18 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
only by chiefs), so as to be regular and look beautiful,* that they might all 
go together and paddle the new canoe out on the sea. Uenuku himself 
performed this work of preparing and dressing and tying-up their hair.+ 
Those young men were 70 in number, all told, and Uenuku finished with 
Kahutiaterangi. All the 70 were fine able young men; there was not a 
boy among them. When all were done, Ruatapu called out to his father,— 
‘‘O, honoured sir, see! tie up and dress my hair also.” Uenuku replied 
to Ruatapu,—‘ Wherever shall a dress-comb be found for thy hair?” 
Ruatapu rejoined,—* Why not use one of those combs there by thee?” 
Then Uenuku said,— Why dost thou not ornament thy hair with one of 
the combs of thy elder brothers ?” - On hearing that, Ruatapu cried out,— 
**Q noble sir, O noble sir, I was supposing that I was indeed thine own 
(son) ! but now I perceive that I am not thine!” Then his father said to 
him,—* 0, sir,} thou art indeed verily my own (son); but a son of little 
consequence, an offspring of inferior birth: ’’ (meaning, that his mother was 
of no rank, being only a slave saved alive in war).§ At this saying of 
* Plenty of patterns of their hair so adorned are given in the plates of Cook’s 
‘* Voyages,” arid in Parkinson’s “J ournal,”—passim. (See Proverb, No. 130, “Trans. N. Z. 
Inst.,” Vol. XIL, p. 133). When their heads were thus dressed they did not lay them 
down on pillows of any kind for several nights, lest they should disarrange them, but 
managed accordingly. This curious practice was also largely followed by other 
Polynesians. So in Africa, and, also, very anciently in Europe. (See Keller’s ‘Lake 
Dwellings of Switzerland,” pp. 175, 501, 565). 
This ceremony was always performed by a chief of rank, or by a priest (tohunga) ; 
Uenuku was both; the head being pre-eminently sacred (tapu), and never to be touched 
save by a tapwu person. 
have sought to keep up in a translation the great diff in tl des of address 
here used between the father and the son; (see, also, p. 14, and the note there). 
§ In this dialogue three things are to be noticed: 1. Uenuku’s quiet way of giving a 
gentle hint to his son, which tends to show that hitherto, throughout childhood and 
youth, no such great distinction had yet been made. 2. Ruatapu ought to have understood 
his father’s meaning (see a similar mode of speaking, “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. XIIL, 
p. 42, and note there) ; he knew, as well as his father, that he could not possibly use one 
of his elder brothers’ combs, as all were tapu, and each one strictly confined to its owner’s 
own private use. 3. Uenuku’s last words were very bitter and galling to the young man, 
and, no doubt, were spoken openly before all; and as they were spoken in highly 
figurative language I give them here in the original, with a strictly literal translation 
and full explanation :—‘*Ehika, naku tonu koe; he tama meamea koe nahaku; he 
moenga rau-kawakawa, he moenga hau!” lit. “O, sir, thou art indeed my own (son) ; 
thou art a son of inferior rank begotten by me; a begetting—or sleeping, or cohabiting,— 
(among) the leaves and branches of the strong-smelling kawakawa shrub,—a begetting, 
ete.—out of doors in the high wind.” The strong smell of the kawakawa (Piper excelsum) 
was particularly unpleasant to the New Zealanders; the whole also meaning, that 
Uenuku’s taking Ruatapu’s mother to wife was done without any festivities,—without any 
gifts of fine-woven mats for bedding,—and without a bride’s house and other formalities, 
(See “ Trans. N.Z, Inst.,” Vol. XIII., p. 45, bottom), 
