T. H. Smith. — On Maori Implements and Weapons. 437 



operation Aimy's eldest daughter several times wiped the 

 blood from my face with some dressed flax. After it was over 

 she led me to the river that I might wash myself (for it made 

 me completely blind), and then conducted me to a great fire. 

 They now returned us all our clotl^es, with the exception of 

 our shirts, which the women kept for themselves, wearing 

 them, as we observed, with the fronts behind. We were now 

 not only tattooed, but what they called tabooed, the meaning 

 of which is, being made sacred, or forbidden to touch any pro- 

 visions of any kind with our hands. This state of things 

 lasted for three days, during which time we were fed by the 

 daughters of the chiefs, with the same victuals and out of the 

 same baskets as the chiefs themselves and the persons who 

 had tattooed us. In three days the swelling which had been 

 produced by the operation had greatly subsided, and I began 

 to recover my sight, but it was six weeks before I was com- 

 pletely well." 



The uhi is called in Maori poetry " tc uJii matarau," 

 " the hundred-pointed -zi/i*." This corresponds with Euther- 

 ford's account better than with some others. 



The pigment applied to or inserted in the incisions made 

 by the uhi was soot, prepared by burning resin, or resinous 

 wood — generally kauri. 



Weapons. — The weapons used by the Maori warrior of 

 olden time were fcxshioned out of wood, stone, and bone. 

 Those of wood were : The taiaha, maipi, or liani ; the pou- 

 whenua, shaped like the preceding without the head, and used 

 as a kind of broadsword ; the tao, or tokotoko, a spear, in 

 great variety, long and short ; the hoata, a long spear generally 

 carried by the warriors in the front rank during a charge ; the 

 wahaika, teivhateioha, or paiaka; with shorter weapons for 

 use at close quarters, such as the kotiate, and others of various 

 shapes and names but coming under the general name of 

 patu; the huata, about which there is some doubt (Tregear 

 gives " a barbed spear " in his dictionary, but I do not know 

 upon what authority). 



These were made of the hardest and toughest wood obtain- 

 able, most often of manuka. Of these weapons, the taiaha 

 was the favourite ; the head of it was carved, and often orna- 

 mented with the red feathers of the kaka, or parrot, and the 

 long hair of the Maori dog, waero. The carved head is in- 

 tended to represent a man's face, the tongue protruding from 

 the mouth or jaws, as in defiance. The mother-of-pearl discs 

 represent eyes. In single combat the taiaha or the tao (spear) 

 was most frequently used. Eegular rules of fence with these 

 weapons were observed and taught as an art, proficiency and 

 skill in which gave a warrior great advantage over a less 

 practised or less skilled adversary. 



