BuLLEK. — On a Bemarkahle Maori Imi^lement. 571 



being involute throughoufc. At the bottom of the handle there 

 is a sort of shell design — an open volute, forming a knob, 

 covered with the same detailed carving as the blade. Imme- 

 diately above this terminal scroll-work the handle is per- 

 forated to receive a thong or flax-string. The authenticity of 

 this relic is undoubted, and to the eye of the practised expert 

 its genuine Maori character is placed beyond doubt at the first 

 glance. I made a careful pencil-drawing of it at the museum, 

 but Professor Young, the chief curator, has at my request been 

 kind enough since to get it photographed for me, and ono 

 of the prints accompanies this note by way of illustration 

 (Plate LI.). 



There are four specimens of the mira-tuatini in the 

 British Museum collection ; one of these is like that figured 

 in Cook's "Voyages," two others are of similar pattern but 

 much coarser make, and the fourth is in the form of a long 

 lancet (measuring about a foot) with four sharks' teeth let 

 in near the extremity, immediately below a paua -shell 

 eye. 



It is said, with what truth I know not, that the hand- 

 swords from the Gilbert Islands mentioned above are used by 

 the islanders as instruments of torture, or for punishing un- 

 fortunate slaves. Even as a fighting weapon, in the hands of 

 a desperate man, I could imagine their inflicting terrible flesh- 

 wounds, especially among combatants whose only livery is 

 nature's skin, and whose conflicts are chiefly hand-to-hand. 

 But, for whatever purpose intended, the arrangement of erect, 

 unevenly-pointed shark's teeth gives a very effectual sawing- 

 edge. May not this have been used by the ancient Maori as 

 an instrument of self-torture ? In former times it was the 

 universal practice of Maori mourners for the dead (more 

 especially the women) to cut and gash themselves, so as to 

 induce great physical suffering, sharp shells or the cutting- 

 edge of a splinter of glass-obsidian (inata-tuliua) being generally 

 used for that purpose ; the more intense the grief for the de- 

 parted the deeper the cuts. Cook, in his "First Voyage" 

 (vol. ii., p. 290), in giving an account of his first contact 

 with the Maoris, says, "Among the persons of the family there 

 was a woman who had her arms, legs, and thighs frightfully 

 cut in several places, and we were told that she had inflicted 

 these wounds upon herself in token of her grief for the loss 

 of her husband, who had lately been killed and eaten by 

 their enemies, who had come from some place to the east- 

 ward wdiich the Indians pointed out." This custom was 

 continued in some parts of the country for years after the 

 introduction of Christianity ; and in my boyhood I have seen 

 female mourners with their cheeks, arms, and breasts painfully 

 gashed in short parallel lines, the blood streaming from the 



