70 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



being wholly new), they were never wrong as to the colours of the robes, etc., 

 in which blues, greens, yellows, and reds, often predominated ; these they 

 always settled to a nicety of description of their peculiar hues, and mostly 

 by exact comparison, although to do so, occasionally took them some little 

 time. 



It was mainly in this figurative manner, and by way of semblance and 

 likeness, that the Maoris of my early days in New Zealand (following out 

 the long- established habits and customs of their forefathers) could receive 

 and communicate knowledge among themselves ; and happy was that mis- 

 sionary or teacher, who could empty himself, as it were, of his foreign ideas 

 and ways, and thus go with them after their manner in seeking to impart 

 truth : all such always found willing hearers. Ideas must be given through 

 something ; and the old Maoris could only receive teaching in and through 

 modes of thought that were natural to them. For it is not the mere use of 

 terms, but the sense in which they are used and received that must be 

 considered. It is a fallacy, though both a natural and a common one (and 

 one into which Mr. Stack in his paper has fallen) to confuse the image with 

 the thing signified, like mistaking the colour of a substance for its true 

 nature ; but the old Maoris always steered clear of this. 



But, after all, — though they so well and so clearly distinguished the 

 many natural hues of red and of orange, of blue and of green, and of all 

 gaudy colours, — perhaps their really chief forte, their strict national taste, 

 in this line was shown, in the using and displaying to advantage the more 

 striking contrast colours, — the contraries of white and of black. This was 

 everywhere among them singularly exhibited, particularly in thek clothing 

 and in their dress ornaments. In this particular I never heard or read of 

 any uncultured nation that ever approached them. Hence, when first 

 visited, their best dogskin garments, strongly lined with woven cloth of 

 flax, were composed of small white and black squares of dogskin with the 

 hair on, laboriously and firmly sewn together;* much like the regular 

 pattern of one of our chess-boards, only on a larger scale. And so, following 

 out the same severely chaste taste, they often trimmed and adorned their 

 best bleached white flax dress-mats, covering them all over with black 

 hanging strings and tassels set on at regular distances, and with a deep 

 border of thick black fringe, — each separate cord or strand finely twisted 

 by the hand. And just so it was in that other elegant dress-mat of theirs, 

 the korirangi (large variegated shoulder-mantle, or tippet), in which the 

 numerous larger hanging tassels with which the garment was closely 



* And here it should be remembered, that while the flax-mats were manufactured 

 only by women, the dogskin-mats were wholly made-up by men. 



