Hamilton. — On some Bone Combs found in Otago. 483 



Art. LXVI. — Notes on some Bone Combs for dressing the 

 Head of a Maori Chief, found in Otago. 



By A. Hamilton. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 12th July, 1892.] 

 Plate LII. (in Part). 



The natives of the East Coast about Poverty Bay and the 

 Mahia have an ancestor of vvhoni great deeds are recorded, 

 and who figures in several of the curious and interesting 

 traditions which from generation to generation have been 

 passed on, not in a haphazard way, but guarded by all the 

 precautions possible to insure literal correctness. This an- 

 cestor was the great and powerful chief Uenuku. Accordiug 

 to the genealogies given by several branches of his descendants, 

 he must have lived about the time of the Norman conquest, 

 earning for himself, by his success in intertribal fights and 

 disputes, a name of renown as a chief and authority as a 

 great tohunga. Two of his sons, Euatapu and Paikea, are 

 the heroes of a very interesting tragic poem which was pub- 

 lished by Mr. Colenso some years ago, and of which two 

 similar versions from other sources appear in Mr. John 

 White's "History of the Maori." The whole of the trouble 

 arose indirectly over the right of a chief and of the sons of 

 a chief to wear an ornamental comb in the knot of hair drawn 

 up on the top of the head. The hair of a warrior in the 

 piping times of peace was allowed to grow long, and was care- 

 fully dressed, and tied up in a neat knot ; behind or into this 

 the comb was fastened, and sometimes adorned with feathers, 

 or shreds of the ante or tappa. 



The people of Uenuku's tribe were all busy and excited, 

 for it was a great occasion in the Bay. After much hard 

 work, and after many risks and dangers, a great war-canoe 

 had been brought down to the beach ; it had been fitted with 

 the carved w T ork, and ornamented with feathers and red paint ; 

 everything was ready for the launch and trial-trip. 



" Then it was that Uenuku ordered his sons and the sons 

 of other chiefs to assemble, in order that the hair of their 

 heads might be combed and anointed, and neatly tied up in 

 a knot on the crown, and ornamented with, a high dress-comb 

 stuck in behind, so as to be regular and look beautiful, that 

 they might go all together and paddle the new canoe out to 

 sea." Uenuku himself performed this work of preparing and 

 dressing and tying the hair. This ceremony was always per- 

 formed by a chief of rank or a tohunga (Uenuku was both). 



