Maori Pataka. 



37 



more than locks or human vigilance. These planks were bound to smaller posts inter- 

 vening by cords of native flax {^Phonnunn) . As in the case of many, if not most Maori 

 carvings really old, these figures represented facts which in Anglo-Saxon civilization 

 are deemed indecencies, often so gross that they are not pi6lured by the foreign artist: 

 to the Maori they did not so appear, nor do I believe they were made, as were many of 

 the sculptures and paintings revealed by the excavations at Pompeii, to pander to mere 



FIG. 29. PATAKA IN AUCKLAND MUSEUM. 



sensualit}'. That they were often caricatures of realities is true, and such examples 

 amused rather than in any other way disturbed the Maori. 



In many Maori carvings of human or superhuman heads the eyes are repre- 

 sented b}' nacreous shell {paiia — Haliotis iris and H. stofiiaicpformis) cut in ring form 

 and attached by a projection of the dark wood which represents the pupil. Bunches 

 of feathers are also often attached to the cords tying the strucflure together. 



The principal carvings, to recapitulate, that distinguish a Maori Whare kopae 



are, within the house the poupoii or heavy carved slabs serving as posts, of which Fig. 30 



one from the Rununga whare or Council house of the pa at Maketu, supposed to have 



[221] 



