112 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



old settlements are bone mat-pins, bone barbs of fish-books, 

 bone barbs for bird or fish spears, and stone implements ; 

 but occasionally a rare jewel is found, lost perhaps in the 

 loose sand by its sorrowing owner who shall say how many 

 years ago. The subject of the present note is a bone pendant 

 or ornament in the form of a lizard. At least, that is what 

 I consider it to be, notwithstanding that the shape of the 

 tail is unlike that of any kind of lizard known to me. It 

 does not even represent a lizard that has lost its tail, as in 

 that case it would be more truncate and not carefully finished 

 off. Judging by the beautifully worked arrangement for 

 suspension, it was made to hang head downwards. It is cut 

 from a fairly dense fragment of a whale's bone. The extreme 

 length is 111mm. (about 4^ in.), and the greatest diameter 

 of the body is 32 mm. (about 1^-in.). The character of the 

 workmanship is shown in the accompanying plate. Prom 

 the snout to the end of the tail, along the central line of the 

 back, is a row of small notches. It is perfect in all its parts, 

 and is, so far as I know, unique. 



The use of a lizard-form as a personal ornament amongst 

 a Maori people must have been rare, as in most cases all 

 kinds of ngarara were regarded with horror and aversion. 

 The subject of the use of the lizard in ornamentations and on 

 ethnographical objects by the Malays and Polynesians has 

 been the subject of inquiry by many ethnologists.* Shortland 

 mentions that the small green lizard was held in great awe, 

 because atuas were believed to enter very frequently into their 

 bodies when visiting the earth for the purpose of communicating 

 their advice to mortals.! Assuming this to be so, one specimen 

 might have been the god-medium of some old priest, in the 

 same way as the god-sticks were used on the west coast of 

 the North Island. To the average Maori it was sufficient 

 to show him a lizard in a bottle to put to flight the most 

 doughty warrior, as Angas relates in an amusing passage. 



In Melanesia and Micronesia the lizard is usually regarded 

 as the incarnation of a god or spirit. Lizards are sometimes 

 found carved on the slabs of a Maori house, but not often. 

 They appear more frequently in the old cave paintings in the 

 South Island. 



Bone Needles. 



I have received from Mr. Bendall, of the Mahia, at the 

 northern end of Hawke's Bay, some fragments of a bone 

 needle beautifully carved, which was picked up on the middens 



* See D'Estrey, " Etude Ethnographique sur le lezard chez les peuples 

 Malais et Polynesiens," in L'Anthrop., 1892, torn, iii., No. 6; and 

 Giglioli, " La Lacertola," Arch, per l'Antropolog. e la Etnol., 1889. 



f Shortland, Trad, and Superstitions of the N.Z., p. 58. 



