T. H. Smith. — On Maori Implements and Weapons. 449 



Numbers of these Jioanga are to be seen at the Islands, easily 

 recognisable by the hollow in the centre, shaped like a saucer 

 — a sign of their frequent use. Mr. Shand observes that he 

 ' need scarcely remark that the operation was tedious in the 

 extreme ' ; and one can easily see that such was the case by the 

 examples of ill-ground axes, especially some of the smaller 

 ones with round shoulders (uma) unreduced, like an ill-ground 

 European axe. On the other hand, however, there were a 

 number of really beautifully finished axes (toki) that must have 

 taken an infinite amount of time and skill to get into such a 

 perfect shape. There are many unfinished axes lying about 

 at the Chathams in the rough state, evidently intended to 

 be ground, but afterwards thrown away. When not using 

 them, the owner generally hid his tohis to avoid their being 

 stolen. Now and again a number so buried are discovered in 

 ploughing or in digging up old places of residence. Mr. Shand 

 observes that he has ' never seen — in fact, doubts the existence 

 of ' — any of the tohi-titaha, or large axes used by the Maoris, 

 and common also to New Guinea, used for chopping the top 

 and bottom edges of a cut, the ordinary form being used 

 to cut out the chip by chipping sideways, like an adze. ' It 

 may be of interest,' Mr. Shand continues, ' to state that 

 the mode of making and tying a handle on to the toki 

 or large stone axe was identical with that of the Maoris, 

 of which race the Chatham Islanders evidently formed a 

 part in the original departure from Hawaiki. This is shown 

 also by their traditions, legends, and the causes assigned for 

 their leaving their so-called Hawaiki home.' 



"The Morioris also used flint (mata), which they split into 

 thin, irregular, wedge-like shapes, as knives, there being no 

 volcanic glass (tuhua) obtainable in any quantity, although 

 a reef of it is known to exist under water at the south-east 

 corner of the island at Manukau. The micaceous clay-slates 

 or argillaceous schists, with layers of quartz, occurring on the 

 northern coast of the main island, were used for making the 

 patus, and were also employed in the same way as the mata, 

 though their edges cannot be made so sharp as that of the 

 latter. Both are used with or without handles in cutting up 

 grampus, or any other variety of whale, for food, the blubber 

 of which was considered a great relish by the Morioris. . . . 



"Besides the large weapons made of nephrite, to which 

 exclusively the Maoris apply the term mere, they also used 

 stone weapons of similar form, manufactured from melaphyre, 

 aphanite, and other fine-grained basic rocks, for which wea- 

 pons the generic term okewa was used. . . . Concerning 

 the stone implements used by the Maoris and their ancestors, 

 I have already stated that they called all those made of 

 nephrite 7nere, and the rest okeiva. It is evident that the 

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