1921.] 
Best.—Peculiar Dagger-like Weapon. 
5 
NOTE ON A PECULIAR DAGGER-LIKE WEAPON 
USED BY THE MAORI IN FORMER TIMES. 
By Elsdon Best, Dominion Museum. 
During a recent visit to the Waikato district a valued native correspondent, 
Karaka Tarawhiti, of Huntly, presented the writer with a model or replica 
of a curious form of short stabbing-weapon used by the tribes of that 
district in former times. It is a short wooden dagger 
made of hardwood, with a sharply pointed blade, and the 
small hand-grip so frequently noted in native weapons. 
Its total length is but 8 in., of which 4J in. form the 
blade, above which is a grooved boss that would tend 
to prevent the hand of the wielder slipping when de¬ 
livering a blow. The hand-grip is grooved in a similar 
manner, thus giving a firmer grasp, and an additional 
shock-absorber would be the curved thumb over the 
butt end, as a bowie-knife is gripped. The wood is 
apparently maire. 
These weapons are termed tete by Waikato natives, 
but seem to have been known as oka farther north. 
Angas mentions them in his work on New Zealand, as 
also does Polack. The Bay of Islands natives have 
preserved a story of a warrior of former generations 
who was famed for the number of persons he had slain 
with an oka. It does not, however, seem to have been 
a weapon commonly used or carried in any district, and 
the writer has not heard of its use south of Taupo. In 
some districts the name tete is applied to a form of spear 
—perhaps only to such as have a detachable point. 
On page 251 of volume 13 of the Journal of the Poly¬ 
nesian Society is an account, written by Colonel Gudgeon, 
of an old-time chief named Nga Toko warn, who carried 
a bone dagger. When captured by enemies, in a last 
desperate struggle, he drew the dagger from his girdle 
and slew Te Putu, chief of his captors. At once he 
smeared the blood of the stricken man over his own head 
and body, thus saving them from the degradation of 
the oven. Tarawhiti tells me that, as Nga Tokowaru 
dealt the stroke with his tete , he cried out, “ Tena te huka A tete, or wooden 
a Nga Tokowaru! Tena e rangona! Tena e rangona! ” dagger, Waikato 
(Behold the last man slain by Nga Tokowaru ! It will district, 
be heard of down the changing years.) And it assuredly Odalf natural size.) 
has been. 
The wooden dagger was fashioned by Hone Pera Tiawhere, who is 
acquainted with the various implements used by his people in pre- 
European days. 
