MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1939, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

MOKO. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) In the reign of the Caesars, the art of tattooing the face to mark the various ranks of men was a universal practice. This would appear to have descended to the Maori through some unknown lineage. Each tribe had its own distinctive marking, difficult to detect except to the eye of those who knew the secret. One feature common to every pattern was that all lines of each part were parallel. No one line ever crossed another. A second rule which seemed almost universal was that in each special pattern the three parallel lines beginning at the central point were separated by a space of about l-16th of an inch —they were never joined. Pliny mentions the practice of colouring these fine lines with the juice of the plantain leaf, which was renewed at intervals. The Maori did it permanently with Tannin from hinau bark. To mark their tribal rank, youths of 12 to 15 years stood this painful operation with stoical endurance at intervals extending over a period of years. In 1825 Lord Byron saw the tattoo used in Hawaii as a mark of mourning for a dead wife. In Tonga the ladies had the tip of the tongue blackened in memory of an ideal husband at his death. In the very rare instance of an unfaithful Maori wife, the small dark lines on her lips were treated with kokowai (red ochre), which was said to fade completely in 13 moons, provided she made no further slip from virtue. The Maoris regard our lipstick with disdain and discreet silence.