hole bored in the upper part of the figure for the purpose of suspension. Tiki worked on the back as well as the front are very rare. One of these is in the Ethnological Collection at the British Museum, where it is exhibited on a raised stand placed above a mirror, to shew the carving on its back.
The face of the figure is consistently of conventional form, with a curious raised band or ridge down the forehead, branching to the eyes and continued as the nose, where it again branches into strongly marked and acutely arched nostrils. The eyes are shewn as little circular shallow pits under heavy overhanging brows. In the more ancient tiki, as was noticed by Captain Cook, the whites of the eyes (Figure 30) were represented by pierced disks of the irridiscent paua shell, which are sometimes marked with serrated edges, apparently to represent eyelashes. When in the middle of the nineteenth century objects of European manufacture began to be introduced by traders it was found that red sealing wax[1] had a peculiar fascination for the Maori, who often used it to fill the eyes of tiki and for the adornment of other greenstone articles.
Figure 30
The curious heart-shaped mouth is always shewn open, with coarse, thick lips, and the prominence given to the tongue is thought to suggest the grimace of Maori defiance. No marks representing tattoo are ever found on the faces of greenstone tiki. The arms are carefully cut out, and the hands are placed in various positions according to the type to which
- ↑ Red was the colour of mourning among the Maori, and stains of red ochre may still be seen on ornaments which have been buried with the dead, or whose wearers had daubed themselves with it.
