Te Rangi Hiroa. — Maori Decorative Art. 465 



(flounder) (fig. 4, Plate LXVIII). Some of the other designs represent 

 part of the animal, as waewae pakura (swamp-hen's feet) (fig. 3 in text) ; 

 pihapiha mango (shark's gills) (fig. 5 in text) ; whakaiwi tuna (eel's bones) 

 (fig. 5 in text) ; nilto taniwha (dragon's teeth) (fig. 4, Plate LXVII) ; Jcanohi 

 aua (herring's eyes) (fig. 1, Plate LXVIII). 



(b.) Phyllomorphs — representations from plant-life. In this group there 

 are no examples. Doubtless owing to the impossibility of forming curves 

 in the limited number of squares contained in a panel, that great motive 

 in carving and rafter-painting, the curling shoot of the tree-fern, fails to 

 appear. 



(c.) Anthropomorphs, representing the human figure, should come under 

 zoomorphs ; but man, with his usual egotism, has placed himself in a class 

 apart. In the old patterns the ribs are represented in the kaokao design 

 (figs. 2 and 3, Plate LXVII). 



The post-European designs I have left out of this classification. There 

 are, however, most excellent examples of anthropomorphs in the great 

 East Coast meeting-house, Porourangi, at Wai-o-mata-tini. Full-length 

 portraits of ancestors are worked in the lattice-work of the panel, and duly 

 labelled with the name neatly worked in cross-stitches. 



The Evolution of the Panel. 



The evolution of the decorative patterns is so bound up with the 

 construction of the panel that we must deal with all the elements that 

 compose it. There can be no doubt that the first attempt at decoration 

 was the vertical arrangement of the flower-stalks of the kakaho in the 

 panel-space. The vertical thatched bundles of raupo (Typha anguslifolia) 

 as seen in the ordinary sleeping-houses (wharepuni) formed the basis of the 

 house-wall and was complete in itself. In the Cook Islands, where the 

 Maori ancestors sojourned ere embarking on the voyage to New Zealand, 

 the house-walls are lined with thin vertical poles of the purau tree. 

 These are peeled of their bark, and the thin white stakes lend a decorative 

 effect to the walls. They are called kaka'o by the Rarotongans, who do 

 not aspirate the h. The thin stakes of purau not being available in New 

 Zealand, the Maori builder soon seized upon the long, thin, white flower- 

 stalks of the Arundo as a substitute, or even improvement. Using them 

 as a decorative lining, he applied to them the ancient name of kakaho. 

 This type of decoration was carried on up under the sloping roof. Owing 

 to the difficulty of working, it here remains stationary, whilst the easily 

 accessible panel went on increasing in complexity of decoration. A few 

 energetic spirits have, however, broken through the labour difficulty, for 

 Te Wai Herehere, at Koriniti, on the Wanganui River, has cross-stitch 

 decorations under the roof. 



The next stage in evolution was the addition of horizontal rods. It 

 seems probable that fern -stalks (kakaka), being easily procurable and requir- 

 ing no special preparation, were the first material used. Variation of 

 design seems to have demanded variation of material ; and, whilst infor- 

 mation can be obtained of house-panels decorated with kakaka rods with 

 hardly any decorative stitching, I can gather no acccount of kakaho rods 

 being used even as a foundation for elaborate stitching. To fix the rods 

 to the stakes, ties or lashings were used. The lashings would natural y 

 be of the same material as that used in the ordinary construction — namely, 

 strips of flax. The simplest method would be to tie the ends of each rod 



