224 
Memoranda of ayi Excursion. 
red pigment, with which they formerly anointed their hair 
and bodies, is of a finer quality, and is generally obtained by 
laying a quantity of fern fronds in some running chalybeate 
water, on which a fine ferruginous mud is speedily deposited; 
more fern is then laid, stratum super stratum , until they sup¬ 
pose they have a sufficient quantity, when the whole mass is 
taken out, the ferruginous particles collected, made up into 
balls, and baked for use. This fashion of anointing them¬ 
selves with red, is, however, nearly obsolete; being only fol¬ 
lowed by a few of the old grandees of other days. Nothing 
can possibly present a more disgusting appearance, than a 
half naked haggard old New Zealand lady with dishevelled 
locks, who, hearing of your approach, has hastily poured the 
contents of her rouge-pot over her head and face ! Such dis¬ 
gust is only surpassed, when such a being condescends to 
move out of her little enclosure to embrace and rub noses 
with the white man; an act, requiring no small degree of self- 
possession and gallantry, on the part of the obliged gentle¬ 
man, quietly to receive. This red pigment they here call 
Takou, while among the northward tribes it is known by the 
name of Kokoo6. 
On the rocks near Wareponga, I observed a large species 
of red conical-shelled Patella , which sank the base of its 
shell considerably into the face of the rock on which it had 
fixed its residence; these rocks, as before, were composed of 
indurated clay. Here, too, I obtained some beautiful spe- 
carpenter fashioning a piece of wood into an image, laying it over with 
Vermillion, and with paint colouring it red (ch. xii). And, in Holy 
Writ, Ezekiel, the prophet, reproving idolatry, says —' u Aholibah in¬ 
creased her idolatries; when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, 
images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with Vermillion’’ (ch. xxiii. 15). 
Whether this anciently -used red pigment was, in every case, obtained 
from native cinnabar, I have not the means of ascertaining ; but, from 
the red oxide of iron being a substance very generally distributed 
throughout the world, I think there is plenty of room for supposing that 
such might, with some nations at least, be commonly used. 
