Pounamu: Notes on New Zealand Greenstone/Chapter 5

by Horatio Gordon Robley

Chapter V.

GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS.

THE Maori possessed a remarkable variety of ornaments, of great diversity of form, motif and size; for in spite of the dangers and the difficulties which attended the acquisition of greenstone, there were very few natives of either island who did not possess something made of it. All such ornaments were worn by men and women alike, suspended from a cord which passed through a hole bored through the stone at the top, either at the neck, or hanging from the lobes of the ears, or as long pendants to adorn the cloak.

The most common ornaments were the straight cylindrical ear-pendants called kuru, and straight flat pieces of stone, to which the name whakakai was given. But simple pendants of this kind were of all sorts of shapes, the form depending on the size and shape of the fragment of stone at the artist’s disposal. Ornaments of this simple type were noticed by Captain Cook, who remarks that “in the ears both of men and women, which are pierced or rather slit, are hung small pieces of jasper.” The great variety of their shapes, which is shewn in Figure 13, is no doubt due to the fact that the greenstone was so highly prized that any small fragment of it which could not be utilised in any other way would be treasured and adapted, no matter what its shape might be.

Figure 13

But many of the Maori ornaments were of far more elaborate character. The most important of the ear-ornaments was

Figure 14.

the pekapeka (Figure 14), or bat, so called from its fancied resemblance to that animal. It was worked, with the figures rounded 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 two claws. It is clearly a variant of the same type of ornament; but it presents a daring departure from the usual form, very uncommon in the work of the Maori, who were slaves to traditional conventions.

The single manaia was usually fashioned in the spiral form illustrated from two actual examples in Figure 17.

Figure 17

This malignant spirit, which figures in so many ancient carvings of the Maori, is commonly shewn attacking man and viciously biting his ear or body. A small carved pendant (Figure 18) in the British Museum represents the head of a manaia.

Figure 18

In Figure 19 is shewn the mako, which was a very popular ornament, highly valued as a keepsake. It is a representation of a shark’s tooth with its root, the graceful curves of the original being faithfully copied. When correctly worn it hung from the ear with the point to the front. The natural white tooth
Figure 19of the shark was also much prized as an ornament, but its inferiority to a jewel of kahurangi, jade of the finest quality, is recognised in a native poem which has been translated as follows:—

That is worthless,
That is the bone of a fish;
But if it were the little pounamu,
That ancient source of evil,
The fame whereof reaches
Beyond the limits of the sky—eh!

The poria (Figure 20), otherwise called moria, was a small double ring of round or oval section, made for the leg
Figure 20 of a decoy or the large russet brown parrots (nestor meridionalis) called kaka, which were kept as pets by the Maori. Through the smaller ring shewn at the top of the two examples here figured, was passed the cord by which the bird was secured to its perch.

Figure 21 The kapeu or tautau (Figure 21) was a long eardrop of oval section, straight for the greater part of its length, but having a slight curve at its lower end. The difficulty of cutting this ornament was much increased by its peculiar shape, which is believed to be suggested by that of a face-strigil. An unusually long and very valuable specimen, called by the ancient name of Tikirau, was given to the Hon. Victor Alexander Herbert Huia Onslow, the second son of the fifth Earl of Onslow, on the occasion of his presentation to the Ngatihuia tribe at Otaki, 12th September, 1891, Huia’s father being at that time Governor of New Zealand.

Some years ago a very ancient greenstone ear-drop came into the possession of the Author. This ornament, which is of considerable value on account of its age and beautiful workmanship, was sent to him from New Zealand by an aged chief against whom he had fought in the Maori wars. The touching letter that accompanied the gift, with its pathetic mingling of the musical native language and prosaic matter-of-fact English phrasing, shewed that with the lapse of years the old antagonism had completely passed away, and the gallant and honourable foe of the old days had become a loyal citizen of the Empire. We make no apology for printing this interesting communication in full.

 

 

 

Tauranga, New Zealand,

30 Nov., 1901.

Te Teniere Ropere.

E hoa, tena koe,

Kia ora koe. Ma te atua koe e tiaki. Heoi te mihi. I have received your letter of 12th October, and my heart is exceedingly glad. Of all your old friends mentioned in your letter I alone am left; all are gone. When the Duke of Cornwall came to Rotorua I was presented to him, and as the chief of the Bay of Plenty tribes received a medal in honor of his visit, and, on behalf of the natives generally, would now like to express their extreme pleasure at the royal visit. I am now an old man and am unable to say all I would wish to say to you; but I am sending you by this mail a pounamu whakakai e mau ana ki te taringa o te tangata, and I hope that you will wear it in remembrance of the old days when we fought together side by side.

Heoi ano

Na tau hoa aroha

Na

HORI NGATAI.

Figure 22

The hei^[2] matau (Figure 22) is a neck ornament with the general shape of a fish-hook, but made in a large variety of shapes and sizes.
Figure 23Spells were recited over them, and they seem to have been regarded as charms to ensure success in sea-fishing. It has been suggested that the hook form commemorates the drawing up of the North Island from the depths of Wainui, the mother of waters, by the demi-god Maui, a legend that is current also among the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific. A very curious matau is shewn in Figure 23, which illustrates one in the British Museum. It is evident that it was the first intention of the carver to make a tiki (see Chapter VI.) of
Figure 24 the piece of stone from which it is fashioned; the artist, however, changed his mind before he got to work on the upper part. The oldest matau, of which a typical example, preserved in the University Museum at Cambridge, is shewn in Figure 24, are to be recognized by their rude workmanship and coarse form, as well as by the rough edges, which indicate an early period when the native lapidaries had not attained to the high pitch of excellence in the art of cutting and grinding greenstone which they afterwards reached. Mention may also be made here of two curious
Figure 25pendants of eel-like form (Figure 25), now in the Dominion Museum of New Zealand. Possibly they were charms for eel-fishing. They are made of different qualities of greenstone. That to the right of the illustration, which is bored, is of fine translucent kahurangi.

Figure 26This list only gives the most important of these trinkets, which were so highly prized that, as Mr. Elsdon Best records, during the wars of Ruatoki a man's life was redeemed by the gift to his captor of a greenstone ear-ornament. It would be difficult to describe and to figure the many curious shapes into which pieces of stone were ground and fashioned. Figure 26 shews one of crescent form. It is perhaps an amulet, although its inner edge, which is sharpened, suggests a scraper or a cutting tool; but the little pierced projection on its upper side shews that it was designed to be worn as a pendant. Figure 27 shews another of somewhat similar form from the Island of Ruapuke in Foveaux Straits, made of a fine fragment of translucent stone. Some ornaments shaped as the barbs of fish-hooks have been found; an example is illustrated in Figure 13. It may be stated as a general rule that the larger ornaments were hung from the neck, while those of smaller size were used as ear-drops.

Favourite pendants, like famous implements and weapons, were distinguished by having names given to them, and some, of course, are very ancient. One mentioned by Mr. James Cowan

Figure 27

is said to have been fashioned from a piece of the greenstone taken by Ngahue to Hawaiki and brought back to New Zealand in the Arawa canoe when the islands were settled at the immigration. It was jealously preserved until quite recent times when it was unfortunately lost by its wearer, a woman of the Heuheu family, in the waters of Lake Taupo. Its name was Kaukaumatua.

Now and again worked pieces of greenstone, ancient work of the Maori, are discovered. Polack’s prediction, made over half a century ago, that in future years many aboriginal curiosities would be discovered by European colonists, has been fully realised. It is at the Maori burying places that the most important finds have been made; for, as we have already seen, it has always been the custom of this people to bury with their dead the favourite weapons, ornaments and tools which their chiefs had held in high esteem.

1. 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.
2. For the significance of the word hei thus prefixed to a Maori word see page 55