486 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



In the North Island I have collected fragments of smaller 

 bone combs, having only three teeth, with the top part vari- 

 ously ornamented ; and Mr. T. W. Kirk has described a large 

 bone comb with three teeth, found by him near "Wellington. 

 The great size of this must have rendered it somewhat an 

 uncomfortable ornament, unless there was a great profusion of 

 hair. 



Besides the dress-comb of bone there is another form, more 

 frequently to be seen in collections. It is made very neatly 

 and ingeniously from small slips of hard pine-wood (rimu), 

 pointed, and laced together with delicately- worked lashings of 

 fine flax in various patterns ; the two outside pieces of wood 

 being generally carved or ornamented. The shape of this 

 varies : in some cases the head is the wider part, in others 

 the points. These resemble in construction and form combs 

 from many of the Pacific islands. It would be an interesting 

 study to collate the various forms of combs used in the dif- 

 ferent groups, noting where the use is limited to chiefs, &c. 



The usual term for the head-comb is heru or karau, the 

 latter being also used for the dredge or rake used for obtaining 

 fresh- water unios or pipis from the bottom of a lake. 



It is unnecessary, perhaps, to state that, besides being 

 ornamental, the combs were useful for practical purposes. 



A figure of a wooden comb, which was found in one of the 

 Sumner caves, is given in plate ii. of volume xxii. of the 

 Transactions of the N.Z. Institute. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE LII. (in Part). 



Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Bone combs dug up at Murdering Beach, near Dunedin, 

 now in the collection of Mr. John White, Anderson's Bay. 



6. Head of a bone comb found at Cape Kidnappers. A. Hamilton. 



7. Bone comb in collection of Mr. S. Drew, of Wanganui. Several small 



holes are bored in the teeth of this specimen. They do not ap- 

 pear to have any use or significance. 



Art. LXVII. — Notes on some Old Flax Mats found in Otago. 



By A. Hamilton. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 11th October, 1892.'] 



Plate LII. (in Part). 



I. Nothing has been written yet concerning the textile fabrics 

 of the early inhabitants of New Zealand which gives any 

 details of the structure of the numerous mats and useful articles 

 woven by the natives in the industrious times of long ago. 



