Te Raner Hrroa.—Maori Plaited Basketry and Plaitwork. 741 
way. In the story of Wairangi, carefully written-down verbatim from a 
tattooed warrior of the old school, mention is made of large eels being 
carried on a pole held horizontally on the shoulders of two men. In more 
modern times a pig was often carried in this manner. To this the term 
amo was applied. Hence we see that the pole and the shoulder are asso- 
ciated together naturally in the mind of the Maori. 
What better evidence can we get in these days to support the fact that 
the balance-pole was known to the Maori at some period of his past? How 
i e abandoned? Dr. Brigham, in explaining the use of the 
notches on the ends of the анато, or Hawaiian balance-poles, gives what 
native islands. We know that the Maori dwelt on fortified hilltops. The 
forts on the flat, protected by stockades, were so comparatively few as to 
be not worth consideration. The steeper the hill, the better for defensive 
purposes. These hills were terraced, so that, in addition to their natural 
steepness, the communication between successive terraces was rendered 
artificially steeper. The cultivations for kwmara, taro, and gourds were 
on the flats below. Fish and shell-fish from the rivers, lakes, and sea, birds, 
carried up the steep hillsides and through narrow, tortuous, and still steeper 
communication-ways between tiers of terraces, em ankments, and pali- 
sades to their homes. The balance-poles, with burdens fore and aft, would 
be the worst possible means of porterage. Where the Hawaiian in his own 
abandoning of the ancient method of carrying burdens. The balance-pole 
could not survive in Maori New Zealand. This in itself is sufficient to 
account for the introduction of a new method. The Maori had sufficient 
mentality to cope with the situation and evolve the kawe without outside 
assistance. : den 
There are, however, so many things peculiar to the Maori as distin- 
guished from the rest of Polynesia that there is a growing opinion amongst 
New Zealand ethnologists that these seeming anomalies are ' from 
that, apart from the difficulties in the way of the balance-pole, the finding 
of a better method was rendered easy by accepting that already in vogue 
; га, or pre-Hawaiki and pre-Toi people. It is 
i i h 
