Phillips. — On the Use of Projectile Weapons by the Maoris. 51 



explicit sentences, coming from so great an authority, sufficiently excuse 

 me for having thought and written in a similar strain. 



Moreover, I do not think Mr. Colenso justified in treating so severely 

 my modest enquiry. It appears to me that in opening this very question 

 of the use of the bow and arrow by the Maori, I am likely to be of more 

 service in settling the vexed question of the original habitat than the pages 

 of speculative theory before now given to us. One ounce of fact is worth 

 more than a pound of theory. Following out such particular questions as 

 the use of the bow or other warhke implement, the construction of language, 

 the mode of sepulture, or other habits and customs of any savage race, are 

 the ounces of fact, and Mr. Colenso himself admits the incompleteness of his 

 own essay, to which I referred in my first paper, upon the particular ounce, 

 the use of the bow and arrow. In causing him to explain his rather loose 

 sentence, touching the manner in which the Maoris projected their fiery- 

 headed darts when attacking a pa (a similar custom prevails in Fiji), I 

 think I have been of service. 



I am sorry also to pomt out that Mr. Colenso has much disappointed 

 me by the use of the word " ancient " in the heading of his paper. While 

 resxDecting him as one of the chief authorities in New Zealand upon Maori 

 manners and customs, I still think that he has not been sufficiently par- 

 ticular in his use of terms. What does he mean by the word ancient ? 

 Surely not the New Zealander referred to by Professor Owen, who " upon 

 landing found only huge kinds of birds incapable of flight." The whole 

 Une of his argument tends to observations made by Captain Cook and later 

 authorities. For all any commentator can say or prove, the true ancient 

 New Zealander might have brought the bow and arrow with him, but finding- 

 it of little service, and having little inclination to use it in play, soon aban- 

 doned its use and manufacture. (This is not the only thing the modern 

 Maori has forgotten. He appears also to have forgotten the existence of 

 the Moa, and thought its bones those belonging to a great eagle, while we 

 are pretty well assured that the ancient Maori feasted upon it.) Yet this 

 reasonable supposition could never be entertained, for its mere consideration 

 would cut the ground from beneath the feet of the speculators. They would 

 have to admit the likelihood of the truth of the traditions of the various 

 migrations and disembarkations from the different canoes, together with 

 the similarity of language to that of Tahiti, and other habits and customs 

 similar to those of the South Sea Island people, and that the Maori actually 

 did come to New Zealand from some one of these islands. The fashion has 

 become not to admit this sensible deduction, but to surromid the origin of 

 the Maori in mystery, if not almost to exalt him into the position of a 

 separate and distinct race. Unfortunately for such reasoners, their argu- 



