60 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



kinds or intensities of wliioh they preferred for seed. They knew at sight 

 the difference in the colour of blood recently and some time shed ; and, also, 

 from the hue of the rich purple juice of the fruit of the tutu shrub, (when 

 hospitably set before them in open calabashes in travelling in the summer 

 season), they perceived at a glance whether it was freshly made (when it was 

 highly esteemed), or whether it had stood a day or two ; and they accurately 

 determined the age of severe bruises on the human body from the difference 

 in their colour. From a great distance off they knew what was burning 

 by the colour of its smoke, whether arising from dry or green fuel, whether 

 from swamp, or plain, or forest vegetation ; and they also knew from the 

 colour of soot what it had been obtained from: — this last was formerly a 

 matter of great importance to them in the business of tattooing. 



Of colours of this class artificially produced were the dark-red dyes of 

 various shades obtained from the bark of the tanekaha (and toatoa) tree 

 ( Phyllocladus trichomanoides), used in dyeing yarns for the decorated borders 

 of their best flax garments, and in staining then* superior furniture, walking- 

 sticks, etc., etc. 



(7.) 

 Of their black colours. 



Of all their artificial colours, black was the one which they knew how to 

 make and impart to perfection. This colour they had naturally around 

 them, — in the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms; in the first 

 in coal, and in the black oxide of manganese, and in many species of rocks, 

 as in obsidian and basalt ; in vegetables in the common Fungi of the 

 forest, — as Anteimaria, Cajmodum, etc., which sometimes completely covers 

 the trunk of a large tree, and gave rise to strange tales and fancies ; and 

 in the animal kingdom, in the plumage of some birds, — as of the tuii, the 

 tieke, the huia, the tm-ea, the kaivau, and the back of the pukeko ; in the 

 flesh of the shell-fish paua, and of the rori ; and in the black internal skin 

 (lining mouth and abdomen) of several fishes, — as the mackerel, herring, 

 mullet, etc. 



In their own peculiar artificial dyes of black, of various shades of inten- 

 sity, used for dyeing garments, etc., they have never been surpassed; some 

 of their black dyes being strikingly deep, pure, brilliant, and lasting. All 

 their earlier European visitors were astonished at the intensity of this 

 colour used as a dye among them. For dyeing black their flax threads 

 yarns and garments, dressed and undressed, and also their whole big 

 garments (thick cloaks) made of the fibres of the toii [Cordyline indivisa), 

 they generally used (as is now well-known) the barks of two closely allied 

 trees, kinau and pokaka {FAceocarpus dentatus, and E. hookerianus), with a 

 mordaunt composed of aluminous clay ; they also used the bark of the 



