Walsh. — Method of prej^aring and using Kokowai. 9 



cipal objects in the application of the kokoiuai, with its 

 admixture of shark-oil, was at once to protect the body from 

 the changes of temperature and from the annoyance of sand- 

 flies, mosquitoes, and certain parasitic insects which seem to 

 have been very abundant among the old-time Maoris, and 

 afflicted all classes alike (see "Cook's Voyages"). This 

 double purpose would probaljly be fairly accomplished by the 

 strong-smelling oil alone, but the addition of the earthy matter 

 would doubtless render the application more effective, and at 

 the same time give it an aristocratic appearance. So far as I 

 have been able to learn, this use of the kokowai was exclu- 

 sively confined to the male sex, women and girls using various 

 pigments derived from the pollen of flowers and other vege- 

 table sources in small spots or patches on their faces. 



Though there were several shades of kokowai, according to 

 the quality of the article, the general and favourite colour was 

 a rich warm red something like that of a well-burnt brick, with 

 a " mat " surface. When used for the painting of a war-canoe 

 it was relieved with black, and occasionally with white. Thus, 

 the hull and topsides were invariably red, and the figure-head 

 and stern-post, as well as the long batten which covered the 

 joint between the hull and topsides, were usually a lustrous 

 black, while for several feet under the bows a running pattern 

 was painted in black and white suggestive of the rippling of 

 the waves. The effect of this combination was most striking 

 and beautiful, especially when the head and stern pieces were 

 further decorated with their ornament of kaka (parrot) and 

 pigeon feathers, and the covering-batten spaced at intervals 

 with the white plumes of the gannet. 



On the great wooden images carved on the principal posts 

 of the palisading of the pas, on the entrance-gates, on the 

 barge-boards and the door and window pieces of the house, 

 and, in fact, on all carved work whatsoever, the kokoiuai always 

 formed the general ground tint ; and a contrast was obtained 

 by picking out some of the smaller details — e.g., the moko, or 

 tattooed pattern on the faces or bodies — in black, the effect 

 being further enhanced by the insertion of pieces of paua-shell 

 (Haliotis) for tlie eyes of the figures. 



For interior decoration the kokowai was specially adapted. 

 It formed the ground colour of the massive slabs or pilasters 

 which spaced off the walls into panels and supported the roof. 

 These in a large tribal meeting-house were elaborately carved 

 with a succession of grotesque semi-human figures with eyes 

 of the iridescent paua-shell and the wonderful convolutions of 

 the moko picked out in black. On the broad rafters the pre- 

 vailing red and black alternated in filling up the spaces 

 between the scrolls of a bold running pattern in white. 

 Several excellent samples of these rafter-patterns are repro- 



