her legs apart. Her eyes were said to be of greenstone 

 and they flashed on the edge of the sky. Here her eyes 

 are of shell and they are open and flashing. To help him 

 carry out this important task, Maui persuaded some 

 birds to go with him. What he planned to do was 

 reverse the process of birth and enter the womb of the 

 goddess while she was asleep, for surely the source of 

 life was there. He made the birds promise that when he 

 crawled in, they were on no account to laugh at him, 

 no matter what they thought of his actions. 



Well, he began his entry. He wriggled and wrig- 

 gled and soon his head was in but then the birds could 

 contain themselves no longer and they burst out laugh- 

 ing and twittering at Maui. This woke up the goddess 

 and she got such a fright that she closed her open 

 mouth and brought her great thighs together, crushing 

 Maui to death. That was how Maui died. He failed in 



his very important quest, and as a consequence man 

 must tease the tail of death as shown in the terminal 

 motifs on the lintel. In other lintels man as represented 

 by the manaia is locked in mouth-to-mouth combat 

 with the symbol of death, the lizard, or tuatara. 



It is obvious in this case that the words built into 

 the lintel through the code of wood carving gives mean- 

 ing to the object. And it is because this message is readi- 

 ly understood that the door lintel is sometimes treated 

 like a corpse. In the case of the carved house, Rongo- 

 karae, opened April 15, 1901 and built by the Ngati 

 Rongo hapu of Tauarau marae, Ruatoki, its door lintel 

 was carved in another village some considerable dis- 

 tance away. The tohunga (priest) of Te Whaiti, a man 

 named Te Tuhi, carved it in about 1889, then carried 

 it on horseback to Ruatoki. Wherever the Te Tuhi 

 stopped, the door lintel was greeted and wept over as 



MEMBERS' PREVIEW OF 



Te Maori: Maori Art from New Zealand Collections 



Friday, March 7 

 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm 



At 6:00, Dr. John Terrell, Field Museum's curator of Oceanic archaeology and ethnology and 

 exhibit curator of "Te Maori," will introduce Dr. Sidney Moko Mead, professor of Maori, 

 Victoria University at Wellington. There will be a performance of traditional Maori songs and 

 dance in Stanley Field Hall following the introduction and Dr. Mead's opening remarks. 

 Light refreshments will be served. 



"Te Maori" is the first international exhibition devoted exclusively to Maori art and 

 culture. These 173 remarkable heirlooms of traditional art combine major sculptures and 

 carvings in wood, stone, jade, bone, ivory, and shell, dating from AD 1000 to 1800. Among 

 the works presented from more than 30 Maori tribes are monumental architectural 

 sculptures, elaborate canoe carvings and equipment, weapons, tools, musical instruments, 

 mortuary carvings, and objects of personal adornment. 



The exhibit catalog, Te Maori: Maori Art from New Zealand Collections, edited by Dr. Mead, 

 and Prehistory in the Pacific Islands, by Dr. Terrell, will be available for purchase. 



Special arrangements for handicapped persons can be made by calling 922-9410, ext 

 453. The CTA #146 Marine/Michigan bus services Field Museum. Call CTA (836-7000) for 

 the evening schedule. 



"Te Maori: Maori Art from New Zealand Collections" was organized by the American 

 Federation of Arts in association with the New Zealand government, the Maori people, and 

 the New Zealand leading museums. Made possible by a grant from Mobil. Supported by the 

 National Endowment for Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, an indemnity 

 from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities, Air New Zealand, and the National 

 Patrons of the American Federation of Arts. 



Please join us for a very special evening 



