264 iSssays. 



were often used for the same purpose. The creepers, aka {Metrosideros 

 scandens), and kareao or pirita (BM^yogommi pm-vijlorum) , were extensively 

 used for tying up fences, platforms, and the heavy frame-work of houses. 

 Sometimes other creepers (Passijiora tetrandra and Parsonsia sp.) were 

 used, but not commonly ; and among the northern tribes the creeping fern 

 mangemange {Lygodium articulatum) was generally used to bind the out- 

 ward thatch securely on the roof of their houses. The raupo or large 

 bulrush {Typlia angustifolia) was universally used to cover the frame-work 

 of their houses; the outer thatch being toetoe (Cyperus ustulatus), or 

 rautahi (Carex ternaria), or ririwaka (Scirjjus maritimus), or of two kinds of 

 wiwi, or rushes (Jimcus maritimus and effusus) ; sometimes, however, a 

 hard-jointed rush {Leptocaopus simplex) was advantageously used ; being 

 by far the best of all the rushes or sedges for thatching, on account of its 

 durability. The leaves of the ti or cabbage-tree {Gordyline australis), were 

 also used for this purpose ; but for the inner works of roofs, sides, partitions, 

 &c., the large fronds of the nikau or 'Eew Zealand palm (Areca sapidd), and 

 the handsome reed kakaho {Arundo conspicud), were extensively used. The 

 interior of the verandahs and sides of their chiefs' houses was often neatly 

 ornamented with chequered work of various regular patterns and designs, 

 caused by interlacing narrow strips of the leaves of the bright orange-coloured 

 pingao {Desmoschoenus spiralis), v/ith the greyish-green kiekie {Freycinetia 

 lanlcsii), and the olive-coloured harakeke {Phormium tenax), which, worked 

 regularly, had a very pleasing effect. Sometimes, especially in the interior, 

 the outside of their better houses was formed of hard fibrous slabs cut from 

 the stout red-brown fern-tree, wekiponga {BicJcsonia australis) ; and in other 

 parts of the island, smaller pieces cut from the trunk of the black fern-tree, 

 korau or ma.maku {Cyatliea medullaris) , were closely placed like a plinth 

 around the lower part of the house, especially if it was a sweet potato store, 

 to keep out the rats. Their large and small fish-traps or creels were very 

 strongly and skilfully made of the flexible ' stems of two species of Mulilen- 

 hechia (adpressa and epJiedroides) , and also of the long fibrous roots of the 

 New Zealand flax (PJwrmium) ; the stems of the twining-fern {Lygodium 

 articulatimi) v-^ere also extensively used for this purpose by the northern tribes. 

 Their fishing nets, of all sizes of mesh (some of which nets were very long, 

 and most skilfully made, the admiration of Cook and of all early voyagers), 

 were made of the split but unscraped leaves of the New Zealand flax {Plior- 

 miiMii) ; for floats, the light wood of the small tree whau, or hauama {JEntelea 

 a7-horescens), was used, and sometimes the leaves of the raujDO, or large bul- 

 rush, rolled up ; and for net-ropes, the tough stringy bark of the houhere, 

 and also of the whauwhi or houi (Soheria populnea, and its varieties), was 

 plaited together; leaves of Plwrmium were also used for this purpose. 



