The Review of Reviews. 



April 10, Ui',. 



harmonious, colour — apparelled in loose crimson 

 hikurere, or " roundabouts,' and short gowns of gor- 

 geously flowered print, their brows bound about with 

 red handkerchiefs, which held in place the black 

 and white plumes of the rare hum bird and th' 

 iridescent feathers of the long-tailed cuckoo ; their 

 cheeks dabbed with red ochre paint, greenstone- 

 pendants and shark s teeth hanging from their ears. 

 The barefooted nymphs, hands on hips and heads 

 thrown back, glided into the measure of a kanikani 

 dance, to the music of a shrill monody chanted by a 

 wjiite-haired, tattooed old lady who had led the 

 women's pmvhtri. Dark eyes flashed, and long black 

 tresses floated in the air, as the dancers gave them- 

 selves up to the elemental passion of the kanikani. 

 Their bodies swayed from side to side, and quivered 

 and jerked in strange contortions, and in every 

 movement they kept rhythmic time to the fugle- 

 woman's song. It was none other than the old, old 

 wor'.d-wide dansc dii ventre — the Venus-dance of the 

 Moulin Rouge, the liida-hula of Hawaii, the siva of 

 Samoa. The kanikani grew faster and wilder, and 

 the eyes of the dancing-girls rolled till only the 

 whites were seen, set in a petrified glare — then all 

 at once the chant ended on an unexpected high note, 

 and the performers stopped, breathless and glowing 

 all over with their self-evolved emotions. 



The ranks of Tuhoe opened out, and we guests 

 passed through to the marae in front of the carven 

 temple " Te Whai-a-te-Motu," the Hauhau praying- 

 house built bv the mountaineers for their warrior- 

 priest and prophet Te Kooti. Here, after the 

 fashion of the Maori, the visitors from Te Whaiti 

 stood and lifted up their voices in lamentation for 

 the dead, and the village-women wailed most dolor- 

 ously for what seemed an inordinate length of time, 

 considering that some weeks had passed since the 

 subject of their tangi had been borne to his an- 

 cestral burial cave in rocky Maungapohjtu. The 

 manes of the dead appeased, broad flax mats were 

 spread out for us on the green, and, after speeches 

 of greeting, we were regaled with pork, preserved 

 birds, wild honev and potatoes, in quantitv sufBcient 

 to have satisfied a starving Russian garrison. 



Until quite recently the " Whai-a-te-motu " was 

 a Whare-tapu or sacred house ; no food was allowed 

 to be taken into it, and all per.sons entering had to 

 deposit articles such as tobacco, knives, matches, 

 etc., outside the porch. It is probably the most 

 interesting specimen of native decorative architec- 

 ture in the island. Surmounting the front of the 

 house is a carved head or tekoteko, with outstretched 

 tongue and glittering shell-made eyes. This repre- 

 sents the warrior-chief Te Unu-ariki. who was a 

 leading brave of Tuhoe a hundred years ago, and 

 who was killed by the Ngati-ruapani tribe at Waika- 

 remoana. Below the tekoteko is a carved and painted 

 monster, half-dog, half-crocodile. This is Tangaroa, 

 the enchanted dog of Tane-atua, a chief who arrived 

 on these shores in the Mataatua canoe, six centuries 



The Flax Beater, 



Urewera woman preparing flax fibre for mat-making by pourding 

 wilh a stone beater. 



ago. The dog, say the Maoris, was left by Tane- 

 atua at a small lake in these mountains, where it 

 remains to this day as a tupua or Daenmn. The 

 porch and the house-interior are rich with car\'ed 

 effigies of ancestral heroes, cut out of solid slabs 

 of totara, and grouped around th? walls — stemt 

 figures grotesquely fearful, with their huge distorted" 

 heads, and their leering mouths, from which project 

 enormovs red-painted tongues ; three-finsrered hands; 

 gripping stone weapons (sometimes a palpable steef 

 tomahawk), in attitudes of defiance, faces tattooecf 

 in exactest imitation of the moko of living men. 

 There are strange reptilian forms, ornate and fan- 

 tastic, recalling to the fakcha pictures of the plesio- 

 saurus and other fearsome creatures of the past, as 

 reconstructed bv the imafrinative scientist. Some of 

 the wall-slabs are car^'ed into figures of fabulous 

 water-monsters— /an/w'/w and maraki-Jiaw — scoopinpc 



