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GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS.
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on both sides, into a conventional representation of two bird-headed snakes, the mythological manaia[1], placed back to back.
Figure 15
Figure 15 is an illustration of a carved piece of greenstone now preserved in the University Museum at Cambridge, which will be seen to have a great likeness to the pekapeka shewn in Figure 14. It is, however, obviously a representation of a single manaia.
Figure 16
The remarkable pendant illustrated in Figure 16 is worked on both sides in the form of a bird-headed monster, the leg having
- ↑ The esoteric meaning of this symbol is lost, and will probably never be discovered. It is suggested, however, that it may perhaps have some connection with the ancient religion of India. It is at least a coincidence that the Maori symbolical group of two manaias pecking at a god is paralleled by Vishu pecked by his sacred bird Garnda. Ari was one name of Vishnu, and the ariori mummery of Tahiti bears a strong resemblance to a degraded form of Vishnu worship. It is remarkable, too, that the eleventh day of the moon was in India sacred to Ari, while the Maori name for the eleventh night of the moon is ari.
