a ee er ae eee ee ee a ee Tr ae Oy ee es a ee eS eee Ee 
Cotenso.—On the Colour Sense of the Maoris. 57 
must never lose sight of this great, this astonishing fact, namely, that the 
ancient Maoris knew not of the use of iron nor of any metal, neither had 
they any vessel which would stand fire ! 
Nevertheless they knew that by a second or even a third process, as well 
as by the application of heat in dyeing, they should increase the depth of 
the colour sought. To me it was really a wonderful sight to see a woman 
patiently engaged in her work of this kind; (take an instance)—with nothing 
better at very best than a large paua shell (Haliotis iris), with its natural 
holes artificially stopped up, as a vessel to hold her dye-liquid (red-brown) 
and the article to be dyed, but only a very small quantity at a time of yarns 
of flax (Phormium) scraped and beaten and carefully prepared,—this shell 
with its contents was warily placed on hot embers to raise it to boiling heat, 
and to keep it so, and there long and carefully watched and tended, and the 
few yarns in it taken out and repeatedly tried, until the proper shade of 
colour sought was obtained! which done, the operation had to be frequently 
carried out until a sufficient quantity of threads were died. Such always 
served to remind me of what we are told by Pliny* and others, respecting 
the tedious process followed by the women of Tyre in obtaining the famed 
Tyrian purple dye from the murew shell-fish,—* a tiny drop from each living 
fish !” : 
(5.) 
Of their light colours. 
These were various, and were both natural and artificial. 
The natural ones were several; namely, of pure white,—the snow, the 
clouds, and the surf ;. the large white-leaved- pukapuka shrub (Brachyglottis 
repanda), and the peculiar white-fronded fern-tree (Cyathea dealbata) ; and, 
strange to say, such out-of-the-way recondite objects as the white milky 
sap of the plant Huphorbia glauca, and the white meat (flesh) of the tail of 
the crayfish when cooked, and, also, the whiteness of living human teeth 
(all these I have heard used by way of naming, or of comparison); the plumes 
of the white heron, and of the gannet; the small downy feathers of the 
albatros, and of several gulls and terns; also, of another shade of white, 
the very thin and delicate epidermis of the long leaves of the tikunu plant 
(Celmisia mackaui), and the prized long hair of the tails, and also the skins. 
of their little white dogs. Of yellows, the long flowering reeds, or culms 
(kakaho), of the toetoe plant (Arundo conspicua); and the harsh leaves of 
the gamboge-coloured pingao (Demoscheenus spiralis). 
The artificial ones were also many, and were obtained in various ways, 
mostly by washing and beetling, and by bleaching ; namely, their dressed 
flax fibre and yarns for weaving their mats, and for twisting into cords, — 
| * Pliny, Nat. Hist., lid. ix., ¢, 60-68, : ae 
