Note on a Carved Canoe Head from New ZealandAuthor(s): C. H. ReadSource: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 29,No. 3/4 (1899), p. 305Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843015 .

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Anthropological Reviews and Miscellanea. 305

which they were intended to be thrown, the cord was then looped round the dart as shown in Fig. 5, copied from the illustration in Mr. Hamilton's work.

I do not know of a specimen of the kopere in this country, nor did I see one when in New Zealand., JAMES EDGE-PARTINGTON.

NOTE ON A CARVED CANOE HEAD FROM NEW ZEALAND. (With Plate XXXV, 1.)

Mr. Hamilton in his work on Maori Art, p. 12, in describing this particular type of canoe head, speaks of it as being very scarce, and that it appears to have been almost confined to the North, more especially to Auckland and the district of the Waikato River. When complete, he says, it consisted of four parts, instead of a single piece carved from the solid as in the case of the commoner type (Hamilton, Maori Art, Part I, Plates I, IV).

Our illustration shows the central portion, the three remaining parts consisting of (i) a flat base, grooved along its centre and across its broadest part to receive the two upright portions. (ii) A cross piece on which is carved the little human figure, (Huaki) which looked into the interior of the canoe, and (iii) a realistic human head, sometimes movable, and without the usual protruding tongue, affixed to the front of the base. (Hamilton, Part I, Plate X.)

Mr. Hamilton speaks of this central portion, both in the case of the composite form, and of the type carved from the solid as being alike, called by the natives " Manaia." He does lnot give a reason for the name, but it is, I think, taken from the ornamentation on the composite form, which is clearly derived from a snake (manaia). This form was, I believe, only used on the ancient canoes, each of which was known by a particular name.

The ordinary war canoe is the product of a later date. When the Maories took to carving the figure-heads from the solid, they still gave the name of manaia to the central ridge, though the original style of carving was now complete]y altered. In this sense the name would appear to be a survival.

In speaking of the ornamentation, Mr. Hamilton says that the whole of the art work of the Maories comes under the head of ornament; there are no representations in the solid of plant or animal forms, other than human, with a few exceptions, of which the manaia, a lizard or snake, is a remarkable example; of this there are several varieties, that having a snake's body with an eagle's (?) head being one of the most interesting, and carrying us back to some of the older mythologies. Specimens of these figures, which are so clearly represented in the subject of this lnote, are of considerable rarity. Mr. Hamilton figures two on Plate V, and another in the complete form on Plate X, and in the third series of the Ethnographical Album (Plate CLX) I have figured one in the Auckland Museum. In this Museum is preserved one of the ancient war canoes, nearly 80 feet long, the figure-head of which is in the possession of H.R.H. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and was exhibited for some time at the South Kensington Museum. Fortunately they have been able to replace it with one almost as good. The specimen here figured is at present in my possession.

C. H. READ.

NOTE ON A STONE BATTLE-AXE FROM NEW ZEALAND. (With Plate XXXV, 2.)

The subject of this note was, I think, a weapon and not an implement, and ranked with the meri pounamnu as a chief possession. It was known as a tohi-pie-tangata, or warrior's stone battle-axe. (Polack, Narratives of Travels in New Zealand, 1838, I1, p. 25.) Aiyai in her New Zealanders figures one in the bands of a warrior going to battle. (Plate LVIII.) In many cases the butt of the handle was pierced for a wrist-

NEW SERIES, VOL. II, Nos. 3 AND 4. x

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Journal of the Anthropological Institute (N.S.), Vol. II, Plate XXXT.

FIGURIE-HEAD OF A WAR CANOE, NEW ZEALAN~,D. British Museum. Scale in inches = ~natural.

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