Maori Cunning

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 146, 10 September 1927, Page 16

Maori Cunning

CURIOUS CANOE-SHAPED BOWL THAT MAY HAVE BEEN A BIRD-SNARE ADDITIONS TO MUSEUM r Maori summoned all his ingenuity to the snaring of birds. He pitted his wily artfulness against the natural timidity of the forest birds and lured them to his traps by crafty baits. To catch his pigeons when the berries were coming in the bush he used to lash a bowl of water to a bough of a nearby tree so that when the birds had eaten the berries, lo! at hand was water with which to wash their meal down. So he enticed the birds to his trap. A remarkable wooden bowl which has probably in some far-off sprintime been used for this purpose has been presented to the Auckland Museum by Mr. H. H. Booth, of Kerepeehi. It is a broad canoe-shaped receptacle with a head carved at one end and it rests on a base of four loops carved in the wood. Though the old bowl may be an ordinary eating utensil the loops suggest that it hats been used for lashing to a tree as part of a bird trap. The bowl was found in a swamp on the Hauraki Plains, and Mr. Booth has sent with it a very good old paddle, also retrieved from the swamps. Two very fine old tikis are among a number of Maori articles deposited lately in the museum by Mr. George M. Graham, of Itotorua. One is a very squat figure and the other is remarkable for the specially fine bluish greenstone from which it has been carved. Mr. Graham has also deposited two fine Maori cloaks. One is of flax and feathers the kahu-kini—and the other kahu-topuni—is of dogskins from from the long-extinct Maori dog. Such cloaks are very rare, and this one is a particularly good one. Some fine Onewa meres have also been sent by Mr. Graham. Maori paddles and adzes, an old parchment mortgage deed dating from 1816, some old pewter mugs and some > silver and copper coins, are among the collection of articles sent to the museum by Mr. Hallyburton Johstone, of Point Chevalier.