Stacx.—On the Maori House, Christchurch Museum. 175 
him in repeating the proper charms and incantations, it was an infallible 
sign that either the house would be destroyed, or the builders die within a 
year. 
The position of the window may have also had something to do with 
the sacredness of this part of the building, as there was a fanciful resem- 
-blance supposed to exist between the shape of the house and the human 
frame—the ridge-pole being the back-bone ; the rafters and side-posts, the 
_ ribs; and the verandah end, the head—the most sacred part of the human 
body. 
_ Passing over the door-step, called the Pae of Hakumanu, we enter the 
verandah formed by a continuation of the roof and the side-walls for nine 
feet. Here we find the best specimens of carving about the building. The 
ridge-pole, which is carved, rests on a support, and at its base a piece of 
wood stretches across from side to side, forming the outer boundary of the 
verandah, and called the Pae o Rarotonga. The boards round the door-way 
and window are elaborately carved, and inlaid with pawa shell, and so are 
the ends of the barge-boards, on the uncarved part of which are painted 
white scrolls on a red ground. Where the barge-boards meet is a carved 
face, surrounded with feathers, and surmounted with a small figure called a 
tekoteko, 
The house stands with the ridge-pole pointing north and south, accord- 
ing to immemorial custom. The prevalent notion being that, if the spirits 
of the dead, in their flight northwards, crossed the ridge-pole of a dwelling 
or store-house, they would cause the ruin and destruction of all within. 
The art of wood-carving is in greater perfection among the Maoris on 
the East Coast of the North Island than elsewhere. This is generally 
attributed to the fact that the stern-posts and figure-heads of the canoes in 
which their ancestors came from Hawaiki were highly carved, and were pre- 
served and used as models by their descendants, who, haying cultivated a 
taste for the art, have never lost it. 
Tamati Taahu stated that the knowledge of carving was hereditary in 
his family, who have preserved the following curious legend to account for 
the way in which their ancestor became possessed of it :—‘‘ In ages gone 
by, there dwelt, by the sea shore, a chief named Ruapupuke, who had an 
only son; this boy went, one day, with several others to bathe. While 
swimming about Tangaroa, the god of the ocean seized him, and drew him 
below the surface, and carried him down to his house under the sea, where 
he placed him on the end of the ridge-pole over the door-way, as a Teko- 
teko. On the other boys returning to their village Ruapupuke missed his 
son, and asked his companions where he was. They told him that he had 
