MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 February 1941, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

FOR WAR OR WORK. • Recorded by of Palmerston North.) for the “Times-Age.") j '. | Ignorant of the simpler or more ef- i j fective use cf iron for cutting imple-1 • incuts or weapons of war. the Maoris) made them of various kinds of stone.' ! The greenstone mere was the most ■ ! valued. The usual standard weighed | • about tubs., 13 inches long. 4 inches! (wide, and shaped like a bottle flatten- i od. with sharp edges. The handle had ! '.a hole with a dressed flax loop to secure it to the right wrist. In a fight : J‘the left hand grasped the hair of an' j enemy, and one blow on the skull! ■ meant sudden death. The greenstone is known as nephrite. ; i which is found in the South Island of! I New Zealand, in China, and Egypt.' i Meres are also made of stone, whale- ; ' I bone, or hard wood. The Patu, shaped somewhat like a; i mere but larger, was made of wood, j The adze ttoki or kapu) with aj j sharp blade of flint or greenstone lash- j j cd to a wooden handle two feet long.; ! was used as a weapon, or in times of) i peace for shaping canoes. There were five different kinds of < clubs carved and ornamented with > feathers. All were used to strike and j to ward qfl blows. The one most, favoured was known as the Hani. Neither , | swords nor bayonets were used in i Maori warfare Making stone weapons and tools en- ■ tailed many years of patient labour by hundreds of women whose industry i and endurance was stimulated by com-; petitive skill, such as that of our mo-f dern knitting ladies. Shaping and [ sharpening stone weapons and imple- j merits was by friction of harder stone; j wood or bone bv scraping with pipi ■ shells.