352 Bssays. 



Their dogskins they always separated into narrow shreds, which they firmly 

 sewed together, so as to variegate the colours according to the fancy of the 

 maker and owner ; or sewed in stripes upon a stout woven lining of flax — 

 not unlike sackcloth. The flax plant also furnished them with excellent 

 material for their many and various threads, twines, cords, lines, and ropes. 

 These they commonly made of 2, 3, or 4 twist, which operation was always 

 performed mth the hand on the naked thigh ! They also made their several 

 kinds of drag and hand nets, of various sized mesh, of its undressed leaves ; 

 of which, and of the leaves of the ti or cabbage-tree {Gordijlme australis), 

 they plaited flat, round, and square ropes, for their canoes, nets, &c. Their 

 canoe sails were curiously constructed of bulrush leaves (Typha) laid flat 

 edge to edge, and laced across with flax. 



(2.) Their implements of agriculture were made of hardwood, and were 

 few in number. The principal one was a ko, a rude kind of narrow and pointed 

 spade with a very long handle, to which, at about eighteen inches or more 

 from the point, they fitted a small crooked bit of carved wood, as a rest for 

 the foot. Much smaller implements of a similar shape were used for digging 

 around the plants and for breaking the clods; these last they used in a 

 sitting or squatting posture. Their canoe paddles and fish spears were also 

 made of hardwood, manulca (Leptospermum scoparium) ; but their bird spears 

 being very long, some upwards of thirty feet, were made of the light wood 

 tawa (Nesodaphne taiod). Their war implements of wood were made both of 

 manuha Skudi rimii, ; the curious halbert-shaped iva}iaiJca,\he\)ico2idLmeremere 

 (or hand club), for close quarters, and their short spears, were made of the 

 former, and the long spears of the latter, wood. They also made darts with 

 heads of light combustible materials ; these they used in attacking a pa or 

 village. Their saw-knives, used for cutting up the flesh of whales, &c., were 

 also made of hardwood; some were edged with sharks' teeth. Their fish-hooks 

 had the shaft made of the fossil bone of the moa (Dinornis), and the barb of 

 human bone, with a small tuft of metallic blue feathers of the little penguin 

 attached ; some were also made of the tough crooked roots of shrubs, 

 hardened by fire ; to some of which a glittering piece of mother-of-pearl shell 

 was attached as a lure. Their sinkers, for deep-sea fishing, were made of 

 stone, which they cut and notched to suit ; sometimes using a large fossil 

 bivalve, and sometimes a piece of rock which had been perforated by a Pholas. 



(3.) Their stone axes of various sizes, used for felling trees, shaping 

 canoes, and many other purposes, were made of three or more different 

 kinds of stone ; — the green jade, or axe stone ; a close-grained dark basalt ; 

 and a hard grey stone. A piece of broken shell was commonly used for 

 cutting, scraping, caiwing, &c. ; but for cutting their own bodies (in lament- 

 ing for the dead, &c.), as well as for cutting their hair, and sometimes for 



