CoLENSO. — On the Colour Sense of the Maoris. 57 



must never lose sight of this great, this astonishing fact, namely, that the 

 ancient Maoris knew not of the use of iron nor of any metal, neither had 

 they any vessel which would stand fire ! 



Nevertheless they knew that by a second or even a third process, as well 

 as by the application of heat in dyeing, they should increase the depth of 

 the colom* sought. To me it was really a wonderful sight to see a woman 

 patiently engaged in her work of this kind ; (take an instance) — with nothing 

 better at very best than a large paua shell (Haliotis iris), with its natural 

 holes artificially stopped up, as a vessel to hold her dye-liquid (red-brown) 

 and the article to be dyed, but only a very small quantity at a time of yarns 

 of flax [Phormium) scraped and beaten and carefully prepared, — this shell 

 with its contents was warily placed on hot embers to raise it to boiling heat, 

 and to keep it so, and there long and carefully watched and tended, and the 

 few yarns in it taken out and repeatedly tried, until the proper shade of 

 colour sought was obtained ! which done, the operation had to be frequently 

 carried out until a sufficient quantity of threads were died. Such always 

 served to remind me of what we are told by PHny* and others, respecting 

 the tedious process followed by the women of Tyre in obtaining the famed 

 Tyrian purple dye from the murex shell-fish, — " a tiny drop from each living 

 fish ! " 



(5.) 

 Of their light colours. 



These were various, and were both natural and artificial. 



The natural ones were several ; namely, of pure white, — the snow, the 

 clouds, and the surf ; the large white-leaved pukaiyuka shrub [Brachyglottis 

 repanda), and the peculiar white-fronded fern-tree [Oyathea dealbata) ; and, 

 strange to say, such out-of-the-way recondite objects as the white milky 

 sap of the plant Euphorbia glauca, and the white meat (flesh) of the tail of 

 the crayfish when cooked, and, also, the whiteness of living human teeth 

 (all these I have heard used by way of naming, or of comparison) ; the plumes 

 of the white heron, and of the gannet ; the small downy feathers of the 

 albatros, and of several gulls and terns ; also, of another shade of white, 

 the very thin and delicate epidermis of the long leaves of the tikumu plant 

 [Celmisia mackaui), and the prized long hair of the tails, and also the skins, 

 of their little white dogs. Of yellows, the long flowering reeds, or culms 

 (kakaho), of the toetoe plant (Arundo conspicua) ; and the harsh leaves of 

 the gamboge-coloured ^:>i«^ao (^Demosehoenus spiralis). 



The artificial ones were also many, and were obtained in various ways, 

 mostly by washing and beetling, and by bleaching ; namely, their dressed 

 flax fibre and yarns for weaving their mats, and for twisting into cords, 



* Pliny, Nat, Hist., Hi. ix., c, 60-63. 



