A LOST ART.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 82, 15 May 1908, Page 3

A LOST ART.

—❖ — - Moko (tatoo, tatoo, tatu) was first described and illustrated by Cook in his first voyage in 1769- By him it was called amoco, his rendering of the native term. General Robley's collection, which contains between thirty and forty specimens of tattooed heads, besides several implements connected with tatuing, is the only one existing which shows this remarkable and historic ornamentation of the old Maori artists in all their skill and style. The examples exceed in number those to_ be found in the combined museums of New Zealand, the British Museum, Jardin des Flantes, the Royal Museums of Berlin and Vienna, the National Museums of Washington, Rome, Sydney, and others, and it is thus indeed unique and irreplaceable. This collection was visited, by the Maoris over for the Coronation, who desired that it should be -well and that, if possible, the heads of their old warriors fallen in native wars should be returned to New Zealand. That the ancient inhabitants of Britain dyed their skin with wood is little more than a tradition — no knowledge or specimen of their art remains'; and so it must prove with the aboriginal dwellers in New Zealand unless care bs taken. Illustrations and descriptions -may remain, but neither can so faithfully depict the features and accompaniments of a last art as the true specimen itself. Already much has been lost regarding the value and signification of the various tatu lines, for when the old Maori disappeared under the tide of an advancing civilisation, the key, of this knowledge was buried with him. Neither we nor the modern Maori can penetrate the veil of imagery and allegory enveloping the various patterns, or the principles on which the moko of one chief differs from that of another. In Maori mythology there is the visit of Mataora to Spiritland, when the ordinary punctured marks on his face were removed by magic power, and in their place he was adorned with the chiselled spirals and arabesques which tatu-workers have faithfully copied in general, and which were common enough when .Cook visited New Zealand. A custom so elaborate must surely have grown up slowly through many generations, and have been carried to a point of perfection which never felled to attract the visitor who was f Artugiate ejiough to regain his ship. Captain Cook's companion (Banks) wrote, " It is impossible to avoid admiring the "extreme elegance and justness of the figures traced, which on the face are always different spirals, and upon the' body different figures, resembling somewhat the foliages of old chasing upon gold and silver. All these are 'finished with a masterly taste and execution, for of a hundred which at first sight would be judged to be exactly the same, no two, en close examination, proved alike, nor do I remember to have seen any two alike." It is astonishing to see designs so unerringly correct marked on the living human face by r such a painful process as the native artist adopted. Though the work was done at different times, owing to the terrible pain inflicted and the impossibility of completing the process in one sitting, the symmetry was, nevertheless, preserved, as is evident in these numerous examples. Their method of tatuing by means of tapping into the skin narrow bone chisels, dipped in charcoal dyes, and so making very deep blue-black grooves, has nothing in common with the mode of tatuing in other parts of the world which leaves the skin smooth. The old Maori race took an artist's pride in this work, and as the result was not easily accomplished, it was highly prized when completed. Such old ornamentation, every line of which remains distinct on the heads, can never be again obtained. These moko mokai, as they were called, were a badge or proof of the nobility of the owner, and the well-tatued head of a chief who had fallen in battle formed a much-valued spoil of war. The stringent Sydney Act of 1831 stopped the export of heads. From that date, therefore, it has been only possible to gather together these rare specimens by patiently watching through a longseries for the breaking up of private collections, or taking advantage of some unusual chance ; and this is the plan .that has been followed in this instance.