450 Transactions .—Miscellaneous . 



post, attending to their work, carefully feeding the fire. 

 When all the resinous substances were burnt up, and the kiln 

 cold — the calm weather still continuing— the soot was care- 

 fully collected and mixed up with the fat of birds, and then 

 given to a Maori dog to eat, which dog had also been early 

 set apart for this work — tied up, made to fast, and kept hungry, 

 that it might perform its part and eat the prepared morsels 

 with avidity. After devouring tire mixed food the dog was 

 still kept tied up, and not allowed to eat any other aliment 

 until it had voided the former. When the fgeces were 

 evacuated they were carefully gathered, and mixed up and 

 kneaded with birds' oil and a little w^ater, and, w'hen this 

 mixture became dry and hard, it was put up securely into a 

 large shell, or into a hollowed pumice or soft stone, and laid 

 by carefully, buried in the earth, for future use. It is said to 

 have possessed no disagreeable odour when dry (though it 

 had while fresh), and, though long kept, it did not become bad 

 nor spoil through keeping, which, on tlie contrary, was said 

 to improve it, and it was very much prized. 



It was this pigment, so put up and kept, that was the 

 origin of one of their proverbs, " Puritia to ngaraku kauri" 

 — Keep to thyself thy kauri-resin-soot pigment. This saying 

 was used when a person was unwilling to give what was 

 asked, the same being some common thing, and not at all 

 needed by the avaricious owner. But there is a double 

 meaning here, in this simple sentence (proverb) — namely, 

 "You may never require it, or live to use it." (See Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xii., p. 145.) 



§ III. Of the Manufactuee of their Long Spears. 



Some of their spears were very long. Of these there were 

 two kinds. One kind was made of hardwood, riiim (Dacry- 

 diwn cuprcssinum). This was used in defending their forts 

 and stockades before the introduction of firearms, being thrust 

 through the palisades at close quarters against the legs and 

 bodies of the invaders. The other kind was much lighter, 

 though longer, being made of the light wood of the taica-ivee. 

 (Beilschmiedia taica), and used only for the spearing of 

 pigeons when they were sitting on the top of a high tree. 

 This spear was tipped with a flattish serrated bone 3in.-5in. 

 long, usually coarsely barbed on one lateral edge, aiid sharply 

 pointed ; the bone being human, and a portion of that of the 

 arm or leg, and, of course, of their deadly enemies. Seeing 

 that these long spears were always made from heartwood of 

 their tallest trees, it was a mystery to me how they managed 

 to manufacture them, the hardwood ones being from 16ft. to 

 20ft. and the others from 20ft. to 35ft. long; and it was not 

 until my first visit to the Urewera Tribe, at Euatahuna, in the 



