320 
MOKO, OR TATTOO. 
hanging from the garment or neck ; and whenever the gen- 
tleman could find no other employ ment, he indefatigably 
occupied himself with them. To allow the heard to grow,, 
was regarded as a sign of old age, and proof that the wearer 
had ceased to care for his appearance ; a person with a 
beard was addressed as e weki , which is a salutation equiva- 
lent to, old man, but this is no longer the case ; since the 
tattoo was given up, the beard has been adopted in its 
place, and that of the natives rivals the most luxuriant one 
of the Europeans. 
Before they went to fight, the youth were accustomed to 
mark their countenance with charcoal in different lines, and 
their traditions state, that this was the beginning of the 
tattoo, for their wars became so continuous, that to save the 
trouble of thus constantly painting the face, they made the 
lines permanent by the moko ; it is however a question 
whether it did not arise from a different cause ; formerly 
the grand mass of men who went to fight were the black 
slaves, and when they fought side by side with their lighter 
colored masters, the latter on those occasions used char- 
coal to make it appear they were all one. The substance 
generally used as coloring matter is the resin of the 
kauri or rimu } which, when burnt, is pounded, and con- 
verted into a fine powder ; at Taupo, I went to see the 
place where this pigment was manufactured. A narrow 
pit was sunk at a little distance from a precipice, and from 
the face of the cliff a passage was cut to the bottom of it, 
over the mouth of which pieces of wood containing the 
resin were burnt, and the residuum falling within it, was 
taken away. 
The uhi or instrument used was a small chisel, made of 
the bone of an albatross, very narrow and sharp, which was 
driven by means of a little mallet, he mahoe , quite through 
the skin, and sometimes completely through the cheek as well, 
in which case when the person undergoing the operation took 
his pipe, the smoke found its way out through the cuttings ; 
the pain was excruciating, especially in the more tender 
parts, and caused dreadful swellings, only a small piece 
