] Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



duced in colour by the Rev. Herbert Williams in Part II. of 

 Hamilton's "Maori Art." 



The kokowai met the eye of the Maori at every part of his 

 sm'roundings during his lifetime, and did not leave him even 

 in death, as it was the custom, after the bones of a chief had 

 been scraped clean at the hahunga, or ceremonial feast held 

 for the purpose, to give them a coating of his favourite colour 

 before tliey were deposited in their final resting-place. 



As prepai'ed by the Maoris in the old time the kokowai 

 formed a paint of extraordinary permanence an<i durability. 

 A piece of carving in the possession of Mr. W. H. Skinner 

 was exposed to the weather for at least sixty years, but on 

 all sound portions of the wood the colour is still quite strong 

 and fresh. A still better example, if possible, may be seen on 

 my grinding-slab. This, together with the rubber, was found 

 in the vicinity of an old pa near Waimate, which has not been 

 occupied within the last two centuries. The two stones lay 

 together at the edge of a bush in a spot which must have been 

 overrun by innumerable fires, the heat of which was sufficient 

 to scale the hard basalt of the rubber ; but in spite of this 

 exhaustive test the kokowai is still there. Neither sun, rain, 

 fires, nor the lapse of time has been able to obliterate it. 



Though it may have been well on aesthetic grounds, as a 

 general rule, to restore the Maori carvings in our museums to 

 something like their original appearance with a fresh coat 

 of paint, I think it would be interesting to leave a few good 

 specimens untouched, as, apart from the fact that these 

 weather-worn objects have a beauty of their own which it is 

 a pity to destroy, it would be an advantage to have an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing how this wonderful mixture is capable of 

 enduring the most trying conditions. 



On the origin of the name kokoivai Mr. S. Percy Smith, 

 F.R.G.S., in a note on the subject kindly sent to me, thinks 

 that the word is probably derived from the colour. Koko, he 

 says, is evidently connected with colour, kokouri and kokotea 

 meaning respectively dark- and light-coloured. Koko is also 

 connected with a strong or unpleasant smell. On the term 

 horu, a common name for a variety of the kokowai (see above), 

 Mr. Percy Smith quotes from " L'Anthropologie " for August, 

 1891, as follows : " There is no doubt that in certain Egyptian 

 myths there is connection between Horus, the sun god, and 

 Iron," and asks, " Is not the Maori name horu, the name for 

 an oxide of iron, derived from the same source ?" 



