Te Кахст Hrgoa.— Maori Plaited Basketry and Plaitwork. 729 
appropriate songs with action-dances, and placed before the visitors, one 
kono sufficing for a couple of guests. The empty kono were gathered and 
thrown away, fresh ones being so easily and quickly made. European 
plates and dishes have almost completely ousted them, and they are now 
rarely seen. 
A better class of kono is made with narrower wefts. The turning of 
the corners, the plaiting, and the upper border are the same as above. At 
the finish, however, the ends of the wefts are plaited in three-ply along the 
free edge from below upwards, and the ends continued into a tail which is 
passed through a weft-interval near the upper border and simply knotted 
on the inside of the kono, or tied. 
The kono has a variety of names, such as paro, konae, rourou, &c. Under 
the name of rourou it figures in proverbs as the smallest measure of food. 
rourou tti Haere (the little food-basket of the Traveller) is a common 
expression, and is found in the prover 
He aha koe i haere mai ai i te rourou iti a Haere ? 
Te noho atu ai koe i te tokanga nui a Noho ? 
Why did you come with the little basket of the Traveller ? 
Why did you not remain with the large basket of Stay-at-home ? 
This was said by Parewhete in greeting her deserted husband, Wairangi, 
who had followed her into the midst of numerous enemies with only a small 
war-party. His life would have been safe had he remained at home in the 
midst of his powerful tribe, who were the full basket. Instead he had 
followed with a small handful of men, who were likened to the meagre 
contents of a rourou. Pakaru-a-te-Rangi, of the Ngati-Kahungunu Tribe, 
in urging unity and combined effort in peace or war, said :— 
Nau ko te rourou, naku ko te rourou, ka ora te manuhini ; 
Nau ko te rakau, naku ko te rakau, ka whati te hoariri. 
Yours is the small basket of food, mine is the small basket of food, 
and our guests will be fed ; : 
Yours is the ste mine is the weapon, and our enemy will be routed. 
and size to the narrow-we 
ra 
of bleached white wefts was used. The butt-tufts of the wefts necessitated 
a different beginning from the kono, and the whole construction differed 
accordingly. ioe M : 
The beginning, like that of the taka mat, consists in plaiting a single 
row of wefts, by means of their butt-tufts, into a three-ply braid of 13 in. 
to 14 in. in length. 
: he. Бойу d usually plaited in a twilled two. The wefts, along the 
whole length of the braid beginning, are speedily separated into an upper 
The plaiting is continued for the depth of the basket, 4 in., 
i The first left-hand corner is made at 
by turning back the sinistral weft (CS) whieh erosses the left marginal 
