446 Transactions. 



then return to their homes. The whare mata is a house specially devoted 

 to these tasks ; no other work is performed in it. Then the snares are 

 taken to tie forest and arranged on the white-pine trees. Now, the first 

 birds taken are cooked in the ran hiika oven and ea en by the priests. Then 

 the persons engaged in these tasks are freed from tapu. A charm is repeated 

 over the snares made from Cordyline leaves. That charm is styled rau 

 huka.) 



Tamati Ranapiri, of Ngati-Raukawa, stated, in answer to a query, " Yes, 

 a special house was set apart wherein were manufactured snares, traps, nets, 

 and such things. The reason of this was that it was most undesirable that 

 women should be allowed to approach the hunting and fishing paraphernalia, 

 or the materials from which they were fashioned, or the makers thereof, 

 so long as the tapu was on the whare mata — that is to say, on its inmates 

 and their work. The presence of a woman would pollute, or nullify the 

 efficacy of snares or nets. He xvehi no nya tane kei pikitia nga harakeke e 

 nga wahine, ara nga harakeke e mahia ana mo nga kupenga me nga mahanga.^^ 



Snares, etc. 



Flax was not used by the Tuhoe folk wherefrom to fashion snares. For 

 this purpose they invariably utilised the strong fibrous leaves of the ti 

 {Cordyline austraJis), the same being much more durable than flax when 

 exposed to the weather. Moreover, no good variety of flax is found in Tuhoe- 

 land, but merely inferior kinds, the leaves of which contain a very poor 

 fibre. The leaves of the ti, or cabbage-tree, are split into strips. These 

 strips are dried and then stained by immersing them in a black (? ferru- 

 ginous) mud, or by hanging them in the smoke of a fire of resinous wood 

 (mapara). This process is for the purpose of giving the snares, and the cord 

 to which they are attached {takeke or kaha), an old appearance. If they 

 were left in their natural colour they would look new, and birds would be 

 t^hy of them. Each of the above strips is formed into a loop snare, a running 

 noose, at one end. The other end, the free end, serves to suspend the snare 

 from the main cord, which is stnuig from branch to branch of the tree. 

 Hundreds of such snares would be set among the branches of a large tree 

 much frequented by birds, such as a kahikatea of great fruiting-powers. 

 The act of forming the loop snare is termed whapiko, of which tapiko, kopiko, 

 and rapiko are variant forms. The first of these words is probably an 

 abbreviation of ivhakapiko, but it may be wha (a leaf) and piko (curved, 

 bent). The act of setting snares all over a tree-top is termed ta and tahei. 



The first act of the fowler, when setting the first snares of the season. 

 is to stretch the cord from which the snares are suspended from branch to 

 branch of the tree. These cords must be strung well out towards the ends 

 of the branches, because that is where the fruit and flowers that attract the 

 birds are situated. This means that the task is one of great danger, and 

 many fowlers have been killed by falling from the branches of great forest - 

 trees. Try to imagine the task of setting snares on the outer branchlets of a 

 lofty white-pine tree. We yearn not for that task, but prefer a shot-gun or, 

 better still, a poulterer's shop. 



The cords having been strung and secured to branchlets, the snares 

 are then suspended from them in such a manner that birds will be likely to 

 thrust their heads into the nooses as they move about in feeding. When 

 fruit is plentiful on the tree the snares are set but a short distance apart. 

 When the fowler revisits his snares the following morning he takes the 



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