1 8 Transactions. — Miscellaneous, 



only by chiefs), so as to be regular and look beautiful,* that they might all 

 go together and paddle the new canoe out on the sea. Uenuku himself 

 performed this work of preparing and dressing and tying-up their hair.f 

 Those young men were 70 in number, all told, and Uenuku finished with 

 Kahutiaterangi. All the 70 were fine able young men ; there was not a 

 boy among them. When all were done, Kuatapu called out to his father, — 

 "0, honoured sir, see ! tie up and dress my hair also." Uenuku replied 

 to Euatapu, — "Wherever shall a dress-comb be found for thy hair?" 

 Euatapu rejoined, — "Why not use one of those combs there by thee?" 

 Then Uenuku said, — " Why dost thou not ornament thy hair with one of 

 the combs of thy elder brothers ?" On hearing that, Euatapu cried out, — 

 " noble sir, noble sir, I was supposing that I was indeed thine own 

 (son) ! but now I perceive that I am not thine ! " Then his father said to 

 him, — " 0, sir, I thou art indeed verily my own (son); but a son of little 

 consequence, an offspring of inferior birth : " (meaning, that his mother was 

 of no rank, being only a slave saved alive in war).§ At this saying of 



* Plenty of patterns of their hair so adorned are given in the plates of Cook's 

 " Voyages," and in Parkinson's "Journal," — passim. (See Proverb, No. 130, " Trans. N. Z. 

 Inst.," Vol. XII., p. 133). When their heads were thus dressed they did not lay them 

 down on pillows of any kind for several nights, lest they should disarrange them, but 

 managed accordingly. This curious practice was also largely followed by other 

 Polynesians. So in Africa, and, also, very anciently in Europe. (See Keller's " Lake 

 Dwellings of Switzerland," pp. 175, 501, 565). 



t This ceremony was always performed by a chief of rank, or by a priest (tohunga) ; 

 Uenuku was both; the head being pre-eminently sacred (tapu), and never to be touched 

 save by a tapu person. 



I I have sought to keep up in a translation the great difference in the modes of address 

 here used between the father and the son; (see, also, p. 14, and the note there). 



§ In this dialogue tlu'ee things are to be noticed : 1. Uenuku's quiet way of giving a 

 gentle hint to his son, which tends to show that hitherto, throughout childhood and 

 youth, no such great distinction had yet been made. 2. Euatapu ought to have understood 

 his father's meaning (see a similar mode of speaking, "Trans. N.Z. Inst.," Vol. XIII., 

 p. 42, and note there) ;*he knew, as well as his father, that he could not possibly use one 

 of his elder brothers' combs, as all were tapu, and each one strictly confined to its owner's 

 own private use. 3. Uenuku's last words were very bitter and galling to the young man, 

 and, no doubt, were spoken openly before all ; and as they were spoken in highly 

 figurative language I give them here in the original, with a strictly literal translation 

 and full explanation: — "Ehika, naku tonu koe ; he tama meamea koe nahaku ; he 

 moenga rau-kawakawa, he moenga hau ! " lit. "0, sir, thou art indeed my own (son) ; 

 thou art a son of inferior rank begotten by me ; a begetting — or sleeping, or cohabiting, — 

 (among) the leaves and branches of the strong-smelling kawakawa shrub, — a begetting, 

 etc. — out of doors in the high wind." The strong smell of the kawakawa (Piper excelsum) 

 was particularly unpleasant to the New Zealanders ; the whole also meaning, that 

 Uenuku's taking Euatapu's mother to wife was done without any festivities, — without any 

 gifts of fine- woven mats for bedding, — and without a bride's house and other formalities, 

 (See "Trans. N.Z. Inst.," Vol. XIII., p. 45, bottom). 



