Te Rangi Hiroa. — Maori Decorative Art. 469 



base of a triangle was the waha (mouth), and the lozenge, consisting as it 

 did of two triangles, had two mouths (waharua). The East Coast and the 

 Whanganni call it whakaruakopito. When I tried to get further particulars 

 of the meaning of the word from an old man of Whanganui he smiled 

 compassionately at my ignorance and placed his thumb upon his navel. 

 Williams's Dictionary gives pito as " navel," and kopito as " a pain in the 

 abdomen." In the large lozenge, formed of cross-stitches, called patiki 

 (flounder) by the Arawa, we can follow the connection. 



Passing on to post-European work we stand on different ground. 

 A multitude of motives were introduced into the country through the 

 European invasion. Many of them were decorative, and the Maori began 

 to introduce them into his 'work. In doing so he opened up new ground, 

 and began also to introduce motives from his own environment that had 

 hitherto not been attempted. The old simple patterns were now much 

 too simple, and in many cases were only retained as part of a compli- 

 cated design. With complicated designs the difficulty of naming becomes 

 apparent. Where part of the design consisted of a known motive its 

 name was usually applied to the whole panel. This is seen in the first 

 three groupings of the designs illustrating this period. 



In the second group pure European motives are introduced. Fig. 6 

 shows a design of small squares or chequers. Such a motive is very easy 

 to produce, and might easily be Maori. The design is named mumu. 

 Williams's Dictionary gives mumu as "a pattern in decorative lattice-work." 

 In spite of mumu being an old Maori word, had any other name been applied 

 to the design we might have been led into believing that a series of small 

 squares was an original pattern. The name, however, reveals its origin. The 

 Maori are very fond of the game of draughts, which, having been introduced 

 by Europeans, had to have a Maori name coined for it. The Maori named 

 it from a word that is constantly used in the game. When a player said 

 " Nawai te rait?" or " Nau te mu" he meant " Whose move is it ? " or 

 " It is your move." Thus the word mu, which was as near as he could 

 get to the English word " move," was, according to Williams, adopted into 

 the language, for draughts. Hence Ave get the name mumu applied to 

 a chequer pattern, the motive of which is derived from the European 

 draught-board. Fig. 7 shows a motive of octagonal figures. This is derived 

 from linoleum. Many modern houses were decorated by a dado of linoleum 

 nailed round the wall, so that it was an easy transition to reproduce it 

 in modern lattice-work. Even the Maori, with all his stoutness of heart, 

 hesitated at translating linoleum into Maori and applying it to a design. 

 He fell back on pekapeka, the flat nine-strand plait at the top of the design, 

 as a name. 



The third group, with the Maori motives of a fly-flap, bird-spear, front 

 of a house, and Mokoia Island, are sufficiently obvious to present no 

 difficulty in naming. In the same group we come across a new source 

 for decorative motives — namely, the game of cat's cradle (whai). Mokoia 

 (fig. 12) and mangati and manf/ata (lower parts of fig. 5) are not very clear, 

 but rapakaheru (lower third of fig. 11) bears a distinct resemblance to the 

 blade of the old wooden spades (kaheru) that have been found in swamps. 

 In each case the name of the cat's-cradle figure has been applied to the 

 panel design. Another source of motives has been the decorative borders 

 of dress cloaks. In these cases the name of the garment has been applied 

 to the design. 



In the fourth group, fig. 13 shows a combination of lines and angles 

 that bear no resemblance to any motive. In the middle third of the 



