a house; on which account he though that the white man to whom the knife belonged should be killed, which would be a great honour conferred upon the memory of the dead woman. To this proposal many of the other chiefs expressed their assent, and it seemed about to be adopted by the court. Meanwhile my companion stood trembling and unable to speak from fear. I then went forward myself into the ring and told them that if the white man had done wrong in lending his knife to the slave he had done so ignorantly, not knowing the customs of the country. I ventured to address myself to Aimy, beseeching him to spare my comrade's life; but he continued to keep his seat on the ground, mourning for the loss of his mother, without answering me or seeming to take any notice of what I said; and while I was yet speaking to him the chief with the white feathers went and struck my comrade on the head with a mery and killed him. Aimy however would not allow him to be eaten. The slaves therefore having dug a grave for him he was interred after my directions.”

Fig. 53.—Funnel for feeding a chief during time of tattooing. (In Author's collection.)

The religious character of these observances is brought into prominence by Polack who, speaking of “old times,” says: “The priest and all the people are tapu (on account of the blood) during the operation; but the ceremony of making native ovens with hot stones is gone through—priest's oven, God's oven, and oven for the tattooed man. The priest handles one of the hot stones of the God's oven, thus transferring the tapu to their food which is hung up on a tree. After eating, all are noa (common, not tapu).”

And Rutherford, speaking of himself and five comrades, says: “We were not only tattooed, but what they called tabooed; the meaning is, ‘made sacred’ or forbidden to touch any provisions of any kinds with our hands. This state of things lasted three days, during which time we were fed by the daughters of the chiefs with the same victuals and out of the same baskets as the chiefs themselves and the persons who had tattooed us.”

Chapter V Patterns

Fig. 54.—Ancient Moko pattern called Moko Kuri in Mr. J. White's book.

One of the earliest patterns I can trace is that mentioned in Mr. J. White's book on the ancient history of the Maori. One illustration represented in the frontispiece gives the ancient tattoo pattern called “Moko Kuri.” This consists of sets of three short lines successively, each set at right angles to its neighbour thus

Printed pattern of lines, three vertical parallel lines followed by two horizontal parallel lines. with a variant in the form of

Printed symbol curved like a snake or an S. in the middle of the forehead. This is a great contrast to the ultimate development of the art, when the winding arabesques of the device in the forms they took were not merely designed to ornament a surface of flesh, but in parts followed the conformation of the individual countenance. Fitzroy comments on “the

Fig. 55.—A forehead, author's collection. taste and even elegance” of “such disfiguring devices.” With regard to the effect of the art on those who grew accustomed

Fig. 56.—A forehead. to it, I may mention that Darwin comments on the feeling it gave rise to. The Maori regarded the unmokoed face as common or plebeian; and writing in 1835 he says: “So soon does any train of ideas become habitual that the missionaries told me even in their eyes a plain face looked mean and not like a New Zealand gentleman.”

And Earle, too, says: “The art was brought to such perfection that whenever we saw a New Zealander whose skin was thus

Fig. 57.—Left half of a forehead. (Author's collection.) ornamented we have admired him.” Dieffenbach said the Waikato tribe was celebrated for their skill in the perfect execution of the designs.

I will first give the Rev. Mr. Taylor's list of nineteen Maori names for the different portions of the work of tattooing. It

Fig. 58.—A forehead, showing signs of post-mortem work, over living work. (Author's collection.)

Fig. 59.—Left half of forehead. (British Museum.)

Fig. 60.—Forehead. (From a wooden effigy in British Museum.) was subject to certain rules or systematic working; beginning at one part of the face or flesh and proceeding very gradually to

Fig. 61.—Variety in scroll work on forehead; a good specimen. (In Author's collection.) another, each set of markings having its distinctive name. Thus a beginning was made, according to that author, with—

Te Kawe, six lines on each side of chin.

Te Puhawae, lines on the chin.

Nga Repe Hupe, six lines below nostrils.

Nga Kokiri, curved line on cheek-bone.

Nga Koroaha, lines between cheek-bone and ear.

Nga Wakarakau, lines below cheek-bone and ear.

Nga Pongiangia, lines on each side of lower part of the nose.

Fig. 62.—Specimen of coarse moko on forehead; lop-sided or irregular work. (Author's collection.)

Nga Pae Tarewa, lines on the cheek-bone.

Nga Rerepi and Nga Ngatarewa, lines on bridge of nose.

Nga Tiwana, four lines on forehead.

Nga Rewha, three lines below eyebrows.

Fig. 63.—Forehead. (Royal Coll. of Surgeons.)

Nga Titi, lines on centre of forehead.

Te Tonokai, the general name for the lines on the forehead.

(This name is derived from the movement made when a person assents to the inquiry if he wants food cooked for him by raising the eyebrows.)

He Ngutu Pu Rua, both lips tattooed.

Te Rape, the higher part of the thighs.

Te Paki Paki, on the seat.

Fig. 64.—Patterns of moko at corner of eyes. Pukaru

Te Paki Turi, lower thigh.

Nga Tata, the adjoining parts.

And the following are, according to the same authority, female tattoos:

Taki Taki, lines from the breast.

Fig. 65.—Marking over bridge of nose. (Royal Coll. of Surgeons.)

Fig. 66.—Over the nose. (Royal Coll. of Surgeons.)

Fig. 67.—Nose tattooing. (Author's collection.)

Hope Hope, lines on the thighs.

Waka Te He, lines on the chin.

I print this list of terms as being an essential part of a subject the memory of which is rapidly dying out. Every line had its name, which corresponded even among distant tribes, though the figures tattooed were not consistently made up of the same number of lines.

It will be readily seen that certain features are common to all

Fig. 68.—Various patterns on noses. the moko patterns and designs, so that one fully tattooed man looked at a distance ornamented like another. On the forehead

Fig. 69.—Upper lip and chin.

Fig. 70.—From a wooden effigy in the British Museum. Remarkable tattooing on lips, unfinished.

Fig. 71.—Upper lip and chin.

Fig. 72.—Over upper lip.

Fig. 73.—Over upper lip. are eight bars radiating, and a V-shaped centre receives some curls. The nose also has its central ornament and spirals at bridge

Fig. 74.—Upper lip and chin. (Author's collection.)

Fig. 75.—On right cheek. (Author's collection.) from same head as Fig. 78. and nostrils, with an added ornament above, and a little variation at the tip of the nose. From the nose to the chin on either side are four or sometimes three sets of lines passing the corner of the mouth like a parenthesis. The upper lip has, least frequently, its suitable and varied patterns, the lips themselves having horizontal scoring. The cheek or jaw is decorated with

Fig. 76.—Lines from nostrils to chin, from the outer line commences the lower spiral on jaw. (Author's collection.) spirals; and sometimes in the older specimens bands of tattooing go across one or both sides of the face.

On the chin and near the ears the fancy of the artist-operator has fuller play, and gives more artistic tracery. I have taken more pains to copy this latter as in the full face or in three-quarter face portraits it cannot be seen. The patterns extend from the throat to the roots of the hair; before the operation every hair that

Fig. 77.—Spiral on right cheek. (Author's collection.) This head is said to have been brought to England prior to 1800. was likely to be in the way was carefully plucked out and the skin smoothed. I may note here that the untattooed face is called “tapai.” Tattooing made the face rough with its cuts, especially when the old bone instruments were used, the later iron instruments having less effect in this respect.

A complete fresco of elaborated moko was a production, we have been told, only of time; and many sittings to the artist and often at long intervals were necessary to develop the pattern fully. Months and even years passed in giving the artist or a successor full scope in the completion of his human pictures. “The worst pain of all,” says De Rienzi, “was caused by the incisions on the lips, the corners of the eyes, and the parting of the nostrils.” Some idea of the suffering inflicted may be gathered from the fact that nourishment could be taken for a time only through special feeding

Fig. 78.—Near left ear; good work. from same head as Fig. 75. tubes; there are several specimens carved for chiefs in the British Museum. I shall refer later on to the characteristic songs sung to the sufferer in his torments while receiving an allowance of moko, Lieut.-Col. Godfrey Munday (Our Antipodes, 1852, ii. 154) remarks: “There are even in these islands some fat or jovial faces that this savage operation fails to invest with ferocity.”

Fig. 79.—Near right ear. (Author's collection.) from same head as Fig. 140.

The fancy and taste of the artist in moko found ample scope in the exactitude of the lines he cut in the face, and in the variety of his ornamental and figurative designs. He traced out the lines of his intended incisions with charcoal, the marks of which were soon effaced by the streams of blood flowing from his incisions. This result led him sometimes to mark his pattern by scratches with some sharp instrument as a guide to his chisel; the patient in the old days with the aid of a gourd of water as a mirror could view the intended scheme of work, and approve the pattern thus traced

Fig. 80.—Near left ear. (Author's collection.) from same head as Fig. 140.

Fig. 81.—Marking near right ear. (Author's collection.) before it was seriously begun. There was no rubbing out afterwards, though the lines were sometimes deepened by subsequent retouching.

An illustration will enable the reader to realise this. A dried head at Florence is a good example of a “scratched-in” pattern.

Fig. 82.—Near left ear. (From Author's collection.)

Fig. 83.—Near left ear. The chisel covered so small a space at each incision that the flow of blood frequently washed out the merely painted pattern. The cast of the face of a Rotorua native (Fig. 98) shows how in his case two to three inches at a time were incised. When finished the well-mokoed face was covered with spiral scrolls, circles, and curved

Fig. 84.—Marking near right ear. (British Museum.)

Fig. 85.—Near left ear. (Auckland Museum.)

Fig. 86.—Near left ear. (Author's collection.)

Fig. 87.—Near left ear. lines; and it is remarkable that, though a certain order is observed and the positions of the principal marks are the same, no two

Fig. 88.—Chin patterns.

Fig. 89.—Chin patterns.

Description: Fig. 90.—Chin patterns.

personages are mokoed alike, the artist being able to produce an infinite variety with the materials at his command. One has only to note the position of the lines and curves of the cuttings in the

Fig. 91.—A chin pattern. (From collection of Prof. Giglioli in Florence. Work done with the old bone instruments.) from same head as Fig. 179.

Fig. 92.—Chin.

Fig. 93.—A chin. (Author's collection; from a fully tattooed head.) flesh to see how nearly some take the direction which wrinkles would take; how they follow and emphasise the natural lines of the

Fig. 94.—Chin. (British Museum.) face and features with their depressions and projections. The natural lines which time gives on the forehead, the corners of the eyes, and near the muscles seem to give directions for the grooves.

Description: Fig. 95.—An unfinished chin. (From Author's collection.)

The curved pattern on cheeks is the most common. Captain Chegwyn, R.N., who was in H.M.S. Buffalo at the Bay of Islands getting spars in 1838–9, notes in his journal that when a chief adopted a son the latter would in due time wear the pattern of moko with which the adoptive father was decorated.

Description: Fig. 96.—Chin. (Author's collection.) from same head as Fig. 136.

The art of wood-carving was carried to great perfection by the Maori, the gates of their pas, their houses, weapons, canoes, &c., were artistically embellished. The effigies of deified ancestors

Fig. 97.—Chin. were thus decorated with their peculiar moko, and extraordinary skill was lavished on them, as Mr. Kerry-Nichols says: “In fact it is the wonderful blending of the circle and sweeping curve which adds to the carving of this ingenious race its special and most attractive charm, and places it beyond that of any other

Fig. 98.—Plaster cast of a Rotorua native, 1854. (Presented to the British Museum by Sir George Grey. Pattern only partly chiseled.) This is a cast from the living face of Tapue Te Whanoa, a leading chief of Ngati Whakaue, Arawa tribe, Rotorua. It was done for Sir George Grey when at Rotorua in 1854. Sir George however had left N.Z.New Zealand for England, 31.12.1853, did not return until 1861. 1853 is perhaps the correct year. savage people for beauty, combined with an unique and graceful simplicity.”

Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1866) also remarks on the

Fig. 99.—Gateway of a Pa, showing a carved head. (From a drawing on the spot by the Author.) at Maketu pa. carved wooden figures met with on the road to the restorative baths of Rotorua. These figures are set up to commemorate

Fig. 100.—End of a staff, showing pattern of thigh tattooing. (Leipsic Museum.) the chiefs who succumbed to their ills; and the remarkable feature of the decoration is the close imitation they show of the tattooing of the deceased, constituting a method of identification that rendered an inscription unnecessary. I have reproduced several

Fig. 101.—A Maori and the prow of war canoe; both showing fine carving. (From a drawing by the Author.) Te Kuha p. 22. of these designs, including some in European museums taken from the wooden effigies of past generations, and showing many

Fig. 102.—Tattooing on a bone. varieties of moko; for no two Maoris were alike in all their markings. In many parts of the world has tattoo been used;

Fig. 103.—Old wooden effigy; good thigh tattooing. but nowhere was it so boldly perfect as in old New Zealand times. We mentioned one use during the early intercourse of the settlers with the Maoris—viz., the pictures of tattooed faces, or signatures by its pattern or a portion of it, were sometimes

Fig. 104.—Old wooden carving, probably part of a central post in a house at Hawke's Bay, N.Z.

Fig. 105.—An old effigy showing body carving. (British Museum.) reproduced in deeds evidencing the purchase of lands as they could not write. One instance of moko on a wooden figure is copied in many books and is a real artistic tour de force—namely, the bust

Fig. 106.—Old wooden effigy (British Museum). Fine head and body carving. of himself, by the chief Hongi, who with another tattooed chief Waikato visited England in 1820, and was presented to King George IV, at Mr. Marsden's request. It was in hard wood, done with a rude iron instrument which he fashioned from a piece of old

Fig. 107.—Warning figuge against trespass on tapued land. (British M

Fig. 108.—Very old effigy; fine head. hoop-iron; and on it he delineated his own moko. This was in 1816, and it was sent to the Church Mission House, and was a very creditable performance.

The Maori carver at the end of the nineteenth century still

Fig. 109.—Wooden effigy of an ancestor. (British Museum.) copies and perpetuates the old patterns on wood, and on clumsily shaped heads hewn from blocks of Kauri gum. There is a good specimen in the British Museum presented by Sir Augustus Franks.

Fig. 110.—A block of Kauri gum, carved as a head. (Presented to British Museum by Sir Augustus Franks, K.C.B.)

Chapter VI Operators or Artists

The operators in moko were generally professional artists who worked for hire, and their different degrees of excellence were as well known as that of painters among the moderns; and they were in fact regarded by their less able countrymen as men of great talent and repute. Skill, of course, came with practice; but even the early efforts of a beginner were in the minds of some Maoris better than no moko at all; and budding artists acquired their craft by practice on those who could not afford to pay for the skilled hand. Variety of excellence naturally showed itself; and the expert was a person held in high esteem. To secure the services of a distinguished operator who was not itinerant, men would go considerable distances. If the operator suspected that he would not be properly remunerated, his work became careless; and there is little doubt that some of the coarser specimens of moko were due to some such cause. On the other hand, presents and payments flowed into the coffers of the man of talent from all quarters, according to the means and ability of the givers. Double-barrelled guns, canoes, clothes, and even slaves have been presented to these distinguished persons as marks of esteem in which their talents were held.

A certain Aranghie was one of the most famous of all artists in moko. There is a portrait of him, drawn by Mr. Earle, who was draughtsman to H.M. surveying ship Beagle in 1827. Mr. Earle's remarks on this distinguished artist must be quoted:

Fig. 111.—Aranghie; a portrait after Earle. “This professor was considered by his countrymen a perfect master in the art of tattooing, and men of the highest rank and importance were in the habit of travelling long journeys in order to put their skins under his skilful hands. Indeed, so highly were his works esteemed that I have seen many of his drawings exhibited even after his death. A neighbour of mine very lately killed a chief who had been tattooed by Aranghie, and appreciating the artist's work so highly, he skinned the chieftain's thighs, and covered his cartouch-box with it. I was astonished to see with what boldness and precision Aranghie drew his designs on the skin and what beautiful ornaments he produced. No rule and compasses could be more exact than the lines and circles he formed. So unrivalled was he in his profession that a highly finished face of a chief from the hands of this artist is as greatly prized in New Zealand as a head from the hands of Sir Thomas Lawrence is amongst us. It was most gratifying to behold the respect these savages pay to the fine arts. This professor was merely a kooky or slave, but by skill and industry he raised himself to an equality with the greatest men of the country, and as every chief who employed him always made him some handsome present he soon became a man of wealth and was constantly surrounded by important personages…… My friend Shulitea (King George) sent him every day the choicest things from his own table. Though thus basking in the full sunshine of court favour, Aranghie, like a true genius, was not puffed up with pride by his success, for he condescended to come and take tea with me almost every evening. He was delighted with my drawings, particularly with a portrait I made of him. He copied so well, and seemed to enter with such interest into the few lessons of painting I gave him, that if I were returning from here direct to England I should certainly bring him with me, as I look upon him as a great natural genius.”

And there is yet another sketch by a competent observer of the life of another artist in moko, who was kept in constant and profitable employment. Mr. E. J. Wakefield, in his Adventure in New Zealand, 1839–44, describes one in the train of a chief who came from the country near East Cape: “Everybody, from the renowned warrior to the girl of twelve years old, crowded to be ornamented by his skilful chisel; shirts, mats, axes, and other articles accumulated in the carver's kit. He was a superior man in many respects. He used to beat everybody at draughts, and had a store of old legends of amuse his audience.”

Chapter VII Mokoed Europeans and Mokoed Visitors to Europe

Rutherford was himself a remarkable instance of moko and has also so much to say on the subject that I think my readers will be sufficiently interested to hear the conclusion of his history. He was married to the two daughters of his chief, but escaped in 1826 (January 9th), after nearly ten years' captivity. He had been sent off by the natives on the mission of decoying an American brig nearer to the shore. As soon as the captain of the vessel saw him he exclaimed, “Here is a white New Zealander,” and on hearing his story took him off.

After his return to England he occasionally maintained himself by accompanying a travelling caravan of wonders, showing his tattooing and telling portions of his extraordinary adventures. In 1829 he was exhibited in London. The publication of his adventures gave him much gratification, as did the painting of his portrait, though he suffered much inconvenience from sitting to the artist in frosty weather with the upper part of his body undraped. He disliked being “shown” for money, but submitted to it in order that with the sum he obtained for his manuscript he might return to Otaheite. His journal of his ten years' imprisonment in New Zealand tells us of the five other fellow prisoners, who were tattooed with him in 1816. They were separated; he saw one of them fall a victim owing to ignorance of native customs. Rutherford records a meeting with a well-tattooed Englishman, who had been

Fig. 112.— Portrait of John Rutherford. (From an original drawing taken in 1828.) about eight years in the country, twenty-four years of age, and enjoying the rank of a chief. Rutherford kept his intention of looking out for a ship to escape a secret from this man, for he was too much attached to the natives to be trusted.

Rutherford and his companions are by no means the only white men who have been mokoed. George Bruce, the first of the early Europeans so treated in New Zealand, about the year 1806, acquired a good knowledge of the language and customs. He became a chief, married the daughter of a chief Te Pahi, and resided near the Bay of Islands. He exercised a good influence on the people. Later he was badly treated by an unprincipled skipper, who got him and his wife on board ship, landed him at Malacca, and sold the wife to another captain at Penang. Through the influence of the Governor of Penang his wife was restored; but neither were heard of after a stay in Bengal, and they never returned to the Bay of Islands.

In 1807 a vessel called the Sydney Cove landed in New Zealand a gang of men for the seal-fishery in the South. All were killed and eaten, except a lad, James Caddell, who in the massacre touched the mat of a chief Tako, and was preserved by reason of its sanctity. Caddell gradually adopted the manners and customs of the tribe. The Sydney Gazette for April 3rd, 1823, states that nine years before he was married to a chief's daughter, the sister of a chief. Caddell soon became transformed from the English sailor boy to the terrifying New Zealand chief; he was tattooed and became a noble. After much persuasion he was induced to visit New South Wales, and even then he would not go without his partner, to whom he was tenderly attached. He was about thirty, and for some days they paraded the streets of Sydney in Maori costume. They returned by the first opportunity.

Earle, too, mentions some runaway convicts, who became slaves in New Zealand, and who were tattooed. He says that in 1827 the brig Wellington was seized by convicts en route to Norfolk Island. At the Bay of Islands the outlaws who landed at Kororarika were seized by the natives and put on board ships with the exception of six. Earle says he saw them in the suite of one of the chiefs: “I chanced to be in the house alone, and was amazed by seeing an Englishman enter the hut with his face tattooed all over. Not being aware he was one of the runaways from the Wellington, I spoke to him. He slunk into our cooking-house on pretence of lighting his pipe, and before ten minutes had elapsed the house was in flames.”

Thomson says one unemployed white man (Pakeha Maori), who was tattooed, visited England and acted the part of a New Zealand savage in several provincial theatres. He married an Englishwoman, who accompanied him to New Zealand; but she eloped with a Yankee sailor, because the tattooed actor's former Maori wife met him and obtained over him an influence the white woman could not combat. Lieutenant-Colonel Munday (1847) mentions some smacks belonging to the Maoris. In one little cutter the master was an aboriginal, and the crew of one man was a Pakeha Maori or “white man blackwashed.” Lieutenant-Colonel Munday adds that he was informed the man was tattooed and married to a Maori woman.

Sydney, New South Wales, was the scene of the earliest mokoed visitors from New Zealand. The first in England was one Moyhanger in 1805, a native, who arrived with Mr. Savage, author of Some Account of New Zealand, published in London, 1807. In 1807 Matara (by name) arrived; and in 1809 in the whaler Argo came Ruatara, aged 18, with two others all tattooed. Ruatara was son of the chief who was father-in- lawfather-in-law to Bruce, the mokoed white man. As the Maoris made good sailors many worked well on ships; others travelled with missionaries. In 1818 the chiefs Te Teri and Tui, who had but little moko, were in England; and many others since.

In 1820 came the cruel Hongi, eater of men, with another

Fig. 113.—A bust of himself in wood by Hongi. "Missionary Register." 1816. P. 525. 1815. p.198. chief Waikato. They were spoken of in England as Christian converts. Their visit to Cambridge led to the translation of the Bible into the Maori language. From their pronunciation Professor Lee reduced their language into a written one, and composed a grammar and dictionary; and this afforded a means of translating the Bible and Prayer-book into their native language; and the demand for these books gradually increased. Of course many words had to be coined into the native pronunciation, and manufactured words were introduced into this hybrid language. Coined words had to be written according to the Maori pronunciation that most nearly approached the words. Thus, Scriptures became Karipitura, Bible Paipera, Pharisee Parihi, Israel Iharaira, Sabbath Hapati, Phylacteries Pairakere, and so on.

Of course “tattooing” still remained moko. It is narrated that much public interest was aroused in these chiefs, and their finely tattooed faces excited general attention. George IV. gave them an audience. Hongi's bearing was dignified when treated as a great man, but when regarded merely as an object of curiosity he never failed to show his disgust and even indignation. On this subject the Rev. Mr. Taylor gives the following narration: “A striking instance of this occurred in a gentleman's house, where a large party had been invited to meet the chief; Hongi had assumed all the airs of a superior, and acted the prince which he knew well how to do; until he observed some ladies evidently tracing the lines on his tattooed face, whilst a smile played on their own, which he thought implied a feeling of pity towards himself; immediately he rose in a state of great excitement, threw himself across three chairs, and covering his face with his hands, remained in that position until the company left.”

These two chiefs had no sooner returned to New Zealand with Missionary Kendal, than Hongi armed his whole tribe and its allies with the muskets obtained in England; and throwing aside the mask of religion (not that of moko, of course) he pursued the career of a bloodthirsty warrior. Owing to him the whole population of the North Island was thinned and scattered, and that of the Middle Island almost destroyed. In 1826 the

Fig. 114.—Portrait of Te Pehi Kupe. (From a sketch by Mr. J. Sylvester, of Liverpool.) Southern Chief Pehi (mentioned before) resolved to emulate Hongi and visit England with a view to procuring arms wherewith to revenge himself. A whaling vessel came into Cook's Straits. Pehi immediately went on board, bidding his followers paddle back to shore and leave him on the ship. His visit to England, which has been recounted in another chapter, was unsuccessful so far as obtaining arms was concerned. The crowds who followed Te Pehi in the streets of Liverpool led an English showman to bring two tattooed New Zealanders to England as a commercial speculation. In 1830 they were exhibited in different parts of the country. Both acknowledged they had partaken of human flesh. The elder of the two had a small part of his left cheek untouched with tattooing. They were at Derby in March 1830, fell ill of measles, and were abandoned; they were however maintained by a gentleman of that town until they recovered.

A chief, whose moko signature appears in this book, É Gnoni, was also in this country.

A partly tattooed Maori sailor died, 1849, at Guy's Hospital.

Fig. 115.—É Gnoni a chief of Mukou (Lat. 38 deg. S). Once resident in London. Drawn by himself on the wood. (Tracing by the Author.) Hongi Ika

In 1855, the Chief John Williams Hipango, from the Wanganui district, reached London viâ Sydney. During his stay a vessel arrived in port which had been recovered from its mutinous crew by eight New Zealand sailors who were on board. These natives were sent to the Sailors' Home, and heard in chapel the first service ever given in the Maori language in

Description: Fig. 116.—Wax model of a Maori who died in Guy's Hospital, London. (From a sketch by the Author.)

London. Hipango visited his countrymen, of whom several were baptised. He was received in a private audience by Her Majesty and H.R.H. The Prince Consort on the occasion of delivering presents sent from New Zealand.

Dr. Karl Scherzer's narrative of the voyage of the Austrian frigate Novara in 1859 mentions that two mokoed Waikatos, named Wiremu Toetoe and Hemara Rerehau Paraone, joined the ship's company of their own will. When the ship left Auckland somewhat later a boat with several natives came alongside; and the Vicar-General, anxious that Protestant natives should not alone be shipped to Europe, was found to have brought some wonderfully tattooed Roman Catholic natives to accompany the vessel. But it was too late, for she was already in motion; and the Vicar-General, a warm-hearted Irishman, had to return with his protégés, his praiseworthy object being unaccomplished. At Vienna the two natives visited their Majesties at the Imperial Palace. After some stay, they were presented (on the recommendation of the Director of the State Printing Office) with some implements that they might avail themselves at home of the knowledge they had acquired. In 1860 they came viá Germany to England, and were presented to the Queen; and ultimately returned to Auckland. In his native land Toetoe issued from the press too stirring publications.

In 1884 the great Ariki, or Chief of Chiefs—namely, King Tawhiao, a pensioner of the New Zealand Government—came to England. His object was to see the Queen, but this was not permitted. He stayed with his suite at Montague Place. Attracted to Mr. Cutter's, in Great Russell Street, by a collection of New Zealand arms, he left this printed visiting card. The author has their signatures in fair writing.

King Tawhiao. Major Wiremu Te Wheoro Topia Turoa Hori Ropihana Patora Te Tuhi

The major, who was a member of the House of Representatives, was not tattooed.

The white hat Tawhiao often wore in London was a contrast to

Fig. 117.—King Tawhiao, died August 27, 1894. or 26th (From a photograph.) his darkened visage, but not in accord with his mokoed face. His body was covered with carving. He said for a fortnight when his lips were being done he had to be fed most tenderly. At the Crystal Palace on the occasion of his visit, there was a special display of fireworks, which included a pyrotechnical representation of his face. Messrs. Brock and Co. used blue lights to represent the tattooing marks, and it was reserved for that celebrated firm of fireworkers to achieve the apotheosis of moko.

Chapter VIII Moko in Legend and Song

In the interesting native mythology in the Rev. Mr. Taylor's book, it is stated that Maui its grand hero is said to have tattooed the lips of the native dog, which accounts for its muzzle being always black, as Kahutara tattooed the face of heaven and made it dark, and also that of man. In White's Ancient History of the Maori there is this legend, which serves in some sort as an account of the origin of moko. Tama-nui-a-raki paid a visit to his ancestors; they asked him, “What brought you here?” He answered, “To obtain your services to make on my face the lines I now see marked on yours.” Tama's face was marked all over, but when he went to bathe it all washed off, and this took place a second time. He then asked, “I see you are tattooed so that when you wash it does not wash off; but mine is gone as soon as I bathe.” They said, “Rise, and go to your other ancestors, Taka (take action), Ha (breath), Tua a Piko (a little awry), Ta Wai Tiri (splashing water), with whom you will find the soot to make the moko permanent.” Tama went to his other ancestors, and was asked why he paid the visit. He answered, “To obtain knowledge of the art I see exhibited on your faces.” They said, “But it is a very painful operation.” He said, “It cannot be death, as you have borne it and live.” They said, “But some die under the operation.” However on the following day the instruments were got ready, and as soon as Tama had lain down and shut his eyes and the operator had cut some of the lines on his face, he fainted away. On recovering consciousness, he exclaimed:

“O Taka! O Ha Tua Piko and Ta Whai Tiri I shall expire.

His ancestors said:

“We do not cause the pain, It is the instruments And blood and severed flesh. Now darkness comes, Black darkness covers thee; And He is watchful; We also are watching now.”

Tama again fainted, but on recovering, said:

“O Taka! O Ha! In agony I shall die.”

And again his ancestors said:

“We do not cause the pain, It is the instruments And blood and severed flesh, And darkness comes, Black darkness covers thee And He is watchful; We are watching; Drink water and be refreshed.”

Tama now went and bathed, and said:

“Man near death reels and trembles, And beloved ones show him affection.”

He then lay down with his face to the earth, and one of the operators kneeled on him to cause the blood to flow from the punctures. Again he fainted away, and was carried to the settlement in a litter. A fire was kindled, and he was laid near to it. After three days he could see things around him, and day after day the moko healed, and he could walk about and go to bathe. Soon he recovered and said to his ancestors: “I will now return home to my children.”

From Sir George Grey's book, Hakirakra O Nga Maori, I give the tattoo song for a man—“He Whakawai Taanga Moko”:—

“E noho ana, e kai-tahi ana, Ki te titiro, ki nga rewa I te ihu, O Tutetawha E wehoki ana, me he peke ngarara Taia mai ra, ki te uhi Mataora Taria, e tuku atu, Ki to wahine, takiri karito kowhara, Naku, koe i whakanoko, &c., &c.

Which may be translated:

“We are sitting eating together, And are looking at the prints Over the eyebrows And nose of Tutetawha; They are curved like lizards' legs. Tattoo him with good points. “Be not impatient to go To the girl who gathers you sweet greens In baskets of kowhara. Let every line be traced On this man who will pay; Let the figures be handsome; Let our songs lull the pain, And inspire thee with fortitude, E hiki Tangaroa? E hiki Tangoroa?”

And the song when a young woman is being tattooed, which certainly supplies the motive for the operation:

“Takoto ra, e hine Pirori e, Kia taia o ngutu, Pirore e, Mo to haerenga atu, ki nga whare tapere I kiia ana mai, Ko hea tenei wahine kino? E haere mai nei,” &c.

Given well is the following from a paper by Mr. W. Colenso in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute:

“Lay thyself quietly down, oh daughter (Soon it is done,) That thy lips may be well tattooed; ('Tis quickly performed.) For thy going to visit the young men's houses; Lest it should be said Whither indeed is this ugly woman going? Now coming hitherward. Keep thyself still, lying down, oh young lady, (Round the tap goes.) That thy lips may be well tattooed, Also thy chin; That thou mayest be beautiful. Thus it goes fast. For thy going to visit the houses of courtship, Lest it should be said of thee, Whither does this woman think of going with her red lips? “Who is walking this way? (Still it is revolving.) Give thyself willingly to be tattooed; Briefly it is over. For thy going to the house of amusement; Also thou wilt be spoken of: ‘Whither goes this woman with her bare lips,

Literally, plain, unadorned, without ornament or covering, applied sneeringly.

Hastening hither, indeed, in that state?’ (Round it revolves.) It is done. It is tattooed. (Soon it is indeed.) Give hither quietly thy chin to be imprinted; (Nimbly the hand moves.) For thy going to the houses of the single men, Lest these ill words be said— ‘Whither goes this woman with her red chin, Who is coming this way?’”

The song of the operator says in no uncertain terms that perfect work must be liberally paid for, a proposition from which no artist will dissent.

The operator sings:

“Te tangata i te whakautu, Kia ata whakanakonako; Tangata, i te whakautu kore, Kokoia, kia tatahi, Patua i te whakatangitangi; E hiki Tangaroa? E hiki Tangaroa?”

Which may be rendered:

“He who pays well let him Be beautifully ornamented, But he who forgets the operator Let him be done carelessly. Be the lines far apart, E hiki Tangaroa? E hiki Tangaroa? Strike that the chisel As it cuts along may sound. O Hiki Tangaroa? Men do not know the skill Of the operator in driving his Sounding chisel along, E hiki Tangaroa?”

This song was chiefly, says the Rev. Mr. Taylor, to remind the gentleman of the duty he owed the operator, who, not having any regular professional charge, chiefly depended on the liberality of his patient, who was expected, not only to feed him with the best, but to make him a handsome present as well. When the operator suspected he would not be remembered he frequently became careless in his work, and rendered the person an object for life; some of the mokos are very coarsely done, whilst others are finished with an artist's touch, by which we may judge the way they severally paid the owner of the sounding chisel.

Again, from Sir George Grey's invaluable collection of Maori songs and legends, the lament of the brother on the death (1846) of the celebrated Te Heuheu has this verse (translated):

“Turn yet this once thy bold athletic frame, And let me see thy skin carved o'er with lines Of blue; and let me see thy face, So beautifully chiselled into various forms; Ah, the people now are comfortless and sad.”

Chapter IX The Decadence of Moko

With regard to the rapid decadence of the art of tattooing, it has been already mentioned that the missionaries long ago discouraged the practice as a mark of heathendom. Yate (1835)

Fig. 118.—Maori father and son, the latter without tattooing. (Sketch, 1866.) says that in all mission stations tattooing has been forbidden, and that it is generally understood that any person coming to live at a mission station must no longer submit himself “to such a savage and debasing performance.” Nowadays, the art is no longer practised among the men, and living examples of it are only to be found amongst the older generation. With the death of King Tawhiao on August 27th, 1894, at the age of 70, one of the last really fine specimens of moko was lost to the

Fig. 119.—Unfinished moko. (From a sketch from life by the Author, 1866.) Paora

Fig. 120.—Unfinished tattooing. (From a sketch from life by the Author, 1865.) Tamati Mauao, grandfather ofHamiora Tu world. Though not completely covered with tracery, he might have been any age; for where moko is elaborated time can write no wrinkles. The art will soon have to be studied in the dried Maori heads preserved in many museums and private collections. And since as an art moko is vanishing, I have done my best to write some account of it before its remembrance quite passes away; though I have by no means exhausted this interesting subject and more yet remains to be written on it. As early as 1835, Darwin, in the famous journal of the expedition of H.M.S. Beagle, records that the practice of moko was diminishing; but that as it was the badge of distinction between chief and slave, in his opinion it would not probably very soon be disused. Its effect of preventing the usual signs of age from showing themselves in wrinkles has been mentioned, and it should be added that moko has the corresponding result of adding an appearance of premature age to the face of a young person. European civilisation, new wants and order of things, obliterated the distinctions which prevailed, upset all their social order, and reduced the entire race to one dead level of social inferiority in the presence of the Pakeha.

By degrees tattooing went, and now in a short time it will

Fig. 121.—Unfinished tattoo. (A sketch, 1866.)

Fig. 122.—Partly tattooed. (A sketch, 1866.) disappear. I noticed in 1864–66, as I have elsewhere mentioned, that there was the beard and moustache on those whose faces already bore moko, except among the older men. One singular result ensued during the period of transition. Such of the natives as were converted before their moko was complete discontinued the task and remained as they were, moko being incapable of obliteration.

Fig. 123.— Unfinished tattoo. (From a sketch by the Author 1864.) Ramiera te Hiahia- guide to Gate Pa. 1864. The effect is curious, not to say ludicrous, when they appeared partly tattooed and partly plain.

Speaking of the year 1847, the Bishop of Waiapu (the Right Rev. William Williams, D.C.L.) gives an account of an incident which throws some light on the decay of moko. There was a quarrel on the east coast about a native woman, a widow, being married. The discontented party fired a gun and gave notice that tattooing should be revived for the purpose of annoying the members of the church, and a young man was that morning submitted to the operation. And tattooing continued daily for some weeks. So strong was the inclination of the young people to be made like their elders in appearance that very many went off to receive their moko in spite of the opposition of their friends; the Christian party made a determined effort to dissuade their relations,

Fig. 124.—Photograph of Maori wearing hair over tattoo. Maihi of Maungatapu,E.C.East Cape 1864. and subsequently refused to hold intercourse with them when their efforts had proved fruitless. This state of things went on for more than six months, when a reconciliation took place.

Fig. 125.—Old man wearing hair over tattoo (From life by the Author, 1865.)

Fig. 126.—Incomplete tattoo, hair grown over markings. (From a sketch from life by the Author.)

Fig. 127.–Slight tattooing with hair. (Sketch by Author, 1864.) Ihaaka, the rebel tohunga killed at Gate Pa

Photography came into use just in time for the recorder of moko. The deeper cut patterns come out best; for “chiselled” moko makes thick and deep lines on the flesh, leaving scars which photograph well, while the lightly traced marks do not appear so distinctly. One often notices that a photographer has inked in the lines, a magnifying glass shows where he has failed to follow them accurately; or one sees the native just touched up with the brush to give the requisite strength and make the pattern come out well. These are generally a little incorrect. I took many portraits

Fig. 128.—A Maori sailor (1865). (Sketch from life by Author.) Anaru- see p. 37.

Fig. 129.—The engineer of the Gate Pa. (From a sketch from life by the Author, 1864.) Penetaka when among the natives. There was difficulty in seeing much body-tattooing, as clothes were worn invariably. There are not many correct illustrations of it extant, nor many specimen skins in the museums, which illustrate the facial patterns plentifully. I give a list of some museums possessing good examples of moko at pp. 197–205.

I have, however, traced off one good thigh pattern, and give some portraits, copies, and photographs—one a war dance, another a fallen warrior in the fern. The effigies in wood show a quantity of good limb and body tattooing. Our last native visitors to England were a small contingent, including a girl amongst them, brought over by the Salvation Army in 1894. They were paraded in London. I sought them out in the hope of sketching a mokoed New Zealander once more from life; but in vain. The “major” of the party informed me that only girls here and there kept up tattooing and that the men had done with it. Then I realised that moko was done for and that the art vanishes. Would it be semi-barbarous to say

“Heu moko præteritos si referat Jupiter annos”?

Fig. 130.—Wounded Maoris (with slight tattooing). (Sketch in the Rifle Pits 1864, by the Author.) Reweti at Gate Pa.

Part II Mokoamokai

Mokoamokai was the name given to a dried head. The reverence paid it, whether it had belonged to a relative, a friend, or a foe, will be made apparent in these chapters. In this second part of the book I deal with the mokoamokai, traditions and history, the method of embalming, and artists engaged. Next is shown the effects of the sudden demand for cured heads in exchange for trade purposes, the evils of this traffic, and its suppression; and, finally, some account of the best preserved heads in museums and private collections, distinguishing those specimens which show post-mortem moko. My object throughout is, however, to illustrate the art of moko and its interest as design.

Chapter X Tradition, History, and Incidents of Mokoamokai

Description: Fig. 131.—Preserved heads of Maori warriors arrayed in robes and displayed by their conquerors. (From a sketch by the Author.)

The curing or embalming of the head was among the Maoris an acknowledgment of the nobility of its owner: it served to keep alive the memory of the departed, among a people who were innocent of literature or of any (except carving) of the usual forms of art. Most of the early writers on New Zealand mention the practice of preserving human heads, and it appears to have been very general amongst the Maoris in their then state. None of the numerous accounts however are very complete, and many of them appear to be rather descriptions at second hand than records of personal observation. Probably this was due not so much to a lack of curiosity on the part of the writers as to the fact that observers were few, and would from prudential motives naturally keep aloof from the scenes of which the heads formed the central point of interest; besides which, in many cases, the actual business of preparation was strictly tapu or sacred, and an effectual bar would be placed against too minute a scrutiny. It is a question not only curious in itself, but of great interest to the ethnologist. Though the custom from a civilised point of view was certainly a barbarous one, it was not practised from mere brutality, or simply from a desire for personal vanity on the part of the conqueror; no dishonour was intended for the owner of the head, in fact the exact opposite was the case. The distinction, for such it was, was strictly reserved for persons of importance, and the heads of the chiefs of a tribe, and occasionally those of their wives and children, were preserved as well as those of the chiefs of the enemy slain in battle. Mr. Marsden states that “it is gratifying to the vanquished to know that the heads of their chiefs are preserved by the enemy”; and the same authority relates the case of a chief's wife who had the head of her sister preserved, and placed in an ark near her hut in order that she might relieve her feelings by weeping over it.

Moko being in old days an essential part of warlike preparations, it is more than probable that many a young brave was supported under the pain of tattooing by the thought of the handsome and warlike appearance it would give to his countenance whenever his head came to be preserved.

The principal object of the custom seems to have been to keep alive the memory of the dead, and the mokomokai, as they were called, supplied the place of statues and pictures and

Description: Fig. 132.—Specimen at Saffron Walden Museum: head of woman, with post-mortem tattooing only, probably done for sale.

monumental records. In the case of a departed chief of a tribe it was a visible sign that in some mysterious way his presence still dwelt amongst his people, inciting them to emulate his virtues, and to follow in his steps; while in that of the slaughtered warrior mokomokai served to keep alive the memory of the injury received by the tribe in whose possession they remained, and afforded a constant challenge to revenge and retaliation. Even where the mokoed head was that of an enemy, its possession was valued by the victorious tribe, and was only given up under circumstances of a peculiar nature. The preserved head of a foe was a familiar object about the old Maori pas and in its vicinity. The Rev. G. Smales says the enemies' heads were usually placed on the tops of houses or on poles by the wayside where they were exposed to the contemptuous taunts of the passers-by. Those of relations and friends were, however, more carefully kept. They were placed in a secluded spot; they were protected by the strictest tapu; they were brought forth and exhibited only on great occasions, as the hahunga (a feast attending the ceremonial raising of a chief's bones), at the departure of a warlike expedition, or at a gathering of the tribe.

During the progress of a war or when negotiations for peace were pending, these embalmed heads of the principal chiefs played no small part in the business of the moment. Mr. Marsden was informed by Hongi and Te Morenga that when a chief fell in combat the victors demanded that the body, if not already in their possession, should be delivered up, and this was done if his people considered further fighting to be useless. Hostilities were suspended, the head was cut off, and after an elaborate ceremony of “auguration” the tohunga (or priest) proclaimed the cessation or continuance of the fight. The head was kept for the chief on whose account war had been begun; it was preserved and sent round to relatives and friends as evidence that justice had been satisfied, and the war brought to an honourable conclusion.

Such are some of the earliest incidents we know attaching to mokomokai. The origin of embalming is involved in obscurity, in common with everything relating to the early customs of the people. No one knows whether the Maori brought the art with him, or evolved it from his consciousness or observation. It was in vogue before Cook came into the country. Mr. Yates says the custom of preserving enemies' heads was one of more recent date; and was an extension of the older custom of preserving the heads of friends and relatives. As a matter of fact, when the traffic (about which more anon) in heads became general, the Maoris ceased to preserve the heads of friends lest their relics should be sold. This traffic in dried heads will be told separately and presently.

Weight must be given to the consideration that warriors would wish to show as trophies the heads of the chiefs they had killed in combat. However, the evidence that this custom, as relating to enemies, was of more recent origin is satisfactory; and we must look to the older and pleasanter aspect of mokomokai—namely, the embalming of the heads of friends, as supplying the origin of the custom. Some confirmation of this view may be derived from the undoubtedly old custom of embalming the head of a beloved wife or child. And I shall proceed to deal with the two branches of the subject separately. But first I shall have to refer to the ethnological aspect of the matter in the shortest possible terms. The embalming of the Maori head does not only suggest the Egyptian mummy process. In Book IV. of his History, Herodotus tells us the Scythian warrior used to carry away the heads of his slain foes for preservation. It has been said the Gauls used to bring home and embalm the heads of defeated enemies, and that collections of these trophies were kept in large chests. The conserving of scalps by American Indians and even by the Scythians need hardly be referred to.

Mokoamokai of Enemies.

Reference has been made to the custom of exposing an enemy's head, as contrasting with that of carefully guarding the head of a friend or relative. It should be added that Mr. White states these strange heads were set on the tops of the posts surrounding the marae or enclosure (courtyard, it may be rendered) so that strangers might see the results of the prowess of the tribe. They were a sort of spolia opima to the successful chief, over which he is supposed to exult. I give an illustration of three heads treated in the manner characteristic of the country; and about these the victors would relate to an admiring audience the tales of war and victory, and slay the slain again. At the conclusion of war, an exchange of heads was an indispensable article in the treaty of peace. Should a chief dispose of a captured head during the continuance of the war, it was regarded as a sign that he would never conclude peace with his foe. The exposed head was placed on a pole or stake (turu turu) with crossbars to represent arms; a mat was wrapped round pole and crossbar to give the effigy as life-like an appearance as circumstances would admit. On the occasion of a gathering of the clan or tribe, the victorious chief would gloat over these precious things, and re-enact the incidents of the combat amidst a scene of wild excitement. Mr. J. S. Polack says that in the flight of an army or in the butchery of prisoners, those heads that were best punctured were decollated for future preservation; but that the possessor of an unmarked head was battered and crushed with the most savage brutality. Subsequently those that were worth preserving, when set up on stakes as already described, were subject to all manners of abuse and obloquy from the victors who addressed the captured heads as though they were living persons. Mr. Yates thus renders the language addressed to these effigies of deceased enemies: “You wanted to run away, did you? But my mere overtook you, and after you were cooked you were made food for my mouth. And where is your father? He is cooked. Where is your brother? He is eaten. Where is your wife? There she sits, a wife for me. Where are your children? There they are, with loads on their backs, carrying food as my slaves.”

Mr. T. B. Lee, native teacher of Waima, Hokianga, informed the Rev. P. Walsh, on the authority of a chief of that district, that the head of an obnoxious party would be dried, and, as an ito, would accompany its rangatira on fishing excursions, when it would be so fixed on the gunwale of the canoe as to nod freely if a fish took the baited hook, the line of which was attached to the ear.

Some hair was usually torn from the head of each slain enemy, and preserved for the home-coming of the victors.

So long as the heads remained in the possession of a victorious chief, no amicable relations were possible between the rival tribes. Sometimes where both sides were inclined for peace, it happened that the heads of defunct friends were exchanged, or purchased, and returned to the surviving relatives by whom they were held in much veneration. The number of these preserved heads must have been very considerable, and a parade or exhibition of them must have been a very terrible spectacle to a stranger. Mr. Marsden tells us that on the return of one of Hongi's expeditions against the East Coast natives, a single canoe brought back to Rangihou no less than seventy of these trophies. The early missionaries used to find, during the fighting season which lasted for several months, that the palisading of the adjacent Pa and even the fence of their own compounds were decorated with a row of heads. As before remarked, only the heads of chiefs or of the tattooed were thus preserved; and when the heads were those of enemies, restoration to the defeated tribe was an indispensable preliminary to peace. The most important part which they played, however, was during the actual progress of the war, and in the negotiations respecting its continuance or otherwise. These heads were consequently too precious to be traded away for the white man's treasures. A change was brought about in these views when Hongi first obtained a good supply of arms and ammunition. Hongi was the first to organise Maori warfare on this new principle, and the terror of his name spread far. Every effort was made to meet him on equal terms; but difficulty was experienced in buying enough arms and ammunition. A ton of dressed flax, laboriously scraped with a pipi shell, could only be bartered for a single gun. But when it was found that the trading schooner would give guns and ammunition for specimen heads, another state of things supervened. Mokoed heads were wanted, and were rapidly provided, for the drying process was such that new and old heads were not readily distinguished. And what was once an honour reserved for chiefs, became forced on slaves with a view to prompt sale of the head. So armaments were bought; and the traders got that which the public wanted for museums and for collections. Then came the end, as we shall see.

It will have been gathered from what has been said that the Maoris did not entirely reserve their treatment of heads solely for their own race; and many heads of white men have been similarly smoked and dried. An instance may be given: In 1834, H.M.S. Alligator was sent to obtain restoration of British subjects, then in the hands of the New Zealanders; after the affair at Waimati on the coast, the preserved head of some ill-fated European was taken out of the water which partially filled a trench, where it was supposed to have been thrown on the flight of the natives. The complexion of this head was changed, but the features and hair remained unaltered. This discovery formed a melancholy confirmation of Mr. Guard's tale of shipwreck and slaughter. Yet, strange to say, none of the survivors of the crew of the Harriet could recognise the face as one of their former companions, and it may have been obtained from another source. The sight of the head again stirred up the soldiers, and in the course of the day one of them brought in the head of a New Zealander which he had detached from the trunk of one of the fallen natives. It was, however, buried by the officers under a rock, as it had been made a football of. The last instance is from the fighting which occurred in 1864. Just when the Maori cause seemed lost, the flames of war were fanned by a new religion called the Pai Marire or Hauhau, derived from the “fightingest” part of the Bible. At Te Ahuhu, on April 6th, a detachment under Captain PT. W. J. Lloyd, of the 57th Regiment, was cut off in an ambuscade. Captain Lloyd fell fighting heroically, and killed or wounded three natives with his revolver when lying on the ground with a broken thigh. His body had eighteen wounds. The natives, believing that a British medical officer had decapitated one of their people and carried off his head as a specimen, did it for Utu, or revenge. They cut off the heads of Captain Lloyd and the fallen of his party, and having drunk their blood, they buried the heads and bodies in separate places. A few days after, they dug up the heads and smoked and dried them in the old fashion. Captain Lloyd's head was placed on a pole at Pipiriki on the Wanganui river and subjected to indignity; the wild fanatics even rushing at it and biting at it. The Hauhaus believed that the Angel Gabriel would appear to those who drank of the blood; and they caused the head to be carried about in order that it might be a means of communicating with Jehovah. They then announced that the head had appointed a high-priest Te Ua and two assistant prophets, Hepania and Rangitauria; had communicated a new religion; and that its believers (called Very Good) were to be protected by the Angel Gabriel and his legions who would aid in driving the Europeans out of the country, together with all natives who did not adopt the new faith. When this was accomplished, messengers would come from heaven and teach the Maoris all the Pakeha arts and sciences. A head was afterwards given up at Waitotara by Te Ua to Mr. Brompton, the interpreter; and the officers of the 57th believed it to be that of their gallant comrade. It was buried with the body, and a lock of hair sent to the widow.

In March, 1865, during the continuance of the fanaticism, the Rev. Mr. Volckner was killed at Opiatiki, and shocking orgies ensued. Later in the same year the head of a soldier was taken to Pipiriki by Kereopa and Patara, and used as a mystic symbol. This is the last case of an English head preserved in the Maori fashion. In 1827 Captain Dillon was ordered by the Government of British India to undertake a voyage to the South Seas to ascertain the fate of La Perouse's expedition. In the course of the voyage, he was informed that the ship's carpenter had refused to work, and said he was going ashore. To deter him from this step Captain Dillon had recourse to the following expedient. He asked him if he had seen any preserved human heads offered for sale by the natives since his arrival. The carpenter replied he had. “Then, sir,” said Captain Dillon, “if you attempt to desert from the ship I will pay the natives to preserve your head and bring it here as a curiosity.” The threat had the desired effect.

I have myself seen the mokoAmokai of a young European, with close cropped hair. How old it was I could not judge.

As already stated, these preserved heads of native enemies had their use in bringing about peace, and often in maintaining it when once arranged.

It may be added that after the Maori had knowledge of fire-arms, the skin of the buttocks of a dead enemy, if well tattooed, was stripped off; it is about one-fifth of an inch thick, and was used as a cover for cartouche-boxes. In a medical museum I can name, there is a bit or sample of tanned skin of a man (name given) which is equal to good quality pig skin. On the same shelf is a small white-looking taper or uncanny dip formed of human fat. Commerce, one may suppose, will not adopt these articles just yet. (One reads lately that in France after the execution of the murderer Pranzini, the presiding judge was presented with a purse made from the criminal's skin.) I will endeavour to exhaust all I have to tell of these old Maori practices with a short account given by Captain Cruise, when at the Bay of Islands. The English learnt one day on going ashore that a body of natives had just returned from a successful expedition with numerous prisoners, including men, women, and children, some of the latter not two years old. Amongst the prisoners was one distinguished by her superior beauty, who sat apart from the rest on the beach, and though silent seemed buried in affliction. Her father, it appeared, had been killed by the man whose prisoner she had become, and who remained near her during the greater part of the day. The gruesome narrative proceeds:

“As we were preparing to return to the ship, we were drawn to that part of the beach where the prisoners were by the most doleful cries and lamentations. Here was the interesting young slave in a situation that ought to have softened the heart of the most unfeeling. The man who had slain her father, having cut off his head and preserved it by a process peculiar to these islanders, took it out of a basket, and threw it into the lap of the unhappy daughter. At once she seized it with a degree of frenzy not to be described; and subsequently with a bit of sharp shell disfigured her person in so shocking a manner that in a few minutes not a vestige of her former beauty remained.”

They afterwards learnt that this fellow had married the very woman whom he had treated with such singular barbarity.

Fig. 133.—Taraia: (a chief who cooked two native Christians in 1842), fully tattooed, fine specimen.

I will record the last act of cannibalism which is associated, as so many are, with heads. This ancient Maori custom was used for the last time at Katikati on the Thames about fifty miles from Auckland; and two human beings were cooked and eaten in 1842. They were native Christians. They fell in an attack led by a chief called Taraia, who had a feud against them, and they were duly entombed in the stomachs of the victors. The native account of the affair was reported to the New Zealand Government, as follows: After the action Taraia reached his own village where there were a church and a few believers, and here they rang the prayer-bell. When the Christian natives were at evening worship, Taraia rolled the two heads out into the midst of them. The missionaries were sent for by the executive council, and they proposed to Taraia that he should give some compensation to the sufferers' tribe. To this Taraia made no objection provided that the tribe in question paid him for the relations they had slain. “Have they not eaten my mother?” said Taraia. The matter was allowed to rest there; but it is satisfactory to give the portrait of the so-called last of the Cannibals. He had a shaking head, & wild blood shot eyes. Was reported to have eaten seven of his wives. Was also known as Ngakutu te Turuihuia

MokoAmokai of Friends.

The heads of their relatives were always objects of the greatest esteem to the Maoris; and here we touch upon pleasanter subjects. Families kept their relies in boxes, and aired them on occasion with songs and praises. Dieffenbach says: “In the vestibule of one of the houses I found the head of a young girl in a basket prepared in the manner which has long been so well known, and of which so many examples have been conveyed to Europe.” They were preserved as a memorial of the grief of survivors, or to show to relatives who might have been absent at the decease. It may be compared to the operations on the deceased performed by the ancient Egyptian physician and priest. Some light is thrown on the matter by a narration in Mr. Earle's book. Speaking of the return of a warlike expedition in 1837, he says: “They had brought with them several heads which they have the art of preparing in their native ovens, so as not to disfigure the countenance nor injure the figure tattooed upon them. One of these, the skull of a distinguished chief, seemed to afford them amazing delight. Most of our people had known him well, and several of his near

Description: Fig. 134.—A good specimen in Author's collection—head preserved by friend showing varying pattern on cheeks. Lips sewn together The first specimen obtained by General Robley

relatives were present; but cruel war seemed to have eradicated every feeling of humanity, for all appeared to contemplate this ghastly object with great satisfaction. These heads were decorated profusely with yellow and red ribbons, and with white feathers; they were then stuck upon short poles and placed with great ceremony in front of old Queen Turero's house, who, sitting at the door, received this token of respect with approval and condescension.”

This passage also hints at the method which was adopted to embalm the head. If the deceased had relatives, the operators removed to some distance from their habitation; and neither

Description: Fig. 135.—Preserved head of a Maori baby (in King's College Museum, London), with gray glass eyes added by a European taxidermist.

operators nor relatives were allowed to touch food until the head was fully “cured.” All were tapu; for if the process were witnessed by the friends, they would, we are told, be unable to repress their tears, and the head would be spoilt. The reasoning seems to lack something, but in the case of an enemy's head the operation was publicly performed. My illustrations will show the careful observer a case where the lips of the embalmed head are sewn together. This will explain another important distinction between a friend's head and that of an enemy. In the case of an enemy the lips are stretched out and sewn apart, while in the case of a friend the lips were sewn close together as though pouting. The Rev. Mr. Taylor says that it was no uncommon thing to embalm in this way the head of a favourite wife or child. The heads of these and of other relatives were preserved in baskets carefully made and scented with oil. They were brought out to be honourably mourned over, and on these occasions they were decorated with feathers and placed in a conspicuous position. In former times the principal wife of a deceased chief would have her husband's head cut off and dried, and also sleep with it by her side.

Chapter XI Methods of Embalming

We are fortunate enough in recording the history of moko to have fairly full accounts of the process of mokomokai. The Rev. Mr. Taylor says the preparation of the skull was called Paki Paki, or Popo, which signified taking out the brain. The heads were then steamed in the oven several times, and after each steaming were carefully wiped with the flowers of the kakaho or reed, and every portion of flesh and brain was removed, a small thin manuka stick being inserted between the skin and bone of the nose to preserve its form. This over, the heads were dried in the sun, and afterwards exposed to the smoke of their houses. The eyes were extracted, the sockets filled with flax, and the lids sewn together. The heads thus prepared were exempt from the attacks of insects, being thoroughly impregnated with pyroligneous acid. At the neck, where the head had been severed from the body, the skin was drawn together like the mouth of a bladder tobacco-pouch, leaving an open space large enough to admit the hand, as a portion of the base of the skull was cut away.

The Rev. Philip Walsh, in an interesting paper read before the Auckland Institute, in October, 1894, says: “Those seen by

Description: Fig. 136.—Specimen in Author's collection.

Mr. King were impaled on upright sticks set in open holes in the ground, which were kept supplied with hot stones from a fire close by, while the operator basted them with melted fat. Each of these processes would equally serve the purpose required. The

Description: Fig 137.—Specimen in Author's collection; glass eyes added.

next stage was a thorough desiccation effected by an alternate exposure to the rays of the sun and the fumes of a wood fire, of which the pyroligneous acid helped to preserve the tissues and protect them from the ravages of insects. A finishing touch was given by anointing the head with oil and combing back the hair into a knob on the top, which was ornamented with feathers, those of the albatross being usually preferred. The work was then complete. The form of the features was very fairly preserved; every line of the moko was distinct; although the likeness was sufficient to identify the departed warrior, the heads invariably bore a

Description: Fig. 138.—Specimen in Author's collection; lips with blue dye.

ghastly expression of life-in-death which once seen can never be forgotten.

Captain Cruise's account corroborates this; but the most

Description: Fig. 139.—Specimen in Author's collection showing tattooing on neck.

interesting is that of Rutherford, whom the reader will remember as the shipwrecked sailor who became a Maori chief. He is on the

Description: Fig. 140.—Specimen in Author's collection, fully tattooed head.

subject of mokomoakai as minute and detailed in his remarks as he is on most points he touches; and his accuracy is not, I think, to be questioned. According to him, the skull was first completely emptied, the eyes and tongue extracted, after which the nostrils and whole interior of the head were stuffed with flax.

Description: Fig. 141.—Specimen in Author's collection, showing work done with fine instruments.

The head was then wrapped up in a quantity of green leaves, and in this state exposed to the fire till well steamed. The leaves were then removed, and it was hung up to dry in smoke, causing the flesh to become tough and hard. The hair and teeth were preserved, and the face-moko was seen as well as in a living person. The head thus cured would, if not exposed to damp, long maintain its appearance. I may remark that Captain Cruise speaks only of a current of dry air and not of smoke as being the drying medium; but I think a large part of the preservative element was due to smoke of a wood fire. It is very probable that the

Description: Fig. 142.—Specimen in Author's collection, forehead and nose completed.

various artists purposely differed in their methods of treatment in their efforts to acquire an enviable distinction, and it is not unlikely that in the case of the more distinguished subjects extra care would be taken, and a more elaborate system employed.

Description: Fig. 143.—Specimen in Author's collection. Now in Salford Museum.

It may be here noted that a French writer regards the Maori art of preserving heads as showing original connection between the New Zealanders and the ancient world; and he compares their processes with that of the Egyptians in embalming mummies. This question, however, extends far beyond the limits of ascertainable fact.

Description: Fig. 144.—Same head as Fig. 134

I prefer to give yet another account of this curious ceremony from the Rev. William Yates, who as a missionary of the Church Missionary Society in the North Island in 1835, had no small experience of Maori life before its change established itself. He says: “The following account of the process was given me by a chief who has preserved and assisted in preserving many after the various battles in which he had engaged. When the head has been cut off the shoulders, the brains are immediately taken out through a perforation behind, and the skull carefully cleaned inside from all mucilaginous and fleshy matter. The eyes are then scooped out, and the head thrown into boiling water, into which red-hot stones are continually cast to keep up the heat. It remains till the skin will slip off, and is then suddenly plunged into cold water, whence it is immediately taken and placed in a native oven, so as to allow the steam to penetrate into all the cavities of the interior of the skull. When sufficiently steamed, it is placed on a stick to dry, and again put into an oven made for the purpose, about the size of the head. The flesh, which easily slips off the bones, is then taken away, and small sticks are employed to thrust flax or the bark of trees within the skin so as to restore it to its former shape and preserve the features. The nostrils are carefully stuffed with a piece of fern root, and the lips generally sewn together; though sometimes they are not closed, but the teeth are allowed to appear. It is finished by hanging it for a few days to dry in the sun. Should the head not now be perfectly preserved, which is but rarely the case, or should there be any internal or external appearance of putrefaction, it is again steamed. This operation is continued till the skin is thoroughly dry, and all other soft matter removed or destroyed, so as to insure it against decomposition, unless much exposed to a humid atmosphere.”

A good deal of the bones of the palate, nose, and interior, is sometimes cut away, and more or less flax used for stuffing the nose and cheeks. The great beauty of the Maori, namely his teeth, is well seen. It may be mentioned here that the expression “Upoko Kohue” or boiled head was the deepest insult known to the Maori language.

When the head of a friend is preserved, as is the case on his being slain in battle, and it has not been possible to carry off the

Fig. 145.—Mourning over the head of a friend. (After the Rev. Mr. Yates.) whole body, the head is deposited in the sacred grove; and when a friend or near relation visits the village, it is taken out in order that he may weep over it, and cherish the spirit of revenge against those by whom he fell. The head is generally placed in some conspicuous part of the residence on a piece of fence, or on the ornament of the roof over the doorway of a house. The stranger is then led to the spot, and his eyes are directed to the ghastly object before him; when he immediately assumes the attitude of grief. He stands in front of the skeleton head with his body bent almost to the earth, the big tear rolling down his manly cheeks, and in the most melancholy tones gives utterance to the over-powering feelings of his heart; till at length, as his grief subsides, he works himself into a fit of rage bordering on madness, at which time it is well for all poor slaves, both male and female, to keep out of sight, or he might slay one as a satisfaction to the trunkless head of his friend, which is placed before him. When the ceremony is concluded, the head is rolled again in its grave-clothes, and carefully deposited in the burial place till required again to excite the passions of some other friend.

I give a drawing of the enlarged opening at the base of the dried head, the aperture being wide enough to admit the hand. The rim of the aperture is generally bound with hoop and flax. The smoking of the head has different effects on its colour and appearance. Some heads are brown, some yellow, some even reddish. But all preserve the pattern of the moko. It is noticeable, too, that the eyelids in dried heads are usually closed, unless the natural eyes were kept or false ones added. The Maoris feared they would be bewitched if they looked into the empty sockets. The eyes were no doubt difficult to preserve even when left in the head. The Maori warrior had a way of gouging out the eyes of a vanquished chief and of swallowing them, thinking that he thus incorporated the dead man's spirit. The Atua tonga (divinity or soul) was thought to be located in the eyes—each eye was believed to have a separate immortality—the left eye ascending to heaven, and becoming a star, unless swallowed promptly, the right eye becoming a spirit and taking flight for the Reinga or leaping-place unless similarly “incorporated” by the victor. Latourneaux has carefully worked out these picturesque details for the instruction of modern writers. He adds that the greatest importance was attached to the eating of the left eye. In my drawing of a dried head at Saffron Walden, false eyes have been added to the head; and the earliest mention of dried heads in Captain Cook's writings refers to heads with apparently false

Description: Fig. 146.—Head with false eyes inserted by native taxidermist. (Saffron Walden Museum.)

eyes. So the eyes of a chief slain in battle were generally missing; these scooped out and swallowed, his vanquisher obtained the spirit and power of the slain, and was raised above his fellows, becoming, if he swallowed enough, a god even upon earth and after death a heavenly luminary of the first magnitude. Of course attempts were made by the chief's friends in battle to preserve him from such a fate as loss of eyes. There is a fine specimen in my collection, where the original eyes have been well preserved. They are shrunk and look like raisins. I give a drawing, too, of a head in another collection, the head of a boy with post-mortem moko. The left eye is gone, but the right eye is well preserved. There is in a provincial museum the dried head of a woman with eyes well preserved; her moko is post mortem, and was possibly done by the

Description: Fig. 147.—Head of a boy with post-mortem moko, in the possession of J. W. Colmer, Esq. one eye depicted

possessor of the head for purposes of sale (Fig. 132). The finishing touches were given to the embalmed head with oil, careful decoration of the hair with feathers, and equally careful combing and tying of the hair in a knot at the back of the head. In the result the features were preserved, and the identity of the deceased easily recognised.

I will quote here an extract from the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1882–3) of the Smithsonian Institution,

Description: Fig. 148.—Specimen in Author's Collection,

Washington, B.C., dated 1885 (p. 75): “Two beautifully tattooed heads are in the collection of the Army Medical Museum at Washington, D.C., of which illustrations are presented in the accompanying Plate III. No history of these heads can be obtained. The skin is almost perfect, and has become much brighter in tint than the original colour. The tattooing is a blue—black and in certain lights becomes almost bright indigo. In many of the markings there appear slight grooves, which add greatly to the general ornamentation, breaking the monotony of usually plain surfaces. Whether any mechanical work was performed upon the heads after death is not positively known, though from the general appearance of the work it would be suggested that the sharp creases or grooves were done subsequent to the death of the individual. The tattooing shows subcutaneous colouring, which indicates that at least part of the ornamentation was done in life.”

Description: Fig. 149.—Specimen in Army Medical Department at Washington, U.S.A. obtained by Wilkes Expedition. 1840.

Fig. 150.—Head of a Chief. Paikia ?of Thames

Chapter XII Traffic in Heads

I will commence my remarks on the growth of the remarkable traffic in Maori dried heads with an account of a battle as given by Rutherford—an eye-witness—in his graphic narrative over seventy years ago. From such a battle as that which he speaks of, the traders derived no small advantage; and the traffic became so great a scandal that in 1831 it was stopped by legislation. Rutherford says: “The two bodies then advanced to within about one hundred yards of each other, when they fired their muskets. They only fired once, and then throwing their muskets behind them, where they were picked up by the women and boys, drew their meres or tomahawks out of their belts; when the war-song was being screamed by the whole of them together, in a manner most dismal to be heard, the two parties rushed into close combat. They now took hold of the hair of each others' heads with their left hands, using the right to cut off the head. Meanwhile, the women and boys followed close behind, uttering the most shocking cries I ever heard. These last received the heads of the slain from those engaged in the battle as soon as they were cut off, after which the men went in amongst the enemy for the dead bodies, but many of them received bodies that did not belong to the heads they had cut off.”

The first dried head ever possessed by a European was acquired on January 20th, 1770. It was bought by Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks, who was with Captain Cook's expedition as a naturalist; and it was one of four brought on board the Endeavour for inspection. It was the head of a youth of fourteen or fifteen, who had been killed by a blow that had fractured his skull. The three other heads, not for sale, seemed to have false eyes and ornaments in the ears. In Hawksworth's Voyages of Captain Cook it is recorded that the first head brought had been preserved, for it had no disagreeable smell, though from the softness of the skin it was evidently that of a person recently killed. The natives showed the greatest reluctance to sell the head was exchanged for an old pair of Sir Joseph Banks white linen drawers, and could not be induced to part with another at that time. This reluctance, as we shall see, disappeared too soon. To get muskets wherewith to continue their terrible tribal wars, heads were soon sold, when it was found that a demand existed, and the demands of the traders were prompted by the prices paid by museums and collectors. Many a murderous attack, says Mr. Taylor, has been made to obtain heads for market, the best prices being paid for finely tattooed specimens. Mr. Taylor also says that he was assured some heads offered for sale were those of Europeans. Mr. Polack "Manners & Customs" Vol. 2. p. 41. says that many a battle and predatory excursion has been undertaken expressly to obtain “choice tattooed heads” for white traders. Up to 1818 the native population was large. Fire-arms were extensively used after 1820, when heads became much cheaper, and European museums and collections well stocked. In my Appendix p. 183 I have given a list of some of the collections. It was the desire to possess muskets for self-preservation, and the facility for exchanging dried heads for

Fig. 151.—Bargaining for a head, on the shore, the chief running up the price. (From a drawing by the Author.) firearms that led up to this traffic. There are instances of several white heads having been included in the trade in specimens. Between the years 1770–1809 only, upwards of one hundred Europeans had been killed and eaten in New Zealand.

The first head taken to Sydney, of which there is any record, was brought from Fouveaux Straits in 1811. see p. 29. Dunedin & its Neighbourhood." Bathgate. 1894. It was obtained by theft, and a boat's crew was nearly cut off for utu (revenge). In 1814 heads were certainly not yet an ordinary article of trade at Sydney; but in 1820 it appears that preserved heads were not uncommon. Until Europeans began to visit New Zealand and to settle there, heads were of sentimental interest only and had no commercial value. But the desire to possess them as curiosities for museums and collectors, caused a large demand to spring up. The Maori on his part was eager to obtain firearms, ammunition, and iron implements. His reluctance to part with the heads was overcome, and so brisk a traffic sprang up that the demand exceeded the supply. It considerably reduced the population of New Zealand; but stocked the museums of Europe with specimens of barbaric face-culture; while as a commercial enterprise the traffic was not without profit. Freshly done and inferior heads took the place of the old and genuine; and it was found that a newly tattooed head looked as well when preserved as one similarly preserved years before. The chiefs were not slow in taking advantage of the discovery, and set to work to kill the least valuable of their slaves, tattooing their heads first (as above remarked) as though they had belonged to men of high rank, drying them and then selling them. The Rev. J. SG. Wood author of "The Natural History of Man." 1870. says: “In the first place no man who was well tattooed was safe for an hour unless he was a great chief, for he might be at any time watched until he was off his guard and then knocked down and killed, and his head sold to the traders.” Old grudges were raked up and small local wars undertaken to keep up the supply.

"Old Whaling Days." McNab. 1913. p.161. Many a poor slave suffered a horrible fate—mokoed only to be murdered for his head. At one time forbidden the pride of the noble and the free, the unhappy slave was now forcibly tattooed, and when his scars were healed he was tomahawked, his head dried, and then sold to the ever ready trader. A good looking slave might be elaborately tattooed, so that as soon as required his head might pass as that of a distinguished rangatira. When the traffic in heads became general, the natives ceased altogether to preserve the heads of their friends, lest by any means they should fall into the hands of others and be sold. There were cases where slaves, rendered valuable with scrolls and curves and arabesques, effected their escape and carried their stolen value on their shoulders.

The Rev. J. G. Wood records the following incident: “One of my friends lately gave me a curious illustration of the trade in heads. His father wanted to purchase one, but did not approve of any that were brought for sale, on the ground that the tattoo was poor and not a good example of the skill of the native artists. The chief allowed the force of the argument, and pointing to a number of his people who had come on board, he turned to the intending purchaser saying, ‘Choose which of these heads you like best, and when you come back I will take care to have it dried and ready for your acceptance.’”

The death duties seem to have taken curious forms in New Zealand, and to have been heavy. At every turn of the inquiry into this horrible subject, one is met with evidence of brutal cruelty, of low dishonesty, and of debasing greed. Maning quotes a case where the head of a living man was selected, sold and paid for beforehand, and duly delivered according to agreement; and he thinks it was no isolated case. At first the agents for the collection of these heads were ne'er-do-wells or deserters from ships who lived among the natives on the coast line; through them the skippers of trading or whaling vessels were accustomed to arrange for the “goods.” But the trade began to grow in importance, and at length

Fig. 152.—Offer of a living mokoed head for sale. From a drawing by the Author. agents were sent to select the best specimens, and “Baked Heads” acquired a separate entry among the imports at the Sydney Customs "Manners & Customs." Polack. Vol. 2. p.41; and it was no uncommon thing to find them offered for sale in the streets of that city

“Verax” writes in an old Sydney Gazette, 8 Jan. 1820, “Passing through George Street my attention was arrested by a very extraordinary sort of bundle under the arm of a man who was passing me on the footpath. I called to ask him what the bundle contained, when I beheld on his opening the covering a human head with long black

Description: Fig. 153.—Opening at the neck showing a hoop and sewing of flax. (In Author's collection.)

hair, in a state of perfect preservation. I asked the man if what he showed me was really a human head, when the man replied that it was the head of a New Zealander, which he had purchased from a person lately arrived from that country, and that he was going to dispose of it for two guineas to a gentleman who was about to embark for England.”

The traffic still increased, and as the quality deteriorated, the dealers became dissatisfied, and some of them who went personally to examine and select living slaves whose heads they were willing to buy, were overtaken by a fate that deserves little pity.

Just before Te Pehi, mentioned in Part I, was killed, he was making free with a block of greenstone. The owner objected; and what followed is narrated by the Rev. James W. Stack in Kaipohia: “Te Pehi, who was now within four or five paces of the gate, turned and faced the speaker, and in the most contemptuous terms derided him for daring to question the actions of one so much his superior. ‘Badly tattooed, badly tattooed,’ he cried; ‘what use would your ugly head be to me if I was to carry it with me to Kapiti; it would be worth nothing towards the purchase of a musket. But here is a man,’ turning towards Te Panihi, who stood near him with a well-tattooed face, ‘his head would be worth having; but you, with a valueless head, how dare you call in question the doings of Pehi tu a te rangi?’” "I taia to moko ki te aha?" — Maori proverb — "to what purpose was your head tattooed". applied to a coward

Rutherford, in his account of the chief Pomaree, referring to the year 1820, or 1821, throws more light on the history of the traffic in these dried heads. Pomaree's importance must be estimated from the fact that he had with him five hundred men, and numerous war canoes. Pomaree showed Rutherford several heads of numerous enemies he had killed; and these were to be taken to the Bay of Islands, and there to be exchanged for arms and powder with the ships that touched there. Pomaree was a famous taxidermist of heads, and was himself finely tattooed and had marks on his upper lip.

Mr. Nicholas also describes Pomaree as a man “gifted with keen commercial instinct” and most desirous of doing business. He told Mr. Marsden he was quite ready to go and shoot some people who had killed his son, if ammunition and guns were given him, and

Description: Fig. 154.—Group of heads in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,Jardin des Plantes at Paris; one is a skin mounted on a plaster cast.

that he would then give an instance of his skill in preserving heads. Mr. Marsden told him never to mention again such shocking brutality, nor to bring any specimens of his inhumanity on the vessel Mr. Marsden was on board of, Mr. Nicholas says he fully believed that for the purposes of gain Pomaree would not hesitate to take the life of the first person he met, provided he could have done it with impunity.

I see in the Missionary Register for 1827 a letter from the Rev. H. Williams, recounting that a short time before Pomaree had fallen in battle, and with many of his men had been cut to pieces by a tribe which he had attacked.

The following well-known story from Maning's Old New Zealand illustrates the sordid nature of the traffic in heads on which I have been commenting. Maning recounts how he noticed a company of natives with finest cloaks and feathers on a little rising ground, and how he determined to introduce himself to them: “As I approached, one of these splendid individuals nodded to me in a very familiar sort of manner, and I, not to appear rude, returned the salute. I stepped into the circle formed by my new friends, and had just commenced a Tena koutou, when a breeze of wind came sighing along the hill-top. My friend nodded again,—his cloak blew to one side. What do I see?—or rather what do I not see? The head has no body under it! The heads had all been stuck on slender rods, a cross-stick tied on to represent the shoulders, and the cloaks thrown over all in such a natural manner as to deceive any one at a short distance, but a green pakeha, who was not expecting any such matter, to a certainty. I fell back a yard or two, so as to take a full view of this silent circle. I began to feel as if at last I had fallen into strange company. I began to look more closely at my companions, and to try to fancy what their character in life had been. One had undoubtedly been a warrior; there was something bold and defiant about the whole air of the head. Another was the head of a very old man, gray, shrivelled, and wrinkled. I was going on with my observations, when I was saluted by a voice from behind with: ‘Looking at the 'eds, sir?’

“It was one of the pakehas formerly mentioned.

“‘Yes,’ said I, turning round just the least thing quicker than ordinary.

“‘ 'Eds has been a getting scarce,’ says he.

“‘I should think so,’ says I.

“‘We an't 'ad a 'ed this long time,’ says he.

“‘The devil!’ says I.

“‘One o' them 'eds has been hurt bad,’ says he.

“‘I should think all were, rather so,’ says I.

“‘Oh no; only one on 'em,’ says he. ‘The skull is split, and it won't fetch nothin',’ says he.

“Oh, murder! I see, now,’ says I.

“‘ 'Eds was werry scarce,’ says he, shaking his own ‘ 'ed.’

“‘Ah,’ said I.

“They had to tattoo a slave a bit ago,’ says he, ‘and the villain ran away, tattooin' and all!’ says he.

“‘What!’ said I.

“‘Bolted afore he was fit to kill,’ says he.

“‘Stole off with his own head?’ says I.

“‘That's just it,’ says he.

“‘Capital felony!’ says I.

“‘You may say that, sir,’ says he.

“‘Good morning,’ said I.

“I walked away, pretty smartly. ‘Loose notions about heads in this country,’ said I to myself; and involuntarily putting up my hand to my own, I thought somehow the bump of combativeness felt smaller, or indeed had vanished altogether. ‘It's all very funny,’ said I.

“All the heads on the hill were heads of enemies, and several of them are now in museums in Europe.” “With reference to the knowing remarks of the pakeha who accosted me on the hill on the state of the head-market, I am bound to remark that my friend Mr. —— never speculated in this ‘article,’ but the skippers of many of the colonial trading schooners were always ready to deal with a man who had ‘a really good head,’ and used to commission such men as my companion of the morning to pick up heads for them.”

It was a point of honour with the Maoris to try and save the heads of their tribe from the grasp of the enemy, who would sell them. Maning tells a story which illustrates this: “A small party of our friends had been surprised. Two brothers were flying for their lives down a hill side; a shot broke the leg of one of them and he fell; the enemy were close at hand; already the exulting cry of ‘Na! na! mate rawa!’ was heard; the wounded man cried to the brother, ‘Do not leave my head a plaything for the foe.’ There was no time for deliberation. The brother did not deliberate; a few slashes with the tomahawk saved his brother's head, and he escaped with it in his hand, dried it, and brought it home.”

Such are a few gruesome incidents of this truly awful traffic, which flourished so long.

Slowly but surely the traffic became a public scandal. The Maoris too had become possessed of all the arms they wanted, and discontinued a practice which was repulsive to their instincts and which they only adopted as a desperate measure to preserve their tribes from annihilation. In any case the practice was dying out. The credit of stopping it is due to Governor Darling of New South Wales. He was of course, it is said, exposed to very violent abuse, which continued for no inconsiderable time. Events, however, had occurred which brought public opinion to bear on a matter which, if it put a stop to a “gainful” traffic, was undoubtedly one that ought never to have reached the position it occupied in 1831. In January, 1831, Andrew Powers was one of the crew of a boat belonging to Joe Rowe, a trader in preserved heads at Kapiti. Amongst the heads which Joe Rowe had purchased were two of Taupo chiefs. These were seen at his store at Kapiti by their relatives who entreated him to give them up. He laughed at them. Finding he had arranged this expedition, they left before him and went to await his arrival. The boat, with Rowe and three white men, and a coloured man, entered the Wanganui River and they beached their boat to cook a meal. While eating, a party of natives joined company and one of the natives went and sat down in the boat. Rowe called out to Powers to turn him out, but knowing more of the natives, Rowe proceeded to do so himself, and the Maori promptly killed him with a blow on the head. Powers went to his help and was knocked overboard, but not killed. The rest of the party except the coloured man were killed. Rowe's head and that of another of the men were steeped and dried in the usual way for sale. One was too much chopped about to be worth preserving. The bodies of two were eaten. Powers was spared and lived with them, and was finally redeemed by the captain Hans Tapsell of Maketu. of a trading schooner for twenty-five pounds of tobacco. Powers, however, seeing only two preserved heads, inquired what had become of the third man, and was told that before being killed he had cried out for fear, and their atuas said the bodies of such as cried for fear of death were not to be eaten, lest those who eat should become cowards too. So he was buried in the sand. This account was given the Rev. Mr. Taylor in 1850 by Powers, who lived to a good old age.

In the same year 1831 as the Powers incident, another episode occurred which drew public attention to the matter. Jack, the master of a trading schooner, purchased in the Bay of Plenty the heads of some slain enemies who were from the Bay of Islands but see Bretts Early N.Z. p. 335.4 on. & Vol. 1 p. 710 His. Records of N.Z. Carrick P.60. 106. Shortly after he and his schooner were at the Bay of Islands, where the heads were well known. A number of natives who came on board the vessel were shown the heads, and Jack poured them out of a sack on the ship's deck. The greatest commotion ensued, and such was the indignation aroused that Jack had to hasten away with his vessel, and was fired at soon after when met on the coast. Proceeding to Sydney, he disposed of his purchase, where the story excited the greatest interest. It was then that Governor Darling issued his Proclamation, which was justified by the enormity of the horrors involved in the trade. This document is worth transcribing. It runs thus:—

Government Order. Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, 16th April, 1831.

Whereas it has been represented to His Excellency the Governor that the masters and crews of vessels trading between this colony and New Zealand are in the practice (sic) of purchasing and bringing from thence human heads which are preserved in a manner peculiar to that country; and whereas there is strong reason to believe that such disgusting traffic tends greatly to increase the sacrifice of human life amongst savages whose disregard of it is notorious, His Excellency is desirous of evincing his entire disapprobation of the practice above mentioned as well as his determination to check it by all means in his power. And with this view His Excellency has been pleased to order that the Officers of the Customs do strictly watch and report every instance which they may discover of an attempt to import into this Colony any dried or preserved human heads in future, with the names of all parties concerned in any such attempt. His Excellency trusts that to put a total stop to this traffic it is necessary for him only thus to point out the almost certain and dreadful consequences which may be expected to ensue from a continuance of it, and the scandal and prejudice which it cannot fail to raise against the name and character of British traders in a country with which it has now become highly important for the merchants and traders of this colony, at least, to cultivate feelings of natural good-will. But if His Excellency should be disappointed of this reasonable expectation, he will feel it an imperative duty to take strong measures for totally suppressing the inhuman and very murderous traffic in question. His Excellency further trusts that all persons who have in their possession human heads recently brought from New Zealand, and particularly by the schooner Prince of Denmark, will immediately deliver them up for the purpose of being restored to the relations of the deceased parties to whom these heads belonged, this being the only possible reparation that can now be rendered, and application having been specially made to His Excellency for this purpose.

By His Excellency's command, Alexander McLeay.

In a subsequent issue of the Gazette the following notice appeared:

Baked Heads.

We have to state from authority that although the name of the Prince of Denmark is mentioned in Government Order No. 7, in consequence of a special application having being made to the Governor respecting the heads brought in that vessel, yet there is no reason whatever for supposing that the master and crew have been in any respect more blameable or more engaged in the traffic complained of than those of other vessels engaged in the New Zealand trade.

This humane and courageous effort to stop the abominations of the traffic in heads, was shortly followed by an Act which passed into law before New Zealand became a separate colony; and Governor Darling had the satisfaction of imposing a fine of £40 as well as publishing the names of those concerned. Public feeling ultimately supported the cause of humanity, and the trade faded away. it was only two years before (December, 1829) that the English Government in India formally abolished (through the agency of Lord William Bentinck) Suttee—the name given by writers to the custom of burning a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband. The practice was known in India when the Macedonians first touched in that country.

In 1838, when a United States expedition visited New Zealand, an effort was made to purchase some specimens of mokoed heads. Ultimately two were obtained from the steward of a missionary brig in the Bay of Islands; and Commodore Wilkes observes that this was about the last quarter in which he expected to find them. His remarks illustrate, however, the effects of Governor Darling's exertions. The law has never been formally repealed, although it provided that the possession of a dried head was punishable by fine. A few years ago this practically obsolete statute was used against Sir Julius Van Haast, curator of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. The museum contained a dried head which gave offence to some resident Maories, who laid a complaint before the Governor, and the Attorney-General found that the old New South Wales ordinance was still in force, and the curator was officially informed that unless the offending exhibit was put out of sight, the law would be set in motion. The traffic discontinued in New Zealand has its feeble echo now among those who seek to possess preserved Maori heads.

Chapter XIII Mokoed Heads in Museums and Collections

The time is approaching when the history of moko will be written only from the comments of previous writers and from the dried specimens of moko-mokai in the collections. With regard to literary sources of information, I think I have exhausted everything of interest, certainly most that is of importance in the preceding pages. As to the specimens in the museums and collections, I have travelled much and seen all I could. From many I have taken drawings, portraits, or photographs. Looking at the specimen heads, a lady might almost wonder if the object had had a sweetheart or a loving wife; while a man might speculate in what mêlée or ambuscade he fell, or whether friend, foe, or master used the tomahawk about his neck. The best specimens of moko-mokai in Europe are included in the list in my appendix; and I will now give some account of them.

The specimens range from 1770 to over 1830. So some of the earlier are perhaps as much as one hundred and twenty-five years old, though this is doubtful; the later are over sixty-five. The acquisition of the first specimen of moko-mokai by Europeans has already been noted. It was bought in the year 1770. The traffic

Description: Fig. 155.—Royal College of Surgeons, London.

was, as we have lately seen, stopped as far as possible in 1831. Consequently, all the specimens now extant were obtained in the comparatively short period of about sixty years. It will however be found that a very large majority of dried heads were bought in the last twenty years of this period. For it was not until after 1820 that the traffic in them attained its wide dimensions and its revolting character. The majority then of the heads with which we have to deal are as moko-mokai from sixty-five to seventy-five years old. They are in fact in wonderful preservation. During 1864–66, and to any one interested, it could not be but a matter of regret that such fine heads as those that fell then should be buried. Many of them I sketched, and their moko is represented in these pages—the only memorial of them

Description: Fig. 156.—Royal College of Surgeons, London.

and their face-carving that now exists. The good head I spoke of just now “with eyes” is sketched on p. 145. On p. 162 there is a drawing of a boy's head tattooed after death (left eye gone). The hair of these heads is usually more firmly secured than

Description: Fig. 157.—Specimen in the Royal College of Surgeons, London. (Presented by the late Sir Erasmus Wilson.)

when their owners were alive; for owing to the careful drying after steaming and other precautions the hair of a dried head is nearly ineradicable; though it remains, as before, long, wild, and unkempt. In the case of chiefs, it was sometimes combed in a special fashion—the beard was scanty, a little moustache or tuft under the chin sometimes remains, and the eyebrows keep well. One well-whiskered head is in the Royal College of Surgeons; and it is represented on this page. All sorts of hair are included in the collected specimens, black and brown, straight and curly, matted and frizzled, and even gray and reddish. There is one very fair-haired specimen in the Florence

Description: Fig. 158.—Royal College of Surgeons, London.

Museum, and it is not one of a white man, but of a native, the moko lightly scratched in with a sharp instrument. The Maori teeth, too, are always splendid; and in the dried head they remain like ivory. As already noted, in most faces the hair was quite eradicated and the flesh on the upper lip and chin

Description: Fig. 159.—Head showing some post-mortem tattooing. (Royal College of Surgeons, London.)

was often quite smooth. There are no stubbly chins amongst the old dried specimens. The clean dried state of these skulls can best be observed by turning over a specimen and observing the marks of the smoke in the interior. In the instance given at p. 172 the opening large enough for the hand will be remarked. It is increased by the removal of the base of the skull. The hoop binding of the base is neat. Sometimes a flax loop is added so that the head can be hung in a certain position.

Post-mortem moko is easily distinguished by the non-appearance of the subcutaneous colour; and where moko was incomplete at the time of death the pattern was often added to. But the difference of the cuts on the live and on the hardened flesh is

Description: Fig. 160.—Royal College of Surgeons, London.

easily recognised. Again, sometimes the pattern scored in life has been recut deeper into the leathery surface after death. These new marks on the old lines are also readily distinguished. In one of the British Museum specimens this post-mortem tracing is of totally different pattern to that cut during life, and this is the

Description: Fig. 161.—Specimen in British Museum. The best in that collection.

more regrettable as the original pattern was not only good and complete and well preserved, but the new one is carelessly worked or scratched, and looks pale over the blue of the older and real moko. In some heads in collections the effects of careless curatorship are readily seen—damp and over-varnish being the chief causes; while there are many as trim, neat, and fresh as when first dried and smoked.

Where the eyes are preserved, it is usually concluded that the head was dried tenderly by relations or friends, or at special order. The open mouth with the lips stretched wide is frequent in the collections, and mostly indicates an enemy's head; while sewn-up lips or a pouting mouth indicate (as elsewhere stated) a friend's embalming. These last are of course rarer.

Description: Fig. 162.—Specimen in British Museum. The lips have been cut after death.

The noses are plugged up, and a stick is used to preserve the shape; and there are instances of over- or too little stuffing. The contraction of the skin makes the nose appear shorter, affects the lips, and draws down the centre of the forehead. The ears are always shrivelled up, and the lobe pierced to carry a pendent

Description: Fig. 163.—Specimen in British Museum.

ornament. The skin of the cheeks is always tightly stretched. One specimen at Berlin has some of the neck-skin attached. In some museums one finds the dried skin of the face hanging over a skull, or even over a plaster cast; there is an instance of the former at the Royal College of Surgeons, and of the latter in the Natural History Museum in Paris. The colour of the skin varies much, and is dependent on that of the skin in life, and on the manner of curing and on the care employed in keeping.

These dried Maori heads, even those which have only very few lines of moko, and also the occasional specimens of dried European heads, are now valuable. The head is a work of art; and its value is subject to all the vicissitudes that affect the value of other works of art. They are all very scarce; and the number in private hands (as distinct from museum ownership) is very few; while only those in private hands

Description: Fig. 164.—Specimen in British Museum. The good and complete moko done during life has been nearly covered all over with post-mortem carving of quite a different design.

can ever be sold. The early want of appreciation of these mokoed heads as works of art also affects their ownership. It is curious that the museums in New Zealand and Sidney have the fewest and worst.

The two heads in the Auckland (New Zealand) Museum once formed part of the collection of Dr. Barnett Davis, of London.

Description: Fig. 165.—Specimen in Author's collection.

I give pictures of one. Dr. B. Davis's collection was sold about 1880, and these specimens were acquired from the purchaser in exchange for a pair of Moriori crania from the Chatham Islands. When the mokoed heads reached Auckland they were recognised by some natives from the Bay of Islands, as two of HKawiti's tribe, named Moetarau and Koukou. These persons were killed in a fight which took place about sixty years earlier, near the present railway station

Description: Fig. 166.—Specimen in St. George's Hospital, London. Some of the work very good. Latterly purchased by General Robley for £50 (Hospital Donation) & after publication of moko."

of Opua. They were taken to Te Puna, where they were preserved by an old chief named Muru Paenga, and were afterwards presented to the party of Hokianga natives who had assisted in the fight.

Description: Fig. 167.—Specimen in Museum at Halifax, Yorks; showing hands of tattooing on cheek; a very good specimen of the finest moko.

By these last the two heads were sold to the captain of a vessel for £20. They were among the last heads preserved in the Bay of Islands.

Description: Fig. 168.—Same specimen in Halifax Museum; showing unfinished nose. Varying patterns.

I will give a list, with remarks, of some well-preserved specimens.

At the Royal College of Surgeons there are six heads and a skin. At Aberdeen Marischal College there are seven. At South Kensington Museum there is one. At the British Museum there are four heads; and at St. George's Hospital one. At Guy's Hospital

Description: Fig. 169.—Specimen in Berlin Museum of Ethnology.

two, and a good wax model from nature of the Maori patient who died in the hospital in 1849. The impression in wax of his tattooed face has come out very well. His moko was deep coarse work.—a really good specimen of a man partly tattooed. The furrows are well shown in the model. His marks may be thus described: Part of set of radial lines on forehead; one, right nostril and right tip of nose; two cheek lines right and left; left upper and right lower lips with four lines; chin rather well done. At King's College Museum there are two and an infant's. At the Paris Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle there are six heads obtained in the course of voyages by Buchanan de Freycinet, de Lesson and Maxime du Camp, and of these one is a skin mounted on a plaster cast. At Plymouth there are four. At Berlin, Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde, there are two, one fitted with glass eyes. At Auckland (New Zealand) there are two specimens, the story of which has been told. At Christchurch (New Zealand),

Description: Fig. 170.—Specimen in Berlin Museum of Ethnology.

Canterbury Museum, there are two—of which one is from the Cambridge Museum and bears their number 1013, and one taken from Taranaki to England in 1837. At the Sydney Australian Museum there are two not very good specimens.

Two old specimens, in advance state of decay, both appear to have been fully tattooed; they are well varnished. Are possibly of the time of Capt. Cook

At the Florence Anthropological Museum there are two, one of which has light

Description: Fig. 171.—Specimen in South Kensington Museum, London. Mostly post-mortem moko.

hair. At the Washington Smithsonian Institution there is one specimen, and at the Army Medical Museum there are two bought from a missionary ship by Commodore Wilkes in 1838. These heads are finely mokoed. At Halifax (Yorkshire) there is one, evidently done with iron tools. At Devizes (Wilts) in the museum of the Archæological and Natural History Society there is one. At the Exeter Albert Memorial Museum there is one. At the Whitby

Description: Fig 172.—Baron Von Hügel's collection in the Museum of Archæology and Ethnology, Cambridge.

Museum there are three. At Hull, in the Royal Institution, there are two. At Sheffield there is one specimen. At Saffron Walden there are three, including one of a woman. In Rome, at the Anthropological Museum, there is one. At York and Dover Museums there are one each. At Oxford, at the University

Description: Fig. 173.—Specimen in Ethnological Museum at Florence. Pattern scratched in as an outline, preparatory to tattooing.

Museum, there are four; and at Cambridge (Baron von Hügel) there are two. At Dublin there are several—namely, at the Science and Art Museum two specimens, at Trinity College three,

Description: Fig. 174.—Specimen in Auckland Museum, N.Z. Moetara, or Koukou.

Description: Fig. 175.—Specimen in Canterbury Museum, Christ Church, N.Z., said to have been sent to England from Taranaki in 1837.

and at the Royal College of Surgeons four. The Museum of University College, London, has two, one being among the best in existence. At Copenhagen, at the National Museum, there is one. At Munich,

Description: Fig. 176.—Specimen in the Ethnological Museum at Florence. Six lines only from nostrils to chin.

at the Ethnographical Museum, there is one brought from London; and Professor Gabriel Max has a collection, I am informed. Others will be found at Bremen (1), Göttingen (1), Hamburg (1), Moscow (1). Professor H. Giglioli at Florence has one. Mr. J. W. Colmer has one of a boy; and the author has a collection

Description: Fig. 177.—Head in Oxford University Museum, the other side has spiral on the cheek.

and also a thigh and many drawings of Maoris who were in or fell in the fighting, 1864–6.

Many of these specimens are represented in this book by drawings which I have made, as photography does not give their blue lines well, nor the markings on skins. This art of a bygone day and these pictures of Maori faces have long been my study.

Description: Fig. 178.—Specimen in Göttingen Museum; showing large amount of post-mortem work.

Whether a thought will be bestowed on them by others I cannot say. But for those who are interested I have sought to collect everything that is worth recording; omitting much, no doubt,

Description: Fig. 179.— Specimen owned by Professor H. Giglioli, of Florence, glass eyes added by a European taxidermist. Moko very bold.

but omitting only where I doubt authenticity. Should my book be considered “whai mana” or a “standard work” on this particular element in Maori life and history I shall be more than satisfied. I can only, in my concluding words, repeat what I have said in my preface—namely, that it has been my object to record what I can of a subject that must one day pass out of remembrance. A full description of Maori art life has yet to be written; and even this little book in no way exhausts that portion of it that is dealt with.

Description: Fig. 180.—Head in Plymouth Museum. (From a photograph.)

Authorities Consulted

Angas, G. F.The New Zealanders Illustrated. London, 1847.

Angas, G. F.Polynesia. London, 1866.

Anoutchine, Professor D. N., of Moscow, President of the Imperial Society for Natural Science. Anthropology and Ethnography.

Anthropological Society of London.

Balfour, Henry, M.A., Esq., University Museum of Oxford.

Bidwill, J. C., Esq. Rambles in New Zealand. 1839.

Boosé, J. R., Esq., Librarian, Royal Colonial Institute.

Brown, Alex., Esq., Marischal College, Aberdeen.

Brown, R., Dr. The Races of Mankind. London, 1875.

Brown, W., Esq. New Zealand and its Aborigines. London, 1845.

Browne, C. R., Esq., M.D., Anthropological Laboratory, Trinity College, Dublin.

Browne, Montagu, Esq., F.G.S., &c., Leicester.

Brutton, E., Major.

Buchner, Dr. M., Munich.

Buller, Rev. James.New Zealand Past and Present. London, 1880.

Buller, Sir Walter, K.C.M.G., F.R.S.

Burton, John, Esq., Falmouth.

Captain James Cook's Voyages.

Casartelli, Rev. L. C., Manchester.

Church Missionary Registers.

Clarke, C. M., Lt.-General, C.B.

Colenso, W., Esq. On a Better Knowledge of the Maori Race. “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.” Wellington, 1881.

Colmer, J. W., Esq.

Coote, C. H., British Museum.

Craik, G. L.The New Zealander's Library of Entertaining Knowledge. London, 1824.

Crozet.Nouveau Voyage à la Mer du Sud. Paris, 1783.

Cruise, R. A., Major in 84th Regiment. Journal of a Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand.

Cutter, Miss E.

Dallas, J., Esq., Exeter Albert Memorial Museum.

Dangerfield, H. E., Esq.

Darwin, C.

Denton, Geo., Esq., Wellington, New Zealand.

Dieffenbach, Ernest Travels in New Zealand by Routes through the Interior.

Dillon, Captain P.

Dolan, Thos., Esq. M.D.

Doubleday, G. A., Esq., Anthropological Society.

Dumont, D'Urville. Voyage au Pôle Sad. Paris, 1834.

Earle, Augustus. Narrative of a Residence in New Zealand. London, 1832.

Edge-Partington, J., Esq.

Edwards, Milne A., Natural History Museum, Paris.

Edwards, S., Esq.. Royal Colonial Institute.

Ellis, W., Polynesian Researches. London, 1829.

Etheridge, R., Esq., Australian Museum, Sydney.

Fenton, W. H., Esq.

Fitzroy, Captain.

Fowler, Miss.

Frank, G. A., Esq.

Franks, Sir Augustus Wollaston, K.C.B.

Giglioli, Professor H. H., Florence.

Goode, G. Brown, Esq., Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S.A.

Graphic, The.

Grey, Sir George, P.C., K.C.B., F.R.S., &c.

Hamilton, A., Esq., Registrar of the University of Otago.

Hawkesworth, J.Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere. London, 1773.

Hochstetter, Baron Ferdinand von.

Hocken, Dr. T. M., F.L.S.

Horniman, F. John, Esq., M.P., F.R.G.S., F.Z.S., &c.

Hudson, S. P., Esq., Hull.

Hügel, Baron von, Archæological Museum, Cambridge.

Hutchinson, Jonathan, Esq., F.R.S., LL.D.

Hutton, F. W., Canterbury Museum, Christchurch.

Kennaway, Walter, Esq., New Zealand Government.

Kennaway, L. J., Esq.

Kerry, Nicholls J., Esq., F.R.G.S. The Origin, Physical Characteristics, Manners, and Customs of the Maori Race. (“The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.” Vol. 15.)

King, W., Esq.

Langley, S. P., Smithsonian Institution.

Lawrence, T. W. P., Esq., M. B., F.R.C.S.

Ledyard, John. Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyages, 1783. Hartford, Conn.

Lee, J. B., Esq.

Lubbock, Sir John, Bart, ∧c.

Lucas, F. W., Esq.

Maning, F. E.Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori. London, 1863.

Mantegazza, Professor. The Senator, Florence.

Margoliouth, C. L., Esq.

Marshall, W. Barrett, Surgeon R.N. Second Visit to New Zealand.

Medlicott, H. E., Esq., Secretary, Wiltshire Archæological Society.

Merkel, Fr., Professor, Göttingen.

Meyer, H., Professor, Leipsic.

Middlebrook, T. G., Esq.

Mundy, Colonel J.Our Antipodes. 1847.

Nicholas, J. L.Narratives of a Voyage to New Zealand. London, 1817.

Obst, Dr., Director Leipsic Museum.

O'Dell, Stackpool, Esq.

Oppenheim, Anne, Professor.

Parker, J. W., Esq. British Colonisation of New Zealand. 1837.

Parkinson, Sydney. Journal. London, 1773.

Pigorini, Professor, Rome.

Playfair, H., Esq., M.D., King's College, London.

Polack, J. S., Esq., Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders. London, 1840.

Poole, Mrs. C. G.

Quick, R., Esq., F.J.A., Curator, Horniman Museum.

Radloff, Dr., St. Petersburg.

Read, Hercules, Esq., F.S.A.

Regàlia, E., Assistant Curator, Anthropological Museum, Florence.

Rienzi, G. L. Domeny. Italian Edition. Venice, 1843.

Russell, Purvis, Esq.

Saintsbury, Mrs.

Savage, John, Surgeon. Account of New Zealand. Edinburgh, 1807.

Schaunsland, Professor, Bremen.

Scherzer, Dr. Karl. Novara Expedition, 1857–8–9.

Scott, J. Alfred, Esq., M.D.

Shaw, L. E., Dr.

Sherrins, R. A. A. Early History of New Zealand to 1840.

Stack, Rev. J. W.

Stewart, Professor Charles, Royal College of Surgeons.

Stonehouse, Wm., Esq., Literary and Philosophical Society, Whitby.

Taylor, Rev., Rich., M.A., F.G.S. Te ika a Maui. 1870.

Thane, G. D., Professor.

Thompson, A. S., M.D. The Story of New Zealand. London, 1851.

Tregear, E., Esq., F.R.G.S.

Umlauff, J. F., Esq., Hamburg.

Vallance, David, Esq., Edinburgh.

Von Luschan, Professor, Berlin.

Wade, W. R., Esq., A Journey in the Northern Island. Hobart Town, 1842.

Wakefield, E. J., Esq., Adventure in New Zealand, 1839–44.

Wallace, A. R., Esq.

Walsh, Rev. Phillip.

Webster, W. D., Esq.

Wellcome, Henry S., Esq.

White, J., Esq. The Ancient History of the Maori: His Mythology and Traditions.

Wilkes, Charles, Commander, U.S. Navy. Voyage round the World.

Worth, N., Esq., Plymouth.

Yate, Rev. William. Account of New Zealand, and of the Church Missionary Society's Mission in the Northern Island. London, 1835.

Young, R., Esq. The Southern World. London, 1858.

Index Index

Active, The, 13

Alligator, H.M.S., 139

Angas' New Zealanders Illustrated, 44

Avanghie, 99

Banks, Sir Joseph, 6. 167.

Beagle, H.M.S., 122

Bidwell, Mr. J. C., 42

Boyd, The massacre on the, 37

Brock and Co., Messrs., 113

Bruce, George, 103

Buckland, A. W., 46

Buffalo, H.M.S., 86

Buller, Sir Walter, K.C.B., 38

Brind, Capt. 179.

Caddell, James, 104

Chegwyn, Captain, 86

Church Missionary Society, 95, 158

Colenso, Mr. W., 8, 44, 118

Cook, Captain, 2, 3, 4

Crozet, 10

Cruise, Captain, 34, 142, 151, 155

Darling, Governor, 179, 181

Darwin, Mr., 50, 65, 122

Davis, Dr. Barnett, 194

Dieffenbach, 66, 144

Dillon, Captain, 141

Di Rienzi, 79

D'Urville, 17, 23, 39, 42

Earle, Mr., 58, 66, 104, 144

Elizabeth, The, 16

Endeavour, The, 2

Europeans, tattooing of, 141

Fitzroy, 65

Franks, Sir Augustus, K.C.B. 41, 97

Grey, Sir George, xi, 48, 116, 120

Harriet, The, 139

Herodotus, 3, 136

Hipango, 109

Hocken, Dr., 14

Hochstetter, Dr. F. von, 88

Hongi, 106, 107, 134, 138

Hügel, Baron von, 201

Implements for tattooing, 49

Jack, Capt. 179.

Kendall, Mr., 11, 107

Letourneau, 11, 55

Leviticus, 3

Lloyd, Capt. PT. W. T., 140

Lubbock, Sir John, xi., 10

Lee, T. B. 137.

Maori traditions, 1

Maning, 23, 46. 175. 177.

Marsden, Rev. Mr., 11, 54, 95, 132134. 174.

Moko, first record of, 2, 3; Cook's description of, 4

Mokoamokai, definition of, 129

Munday, L. Col. Godfrey, 80

New Zealand, discovered by Tasman, 1; re-discovered by Cook, 2, 3

Nicholls, Mr. Kerry, 44, 87

Parkinson, Sydney, 6, 8, 33

Patterns of tattooing, 22, 64–97

Pliny, 4

Polack, Mr., 11, 62, 137. 167. 171

Powers Incident, The, 178

Rutherford, 24, 33, 52, 60–2, 1012, 153

“Salvation Army,” The, 126

Savage, Mr., 25, 55, 105

Scherzer, Dr. Karl, 110

Sheffield, 50

Signatures, Moko, 18

Smales, Rev. G., 134

Smithsonian Institute, 200

Stack, Rev. James, 173

Tasman, Abel, 1

Tattoo, term not known to Maories, 3. See Moko.

Taylor, Rev. Mr., 2, 19, 29, 49, 55, 59, 114, 147, 179

Tawhiao, King, 16, 111, 122

Te Pehi Kupe, 13, 15, 108173.

Themoranga, 12

Tohunga, or priest, 62, 134

Tregear, Mr., 18, 24, 35, 42

Turero, Queen, 146

Uhi, or instruments, 49

Verax, 171

Volckner, Rev. Mr., 141

Wakefield, Mr. E. J., 25, 50, 100

Walsh, Rev. Phillip, 137, 149

War of 1864–6, ix

War-dance, 31

Wellington, The brig, 104

White's Ancient History of the Maori, 64, 114, 136

Wilkes, Commodore, 201, 181. 181. 164.

Williams, Bishop, 124

Women, Tattooing of, 34, &c.

Wood, Rev. J. G., 169, 170

Yates, Rev. Mr., 121, 135, 157

Photo inserted between cover and flyleaf.

Photo of water colour sketch done byMajor General Robley depicting an Egyptian ruler undergoing the process of being tattooed.

The sketch is certainly suggested by the one in Earle's "New Zealand," p. 136. see p. 54 in "Moko."

Notes inserted by frontispiece.

Additions to MOKOFig21TE MUTUVol 2J Cowan22TE KANIVol 1.Wars24TARAIA30ERENAmaketu31.37ngaiterangi64PUKARUouter corner of Eye all on right. Except 1 on top75 & 78Oaiue heads79. 80 & 140"91. 179"96. 136"119PAORE120TAMATI MAUAO123RANIERA TE HIAHIA128ANARU129PENETAKA130REWETI in centre
My discovery after seeing so many Maori heads that the patterns are quite different R & L. near ears - in the MATAORA designs 133 or Ngakutu TE Tumihuia Page 10 shows the patterns heal different

add ti page 140 "In the a on Hekes Pa 1845 the flesh of Capt. Giaul. Peadier COY 58th was tasted for food. in order to break "mana" or prestige of the soldiers

if cast ever added to at sides or made complete head for any Statue - page 10 to give good patterns near Ears

Figures 13 & 16 Thigh skin

It was an extraordinary find in 1894 of a piece of thigh skin at a saddlers shop by me in London - Specimen of leather? I know of no other in any Museum

Somewhat alike

Shews "RAPE"

add and on arms

143

in Salford Museum

171

in Natural Hist. Mum

S. Keies n

3 Heads from CaptnCaptain Cook at Whitby 2 " " " Hull

The Maori HEad at the Ethnological MmMuseum Rome - was perhaps "PIKAPO" or R. C hasCross on Chin The King of Italy accepted a portrait placed as frontispiece in a copy of Moko

London

10/6/1925 Dr Dear Fildes

I have placed in my copy of Pounamu my guess at Tiki's original formulation & the history of a people (as written out to you —

Yrs Sincy H G Robley

Moko. by Maj. Gen. Robley.

Special copy with a Robley water colour of a Maori head inserted, & notes & corrections by H. Fildes, & notes by General Robley.

Rerepehi

From wings of nose to chin

Pongiangiha-

at the wings of the nose

Ngu

at the summit of the nose

Kau wai

chin

Ngutu

lips

Hupu

under the nose

Koroaha

on the branches of the lower maxilla

Pataringa

flaps of the ears

Pae pae

Upper part of the cheeks

Kokoti

cheeks

Koroti aha

Lower spirals of cheeks

E Rewa

Upper eyelid

Tiwana

over brows & temple

Titi

on middle of forehead

Rape

On the posteriors

Rito

Outer lines of posteriors

Puhoro

Upper Part of thigh

Edmund Halswell11/11/41.

Pakaru. tatoo marks on temples.

"Annales des Missions L'Oceanie" has acctaccount of R. C. in N.Z.

See Hocken p. 60.

In Oldham's Maori Heads. J.P.S. Sept. 1935. P.190.

Intagliated = tatooing

6 June DrDear Fildes

— Heat a warning to wicked people have few letters to reply to — but good for one from a Mr Hornibrook for me keep her & TE Kiri in bringing out Maori legends or advise — and I feel as piano as anyone — the eye of the piece of skin — given as ⅔ in.inch, and outside moko — I find is this length

13 FigInk pen drawing of a line. breadth and I must post copy to you to do what you like with or fine Mm — I see the best weather tues.

the public, or bus conductors, Do I turn to "the Vine story down the cliff at TE Reinga - read of the Keep that in the water underneath sways about giving openings for the plunge — Thus cooling leading is in the Northlander — 1932 will be centenary of the missionary who fired at the Vine — the "Puckegs" a 1st north missionaries, and here was Zeal —

I know little of the 22nd dr NZ & Scafa I note from Mr Elsdon Best letter. Maclean is now & then in Wellington — I posted Mrs D M the A & SH list of dinner to see how many Macleans owe day while moko is pi wtters lucky finds were the pukoro skin - and selling Shortlands Vetchs — I send coolest card by the mail

Human skin 7in by 6. of a Maori left thigh - resembles the drawing in Dumont D'Urvilles voyages as to designs of copied in Moko figure 16 body tattooing Pattern called "Puhoro" Whakairo This skin in good preservation, was found in a London saddlers with other specimens of leather

1894 It is rare — none in the British Museum —

Such was sometimes used by Maori for cover of cartridge box — Thigh skin in collection

one very old specimen that had been thickly coated with Tar for preservation was used as a Diyaks to artist 1890 — the tar removed (it was as brittle as glass when tapped) there was nearly full tattooing — as the forehead was low there were only SIX bands —Tiwhana usual, 8, — the teeth much worn by eating fern root — In old days the septum of the nose was pierced for feathers or ornament — Here was a ring of iron wire — "matai" or iron was so valued from Early Ships, this ring may have been put in by this man

forehead upper "Nga Titi are good designInk drawing of a mokomokai and forehead detail. It had been in family a long time brought by some. Seaman relation Head Collection

415 sid te —This day I 4 Oct 1928. rose with karakia for you & put up enclosed for remembrance of events, that introduced us in London yet you had seen my best NZ drawings - so heres a reference to the war that brought you over & just 10 years finis months card of Kaiser is real - he went in Decm ˜ 4th so just you try & justify this days karakia Octr for Health - and good time you deserve I have begun preparing for cold weather. Fancy Lady M sends me winter things - so kind but it is you considered me so long - I have view of yr house in City, Wn, And the "unicorn" click portraitsnow as I am 89 - let me guard it, by sending out to you. (ouin a circle of friends) tries my war set of cards, just at this year it is 10 years reminder Happiness Best Wishes Yrs Ever . H G. Robley

can he not lend press to copy And if the German order to Maori troopes, not to surrend to NZri opposite — "Lines are now pleasant for him - but not when I drew -Remember me to Elsdon Best & J. Cowan & Polynesian Society -Can you get copy Tauranga S. Club badge - it is good, moko by me, the T.S.C could be asked . by Adams for you - then erase T.S.C. it is as good as the war maori Stamp - which must be rare now. Captn Corbett I met - hunting for canoes - went to Portsmouth to see One I named as over in 66 - a friend of Cap Bollons [Fig 14 portrait in Moko - I forget name - do you know - all of others I do - Te Kani figure 22 is mentioned in the Crown Wars v P - Dominion history book of you did and met to get - I showed J. - you do some good historical writing 4th it is bright- day & good WEather to continue so - karakia for your day & wishes Happiness to you Yours

Note inserted by dedication.

Historic Fresco

Much earlier than Earles well known scene

The discovery by our artist of a fresco, and an ancient papyrus [with Seans of office] stating it is an historic scene, quite demolishes the translation and naming, by late Egyptiologists —

Naming, varies often, for instance the modern Egyptian fellah pronounces "Carnavon" like "Cairnopen"; now what an ancient Nile dweller's language would have been is not known yet. In this wall painting, a special hieroglyphic which had escaped the scientists was discovered, at once putting

Pen drawing of an Egyptian hieroglyphic. as T.U.T a wrong rendering

The striking sign

Pen drawing of an Egyptian hieroglyphic. between the Ts . denotes, T.U.T is wrong T.A.T.T is now established as the correct first syllable of word or name, and this mural picture opens out a vista of fascinating art, art, old, long before a famous commissarial officer alluded to it in Leviticus XIX 28 verse - It is no scribe or priest depicted here -it is an artist decorating a ruler or personage; in Special studio as appears —

H G Robley

(H. G. Robley.) 27 Feb. 1923. Maj. Gen.

Can you get into some paper? for fame — you write out- better English Verbiage

HGR

Note inserted between pages 90 and 91.

Black ink drawing of calf tattoos

Some of them also have in each calf of the leg a painting similar to the drawing above. extract L'Hommes Journal, 1769. McNabs His. Records

Crozets Voyage p. 39. they have also in their hands two little black engravings drawn very correctly in the form of an "S".

Paper clipping inserted between pages 130 and 131.