How the Maoris were Tattooed.

Manawatu Herald, 21 June 1894, Page 3

How the Maoris were Tattooed.

+ In the course of an instructive series of articles on episodes in the life of an old missionary, published in the New Zealand Herald, the Rev. G. Smales gives an interesting account of the process of tattooeing as carried out by the Maoris in the m early days of English settlement in these islands. Near the heads of Hokianga, where Mr Smales was stationed, was the native settlement of Pakanae, and among the chiefs of the settlement was one named Tio (Oyster), a bloodthirsty old fellow who had a great objection to the preaching of the missionaries ,and who on one occasion despatched one of his most desperate characters to shoot Mr Smales as he rode by. The shooting never came off, but Tio continued to show opposition to his intended victim, and with the apparent object of annoying him introduced a Maori tohunya from a distant village to tattoo all the young people of the settlement. Mr Smales visited Tio's whare to find out what was going on, and, as he says, to see if his services would be of any use in deterring any from falling in with the heathen custom. He does not state whether he was successful in the latter portion of his mission, but in spite of strong hints that he was not wanted he seems to have obtained a good insight into the operation. Two whares were used by the tohunga ; in one lay the young man who was about to be tattooed, and in the other the priest himself offered up incantations and prayers. The blue-black pigment with which the tattooed lines and figures were marked was made from various substances—the smoke of burnt kahikatea,.. charcoal, burnt resinous wood, or burnt resin. The instruments used, known as uhi, were made of bone, obsidian, or shell, and while some had serrated edges others were chisel shaped. Mr Smales describes the young man whom he saw being tatooed as lying like a corpse. " Not a movement either of his face or his limbs could be distinguished, and his face and a good portion of his body seemed covered with blood, and at every stroke of the small wooden mallet (mahoe) on the ulti a mata ora (the tatooing adze) the blood spurted up and, the operator kept wiping off a portion with a small bunch of tow, of the p horm.u in tenax, and rubbing in the coloured pigment trom the shell. The sight, however, was most sickening, and must have required considerable courage to submit to the operation." Pride, however, feels no pain, and the subject of this painful operation probably consoled himself with the thought that the marks added manliness, dignity and courage to his lace. On a woman's face they were supposed to confer grace and beauty, and red lips, such as has been the theme of poets of all times, were to the Maori wahine a reproach. If inflammation set in after the operation it was of course never the fault of the operator, but was due to the payment of too little to tho tohmga, the breaoh of some tapu, or the neglect of some incantation by the unfortunate patient. To lessen the chances of the first-named contingency occurring, the tolmngas chanted, as they tattooed, little songs which, besides encouraging the sufferer, reminded him of his duties. The following is a sample : A man who pays well Be careful in beautifying, A man who pays badly Stretch out the lines far apart (Let him be done carelessly). It is, we should imagine, exceedingly probable that a man who, while being tattooed, had this gentle hint whispered in his ear, and remembered' that the ill- success of the operation was sometimes followed by death, would not be niggardly in his payments.