1 1 o YoycKjc of the Novara. 



than naturally brown, by tlieir tliin, weak hair, sometimes 

 black, sometimes of a chesnut brown, and whom they closely 

 approach in their features. Indeed full-blood Maories some- 

 times have such a European aspect, that even the numberless 

 tattoo marks upon their faces do not destroy the impression, 

 but have rather the appearance of those ''painted faces" we 

 are accustomed to see in actors, when they wish to give their 

 countenances a more effective cast upon the boards. 



The custom of tattooing, or ''Moko," is one of those most 

 characteristic of this remarkable people, and is worth being 

 described in detail, inasmuch as it has been almost entirely 

 discontinued since the diffusion of Christianity, for, according 

 to the sentiments of the missionaries, every native, lience- 

 forth, who submits to this operation is held to have renounced 

 Christianity, and to have openly dubbed himself a heathen. 

 It has been suggested as the most probable explanation of the 

 rapid spread of this painful practice, that the '' Moko " imparts 

 to the countenance a sterner expression in presence of the 

 enemy, and that the Maori women attach more importance 

 to the caresses of a tattooed man than of one whose visage 

 is unmarked. Possibly tattooing was a symbol of puberty 

 in both sexes, and a token of their being of marriageable 

 age. 



At first they contented themselves with marking the face 

 with certain straight lines, called by the natives Moko-Kuri, 

 which was the stage it had attained when Cook visited these 

 islands. The present complicated system of tattooing was 



