Beattie. — The Southern Maori, and Greenstone. 49 



which has never been found yet." Another said, " There was a well in the 

 fa of Tu-te-Makohu, and its top was covered by a celebrated slab of green- 

 stone " ; and another added these details : " I will let you into a secret. 

 In a creek near Taupiri eight valuable mere are buried under a ^ab of green- 

 stone which was concealed in the creek-bed. There is also in that hidden 

 ' store a beautiful greenstone taialia, which is said to be 3 ft. long. I have 

 never heard of any one making a proper search for that buried treasure 

 placed there by our ancestors." 



In regard to the last remark, one old man said to me, " Several people, 

 including the late Tame Parata, once went up to try and get Tu-te-Makohu's 

 greenstone at Otaupiri, but the search was without result. Tu-te-Makohu 

 died at that jm and was buried on a hilltop which can be seen for miles 

 round. His maipi was put upright in the ground to mark his burial-place." 



One old man gave some information which may refer to the foregoing, 

 or it may be a different incident altogether : " In a creek up about the 

 head of the Waimumu Stream, in the Hokanui Hills, is a big hole that wa« 

 used in old times to get water from, Somewhere near it a noted green- 

 stone mere was buried in the creek-bed. This mere is said to have once 

 belonged to a great woman, and it was secreted to preserve it from falling 

 into strange hands. It was buried by a woman who was the only one of 

 her family left at that place, and she hid it secretly so the rest of the people 

 would not know, and it has never been found to this day as far as is known." 



The hiding of valued pieces of greenstone was quite common. Rawiri- 

 te-Awha had once lived at Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, and he buried 

 some greenstone there. One of my informants was up there with Rawiri 

 and some other Maori in 1872, and one night a companion and he went 

 to the site of Rawiri's old whare and dug up the greenstone and had a look 

 at it. They carefully replaced it, and as the party came away without it 

 my informant considered it would be there still, although he has never 

 been back in the locality to ascertain the changes made by the white man's 

 occupation. 



At one point near Port Molyneux, tradition says, a whare stood many 

 generations ago, and that when the chief called Makatu was killed on the 

 headland above his heart was brought down and roasted before this ancient 

 dwelling. My informant had dug down at the spot and found traces of 

 habitation, coming on an old bone mere, beautifully carved, but unfortunately 

 half burnt. He also found a greenstone weapon of unusual design, and 

 this he gave to Captain Bollons, of the s.^. " Hinemoa." The hill behind 

 the old pilot station at Port Molyneux is called Kaoriori, after a block 

 of greenstone of this name which had been brought there and broken up 

 to manufacture. A rivulet running from the hills near Kaitangata is called 

 Te Waihoaka because in it, according to a correspondent of mine, " were 

 found large quantities of a hard stone (lioaka) much sought after by the 

 Maori for grinding greenstone and other stones and fashioning them into 

 ornaments, as well as for making tools and other implements, an art in 

 which the Maori attained truly marvellous skill." 



It was natural, of course, that greenstone should be used as a medium 

 of exchange, and two of these barters were mentioned to me. The first 

 was that some valuable pieces of greenstone changed hands for the right 

 to squat {noho) on certain lands in Otago at the time Rauparaha was raiding 

 the people of North Canterbury. The other recorded that a fast canoe, 

 named Kura-matakitaki, was made at Matainaka (near Waikouaiti) by 

 Rimurapa and Horuwai some time before the whalers came. ' Pahi was 

 anxious to secure it, and tlii" be did by giving greenstone in exchange. He 



