Hamilton. — Notes on Maori Necklaces. 493 



Altogether I must have seen about two or three hundred of 

 these little shell axes, all of which are about the same size. 

 Mr. T. W. Kirk (Trans. N.Z. Inst., xi., 539) notes the oc- 

 currence of bones cut in adze form. 



I have another illustration. In a notice of a jet necklace 

 discovered in a burial-mound* or tumulus in north Wiltshire, 

 England, it is stated that one of the beads was in the form 

 of a small stone axe of a short-triangular shape, " showing 

 that the Britons sometimes made beads of this material (jet) 

 resembling stone implements in miniature, just as the Scandi- 

 navians did in amber."! It is perhaps somewhat premature at 

 present to insist on the matter, but I am of the opinion that 

 these interesting relics will be found to have belonged to the 

 autochthonic race or races of the South Island, and not to 

 the later Maoris. There are many facts which support this 

 view, the discussion of which must be left till another oppor- 

 tunity. 



There are three other kinds of ornaments which we know 

 were often worn in the ear, and which, in some cases at least, 

 appear to have been worn in numbers round the neck — the one 

 being human teeth, another the canines of dogs and seals, and 

 the third the flat triangular teeth of the great blue shark, not 

 the beautiful curved teeth of the mako of the North. These 

 triangular teeth are frequently found with a neat hole bored 

 at each of the basal angles, and sometimes with a third larger 

 one in the middle of the base. At Warrington I found one of 

 these teeth with both of the basal angles cut off, and one hole 

 through the centre of the base. In some cases it is possible 

 that these teeth may have belonged to the formidable wooden 

 knives, set with sharks' teeth on each edge, occasionally seen 

 in the early days. The specimens that I have seen had, how- 

 ever, the teeth of the Perlon shark (Notidanus). 



Note. — Since this paper was read, I am informed by Mr. 

 Chapman that an old Maori has recently seen the " shell 

 axes," and immediately recognised them as niho kakere, or 

 shell teeth, and stated that they were worn as necklaces by 

 women. On examining again the few specimens I myself 

 possess, I find the distinction between the part bedded in the 

 jaw and gum and the part exposed is slightly indicated. 



* Archseologia, vol. xliii., p. 510, fig. 200. 



t See also Nilsson, Stone Age, Engl, ed., p. 82, pi. ix., fig. 190 ; Wor- 

 saae, Afbildninger, p. 15, figs. 65, 57 ; Madseu, Afbildninger, Fr. ed., Antiq. 

 Prehistorique, pi. xv., xvi., fig. 19. 



