Pounamu: Notes on New Zealand Greenstone

by Horatio Gordon Robley

POUNAMU.

NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND GREENSTONE.

POUNAMU

NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND GREENSTONE

BY

Major-General H. G. ROBLEY

Author of MOKO or Maori Tattooing,

AND OF

History of the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 1794–1887.

 

LONDON

T. J. S. GUILFORD & CO.. LTD.

Ceres Road, Kingston

1915

To

Mrs. DOUGLAS McLEAN

this little book on

Maori Greenstone

is respectfully dedicated by

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

			PAGE
Introduction			vii
Chapter	I.	—CONCERNING POUNAMU	9
Chapter	II.	—WORKING POUNAMU	19
Chapter	III.	—GREENSTONE IMPLEMENTS	23
Chapter	IV.	—CONCERNING WAR-CLUBS	31
Chapter	V.	—GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS	39
Chapter	VI.	—HEI-TIKI	51
Glossary of Maori Words			79
Index			80

INTRODUCTION.

THIS little book is an endeavour to set down the results of careful investigations extending over many years on the subject of pounamu or New Zealand greenstone, and the special uses to which it was applied by the Maori. For savage art, rude though it be, and doomed to extinction as civilization advances, has an individuality of its own which makes it of importance to the ethnologist and of interest to the student; and it is the duty, no less than the pleasure, of those who have studied it to place on record what they have been able to learn of its achievements.

Ever since the Pakeha, the first European visitors to New Zealand, regained their ship there has been much carrying away of examples of old Maori craftsmanship, and those in greenstone have always had a special attraction for collectors. So many specimens of worked pounamu, indeed, have been brought to the British Isles since Captain Cook's return to England in 1771, that the silver streak might almost be called te wai pounamu. The old worked greenstone now sees no more wars, but it is still the object of the rivalry of collectors, who value it, as its former possessors had done, for its beauty and rarity, and for the strange and interesting forms into which it has been wrought. A glossary of Maori words and phrases used in this book is given on page 79. It will, perhaps, be of use to those readers who are not acquainted with the native tongue.

In the hope that these notes on pounamu, and the drawings which have been made by the Author to illustrate them, may prove of interest to the general reader and of use to the student, they are offered, as the Maori says, Mo a muri mo a nehe—for the days that follow after.

Reader, I salute you.

THE AUTHOR.