MALLERY.] IN NEW ZEALAND. 165 
the boomerang close to the right hand conveys the idea that this man has just 
thrown the missile at the subject of a, allowing, of course, for the want of a knowl- 
edge of perspective on the part of the aboriginal artist. *  *  * 
In several other figures the head is a mere rounded outline, but in b it is presented 
with a rather bird-like appearance. Another peculiarty is the great angularity 
given to the kneecap: this is visible both ina and bh. It is further exemplified in 
the elbow of the lett arms of both a and b. 
SECTION w. 
OCEANICA. 
The term “Oceanica” is used here without geographic precision, to 
include several islands not mentioned in other sections of the present 
work, in different parts of the globe, where specially interesting petro- 
glyphs have been found and made known in publications. Although 
more such localities are known than are now mentioned, the pictographs 
trom them are not of sufficient importance to justify description or illus- 
tration, but it may be remarked that they show the universality of the 
pictographic practice. 
NEW ZEALAND. 
Dr. Julius von Haast (a) published notes, condensed as follows, de- 
scriptive of the illustration produced here as Fig. 133: 
The most remarkable petroglyphs found in New Zealand are situated about 1 mile 
on the western side of the Weka Pass road in a rock shelter, which is washed out of 
a vertical wall of rock lining a small valley for about 300 feet on its right or southern 
side. The whole length of the rock below the shelter has been used for painting, 
and it is evident that some order has been followed in the arrangement of the sub- 
jects and figures. The paint consists of kokowai (red oxide of iron), of which the 
present aborigines of New Zealand make still extensive use, and of some fatty sub- 
stance, such as fish oil, or perhaps some oily bird fat. It has been well fixed upon 
the somewhat porous rock and no amount of rubbing will get it off. 
Some of the principal objects evidently belong to the animal kingdom, and represent 
animals which either do not occur in New Zealand or are only of a mythical or fabu- 
lous character. The paintings occur over a face of about 65 feet, and the upper end 
of some reaches 8 feet above the floor, the average height, however, being 4 to 5 
feet. They are all of considerable size, most of them measuring several feet, and one 
of them even having a length of 15 feet. 
Beginning at the eastern end in the left-hand corner is the representation a of 
what might be taken for a sperm whale with its mouth wide open diving downward. 
This figure is 3 feet long. Five feet from it is another figure c, which might also 
represent a whale or some fabulous two-headed marine monster. This painting is 
3 feet 4 inches long. Below it, a little to the right in d, we have the representation 
of a large snake possessing a swollen head and a long protruding tongue. This fig- 
ure is nearly 3 feet long, and shows numerous windings. 
It is difficult to conceive how the natives in a country without snakes could not 
only have traditions about them but actually be able to picture them, unless they 
had received amongst them immigrants from tropical countries who had landed on 
the coasts of New Zealand. 
