484 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



This was because the head was pre-eminently sacred, and 

 never to be touched save by a ta/pu person. The young men 

 were seventy in number, all told, and Uenuku finished with 

 Kahutiaterangi. "When all was done Euatapu, another son, 

 called out to his father, " honoured sir ! see ! tie up and 

 dress my hair also." His father says, " Where ever shall a 

 dress-comb be found for thy hair? " and tells him that, as his 

 mother was only a slave of inferior birth, he could not on this 

 occasion treat him as the others. This covered Euatapu with 

 shame, and his whole heart was filled with grief and pain, 

 and, loudly lamenting, he went away to the place where the 

 canoe was, and plotted how to destroy Paikea his brother and 

 those young chiefs who had witnessed his discomfiture. 



This he did by upsetting the canoe when out at sea ; but 

 the plot somewhat miscarried, as Euatapu was himself drowned, 

 with the whole of the crew excepting Paikea, who by the 

 power of his spells saved himself after floating about for a day 

 and a night. 



I quote this story simply for the purpose of showing by 

 what I take to be a typical example that the comb for the 

 head of a warrior was a very ancient and important orna- 

 ment. 



Coming down from the mists of antiquity to the earliest 

 voyagers, we find in Cook's Voyages and Parkinson's Journal 

 several examples of head-combs, drawn by a careful and com- 

 petent observer, showing that in the districts visited by Cook 

 the dress-comb w T as still in use, and that a general type form 

 prevailed. 



In Forster's account of Cook's voyage he mentions that 

 when they arrived in Queen Charlotte Sound, in June, 1773, 

 several Maoris came on board. Their hair was dressed in the 

 fashion of the country, tied on the crown, greased, and stuck 

 with white feathers, and several of them had large combs of 

 some cetaceous animal's bone, stuck upright just behind the 

 bunch of hair on the head. :;: In Parkinson's book we find 

 a drawing of a fully-dressed New Zealand w 7 arrior,i with a 

 comb of the same pattern as the large one figured on Plate 

 LIL, and on plate xvi. of the Journal another. The de- 

 scription on page 90 says, " Most of them had their hair tied 

 up upon the crown of their head in a knot, and by the knot 

 stuck a comb of wood or bone." Other examples of this 

 kind of comb are shown on plates xix. and xxiii. of the 

 Journal. 



Mr. Colenso, in his essay on the Maori race,;f says, " Their 

 combs for their hair were also both neatly made and carved : 

 these, however, were not used as combs commonly are by us, 



* Vol. i., p. 126. f PI. xv. \ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. i., p. 355. 



