The Whai.

Another very ancient game, but a more sedate one, of which Te Wheoro was the teacher at Ohinemutu, is the whai, done with flax string, in which curious designs are worked out. Some of these string games represent episodes in Maori-Polynesian mythology and history; as for instance Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) and the morning star, which was the guide and guardian of the Arawa canoe, and again Maui and his brothers; and there is a ladder-like design intended to represent the Aratiatia Rapids, on the Waikato River.

– 206 –

One which never fails to amuse Maori audiences is the whai-mouti, worked out by two persons facing each other. In this the string is made to imitate two marionette-like figures making jerky bows to one another.