Best. — Clothing of the Ancierit Maori. 651 



water in which certain barks have been steeped, and after- 

 wards it is placed in a certain black mud. For this black dye 

 the bark of either the hinau, tawai, taiuhero, or hinau-'puka is 

 used. This bark is placed upon a stone and beaten with a 

 wooden mallet of maire wood, shaped like a thick pestle, 

 until the bark is all bruised and broken up. The patu 

 for beating fibres are made of black volcanic stone {hard and 

 livi), which have a rough, open grain, the same being con- 

 sidered preferable for pounding fibre for io threads. These 

 beaters are very neatly made, and were highly prized, being 

 handed down for many generations. The one here obtained 

 for the Auckland Museum is five generations old. When 

 thoroughly crushed a portion of the bark is put into a wooden 

 trough or bowl, or a trough hollowed out of a log. A layer of 

 crushed bark is placed in the bottom of the trough. On this 

 is placed a layer of fibre, then another layer of bark, and soon. 

 The trough is then filled with water, and the fibre left to steep 

 in the dye thus formed for twelve or sixteen hours. When 

 taken out the fibre is sticky to the feel and by no means black, 

 but of a dirty-brown colour. The fibre is then steeped for 

 twenty-four hours m a peculiar black mud, such as is found in 

 a white-pine swamp, and in which is seen a reddish exuda- 

 tion. {Kia noho tetahi mea ivhero , loaikura ivhemia, kai roto i 

 te repo. Hai te ivao kahikatea te paru pena. Ko aua tjc paru 

 he viea heri ki etahi kamga, katvhakato ki tetahi repo, a ka nici 

 haere.) Such swamps are famous places, and have been used 

 for centuries, such as the one at Rakau-whakawhitiwhiti, near 

 Te Umu-roa, while at Kaka-nui is a small swamp to which the 

 desired mud has been " transplanted " from the former. This 

 mud renders the fibre a deep black ; in fact, it is the black 

 dye, while the dark sap of the bark sets the dye of the mud. 

 {Ko te hinau hai j^upuri i te pango o te paru.) When dried 

 the fibre is ready for the weaver. 



Red Dye : This was obtained from the bark of the toatoa 

 (or tanekaha). The bark is pounded and broken up. A 

 separate fire is then kindled away from the settlement. It 

 must not be a fire at which food it cooked, nor may it be 

 kindled from such a fire. Thus there is a certain amount of 

 tapu about this fire, and the process of dyeing fibre thereat 

 must not be witnessed by others save the manipulators, 

 otherwise the latter would lose their knowledge (ka riro te 

 mataiiranga), which, however, may mean that onlookers 

 would thus acquire the knowledge of dyeing, a circumstance 

 by no means desired by the conservative members of the 

 whare para. 



The crushed bark is placed in a vessel, which is then filled 

 with water and placed on the fire, where it is allowed to boil 

 for some time. In ancient times the bark was placed in an oko 



