THE MAORIS IN LONDON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1186, 22 July 1911, Page 11

THE MAORIS IN LONDON.

HOW THEY IMPRESSED. In spite of the ransacking of tho world that goes on to givo London savage thrills, we have rarely seen Maoris here, says an English writer. But now tho famous nances, more heard about than seen, are being danced every day at tho While Uty, where the Arawa Maoris, moved on from the Crystal Palace, have set up their village.. Their beautiful wild doings deserved a bettor.setting.than the stage of a. plaster theatre, with a little string orchestra to play the sad Native airs. Their leader, Maggio Papakura, : introduced the dances m cultivated English, which seemed odd till one remembered that perhaps many of the warriors and maidens have .been to college. .They gave the traditional performance ot. welcome. The jolly old * % • \l wore a furr - r crown an(l a sort of. hearthrug robe-shouted some kind th« n iV n a . voice, and then the troupe of maidens came on, splendid (women, with lustreless. black hair n dresses of crimson silk falling from neck 1° b " e iee ' •■">'! with overskirts ofdrfed grasses, and each a charm in greenstone round the neck. They sang in hf»h ha??h voices, and afterwards gave some "of he Strang? dances that are not dances with the feet so much as rhythmic movements &a?ftt>tt^;e M 'H," 1 Sifting down, they imi

! strong and sweet, sang first an English <irawing-Toom song, which was a pity,- and : llien a eh.trming Native slumber" song. iliPii a company of big men ram* rushing in with t|iicer-shaped battleaxes and "id a rampant war dance. It was a thins of simultaneous hissing witli yells and aroat leaps into the air, all rfoiie with Hie precision which is the religion of all Mildiers on parade. The strangest man in ho C.CIV was a. fat Jlanri with side «lusters, who leered rijlily at us. but uepnrtert all (oo soon alter a spate uf ™niie remarks. IVo know (hoy were w>niu-, for nil tho women laiißlied, and it was teasing to miss (he joke.