1 40 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



another name for roukakah was heki. Tregear's Dictionary 

 gives rou, " a long stick to reach anything with, to reach by 

 means of a long pole, or to move or stir about with a pole." As 

 those dredges were always tied to long poles, and by these means 

 were rolled or stirred about at the bottom of the lake to collect 

 the shell-fish, the origin of the word roukakahi is clear. Kakahi 

 is the common fresh- water shell-fish (Unio) lying partly im- 

 bedded in the lacustrine mud. Every dredge consisted of a 

 long pole, a rou, a dredge, and a net and sinker. The stone 

 sinker was called mahikea, the rope kaha, and the flax-net rori. 

 Roukakahi were also used to catch crayfish. 



The hao was the toothless dredge used for crayfish-gathering 

 in the waters of Lake Taupo. Its frame was stouter, it was un- 

 carved, and less care was bestowed on its construction. Hao. 

 in Maori, means " to draw round, or to collect fish, as in a net." 



I have an extremely rare Maori curio, shaped like a marlin- 

 spike, called ahao. At the base a hole was bored in it, and it 

 was used to pass strings through the gills of dead sharks, &c, to 

 collect them together. 



In Tuhoeland Best says Maoris fished sometimes for koura 

 with a net drawn along the bottom, but without a dredge at- 

 tached, and such nets were called paepae. In the Horowhenua 

 Lake to-day Maoris fish for kakahi with a net like a paepae, but 

 never trouble to create a dredge. 



I happened to show this carved roukakahi to Major Whitney, 

 a sportsman of the widest culture and the moment he saw it 

 he exclaimed, " An English oyster-catcher." As a boy he had 

 seen oyster-dredges, made of iron, exactly similar in make and 

 principle — a triangle with raking teeth, and holes as seen in 

 this one, and notches to tie on the net-strings. He knew all 

 about this dredge directly he saw it. As dredges were used by 

 .Maoris long before Captain Cook's arrival, it is clear the Maori 

 and the Severn fisher evolved an almost similar instrument to 

 meet almost identical needs. In Cornwall similar toothed 

 dredges were called " rake dredges." 



Distribution and Uses. 



My black roukakahi was bought from a chief of the Ngati- 

 rangiwewehi Tribe, of the Awahou Pa, a few miles from Rotorua. 

 The other, with the net. was owned by a member of another 

 hapu of the great A raw a Tribe. 



RmikukdhiK were used in shallow lakes, but never in rivers 

 or on the sea-shore. Apparently they did not exist south of 

 Lake Taupo, where the hao was used in the shallower parts about 

 Toka-anu. They were in use in Rotorua and adjacent lakes, 

 and scarcely at all elsewhere. From all time Maoris, and especi- 



