352 Essays. 
Their dogskins they always separated into narrow shreds, which they firmly 
sewed together, so as to variegate the colours according to the fancy of the 
maker and owner ; or sewed in stripes upon a stout woven lining of flax— 
not unlike sackcloth. The flax plant also furnished them with excellent 
material for their many and various threads, twines, cords, lines, and ropes. 
These they commonly made of 2, 3, or 4 twist, which operation was always 
performed with the hand on the naked thigh! They also made their several 
kinds of drag and hand nets, of various sized mesh, of its undressed leaves; 
of which, and of the leaves of the /; or cabbage-tree (Cordyline australis), 
they plaited flat, round, and square ropes, for their canoes, nets, &c. Their 
canoe sails were curiously constructed of bulrush leaves (Zypha) laid flat 
edge to edge, and laced across with flax. 
(2.) Their implements of agriculture were made of hardwood, and were 
few in number. The principal one was a ko, a rude kind of narrow and pointed 
spade with a very long handle, to which, at about eighteen inches or more 
from the point, they fitted a small crooked bit of carved wood, as a rest for 
the foot. Much smaller impl ts of a similar shape were used for digging 
around the plants and dors breaking the clods; these last they used in a 
sitting or squatting posture. "Their canoe paddles and fish spears were also 
made of hardwood, manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) ; but their bird spears 
being very long, some upwards of thirty feet, were made of the light wood 
tawa (Nesodaphne tawa). Their war implements of wood were made both of 
manuka and rimu; the curious halbert-shaped wahaika, the broad meremere 
(or hand club), for close quarters, and their short spears, were made of the 
former, and the long spears of the latter, wood. They also made darts with 
heads of light combustible materials; these they used in attacking a pa or 
village. Their saw-knives, used for cutting up the flesh of whales, &c., were 
also made of hardwood; some were edged with sharks’ teeth. Their fish-hooks 
had the shaft made of the fossil bone of the moa (Dinornis), and the barb of 
human bone, with a small tuft of metallic blue feathers of the little penguin 
attached; some were also made of the tough crooked roots of shrubs, 
hardened by fire; to some of which a glittering piece of mother-of-pearl shell 
was attached as a lure. Their sinkers, for deep-sea fishing, were made of 
stone, which they cut and notched to suit; sometimes using a large fossil 
bivalve, and sometimes a piece of rock which head been perforated by a Pholas. 
(3.) Their stone axes of various sizes, used for felling trees, shaping 
canoes, and many other purposes, were made of three or more different 
kinds of stone ;—the green jade, or axe stone; a close-grained dark basalt ; 
and a hard grey stone. A piece of broken shell was commonly used for 
cutting, scraping, carving, &c.; but for cutting their own bodies (in lament- 
x Jng for ihe dead, &c.), as al as for iie their hair, and sometimes for 
