156 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



have been made upon the colour organs of the Maori. The word matomato, 

 often employed to express the idea of greenness in vegetation, signifies lux- 

 uriance, and whatever colour-impression it conveyed to the mind would be 

 associated with the idea of luxuriant growth. 



Blue was not formerly recognized, as no word exists to represent it. 

 Anything blue was classed with black, and went under the heading of pouri, 

 or pango, or mangu. The blue depths of ocean and sky were jmuri, or dark. 

 At the suggestion of Europeans, the indigo-blue plumage of the pakura 

 {Porphyria melanotus,) is sometimes employed to indicate the colour, which 

 before intercourse with Europeans was unrecognized. 



No words are found in the Maori language to express violet, brown, 

 orange, and pink colours; but there are no less than three words to express 

 pied or speckled objects. Kopurepure = reddish speckle ; Kotingotingo = 

 dark speckle ; tongitongi = spotted. 



The hmited number of colour-expressions that exist in the Maori lan- 

 guage, cannot be attributed to the absence of objects presenting those 

 colours for which the terms are wanting. If nowhere else, at least in the 

 rainbow, they were fi-equently to be seen. But the Maoris appear to have 

 had very vague ideas respecting these colours. While they regarded the 

 rainbow as a divinity, and spoke of its exceeding beauty, they do not seem 

 to have perceived, much less to have separated, its prismatic colours ; to 

 their organ of sight, it presented one characteristic tint, and that was ma, 

 or allied to light. Its effect upon the eye was described as aniwaniwa, or 

 dazzling. Further proof of their imperfect perception of colour is furnished 

 by the fact that the Maoris have never shown any real appreciation of 

 floral charms. It is true that the koichai ngutukaka, which was said to 

 have been imported from Hawaiki, was occasionally cultivated for the sake 

 of its scarlet flowers, but it is equally true that flowers generally were 

 despised, and the greatest astonishment was expressed by Maoris in the 

 early days, when they observed the pains taken by colonists to cultivate 

 any but flowers of the gaudiest hues. 



The ornamental scroll-work, and the elaborate patterns employed in tat- 

 tooing and carvmg, showed that the Maoris were capable of appreciating the 

 beautiful, both in form and in colouring, and we can only account for their 

 indifference to the more delicate tints of flowers which call forth our ad- 

 miration, by supposing that their colour-sense was not so weU educated as 

 our own. 



Although Maori literature is very hmited, we fortunately possess a few 

 standard works, which will always serve for refei'ence, whenever a question 

 may arise as to the meaning of any word in the language. One of the most 

 reliable of these is the translation of the Bible ; the work of Archdeacon 



