The Waka Taua, or War-canoe

This is the highest type of Maori canoe—always of large size, and adorned with carved designs, paint, and feathers in an elaborate manner. It is usually known as a waka taua, or war-canoe, though used for other purposes, such as ordinary water excursions. It is also known as a waka pitau. Williams's Maori Dictionary gives pitau as (1) perforated carving; (2) figurehead of a canoe ornamented with perforated carving; (3) war-canoe with a figurehead representing the whole human figure—i.e., one not representing a head only. Pitau also seems to be applied to a scroll in carving. Pinaku is another name for a war-canoe.

Another term, waka whakarei, is applied to a war-canoe, but this name simply serves to mean a canoe adorned with carved designs. Thus we have the terms waka whakarei papatahi (a superior, ornamented single canoe); waka whakarei unua (a superior, ornamented double canoe). The word whakarei seems to refer to carved adornments, or possibly to canoe-adornments generally. It is met with in the expression "Me he pitau whakareia"

Williams gives pitau whakareia as denoting "figurehead of a canoe with arms turned backwards," a peculiarity only seen in the more ornate kinds; and whakarei as "carved work at the head and stern of a canoe," also "canoe with elaborately carved figurehead, bust and arms."

Another old saying is "Me te waka whakarei e tau ana i te moana" This is a simile—"Like a fine canoe floating on the ocean," a remark to show one's appreciation of the appearance of a fine house.

Prior to describing the making of a first-class canoe we will note what has been said of them by various writers, from the time of Cook onwards.

1769. Of the Maori waka, or canoe, Sir Joseph Banks says in his journal: "They are built of very thin planks sewn together, their sides rounding up like ours, but very narrow for their length. Some are immensely long. One I saw which the people laid alongside the ship as if to show how much longer she was than the canoe fairly reached from the anchor that hung at the bows to quite aft; but, indeed, we saw few so large as that. All, except a few we saw at Mercury Bay, which were merely trunks of trees hollowed out by fire, were more or less ornamented by carving. The common fishing canoe had no ornament but the face of a man with a monstrous tongue, whose eyes were generally inlaid with a kind of shell like

H. Hamilton, photo

mother-of-pearl; but the larger sort, which seemed to be intended for war, were really magnificently adorned. The head was formed by a plank projecting about three feet before the canoe, and on the stern stood another, proportioned to the size of the canoe, from ten to eighteen feet high. Both these were richly carved with openwork, and covered with loose fringes of black feathers that had a most graceful effect. The gunnel-boards were also often carved in grotesque taste, and ornamented with white feathers in bunches placed upon a black ground at certain intervals. They sometimes joined two small canoes together, and now and then made use of an outrigger, as is practised in the islands, but this was more common to the southward." (See fig. 11.)

The first remark quoted, as to Maori canoes being built of "very thin planks sewn together," must be looked at askance. Large page 52canoes had a top-strake (plank lashed on the sides to increase their height), but the evidence tends to show that in most cases only one such top board was attached to the sides of the dugout hull, Occasionally two, secured one above the other in carved fashion, were employed. Other writers have made similar remarks, but it is improbable that they ever saw more than two rauawa, or top-strakes, on a Maori canoe. Nor were such planks thin ones, but good stout timbers.

Of the canoes seen at Poverty Bay this writer says: "Their boats were not large, but well made, something like our whaleboats, not longer. The bottom was the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and very thin. This was raised by a board on each side, with a strip of wood sewed over the seam to make it tight. On the prow of every one was carved the head of a man with an enormous tongue reaching out of his mouth." Here the same writer describes the single top-strake on fishing-canoes (waka tete).

1769. In speaking of the canoe captured by Cook at Poverty Bay, Parkinson says: "The canoe was thirty feet long, made of planks sewed together, and had a lug-sail made of matting." The natives on this canoe, when chased, threw stones at their pursuers, and fought them with their paddles. This was certainly a common type of craft and no war-canoe. The "planks sewed together" is probably an error: a canoe of that size would not be fitted with more than one top-strake. The sail was certainly not a lug-sail in the sense of being a square sail.

In L'Horne's journal of M. de Surville's voyage, given in McNab's Historical Records of New Zealand (vol. 2), is the following account of Maori canoes. Its date of 1769 imparts value to it, though it is woefully brief: "Their boats are, indeed, of one piece of wood, pointed at both ends, but the sides are made higher by some boards strongly fixed to the boat with ropes made of rushes. These boards are called fargues in the navy, and they do not reach as far as the end of the boat. The point of the boat is covered with a piece of wood, carved so as to fit exactly. They made a groove in this piece of wood, in order to fit it across a board. The fargues are joined to this cross-plank at each end, and keep it in its place. On the two ends of the boat are also fixed two pieces of wood ornamented with feathers and tufts of dog's hair. I saw some boats which did not have these ornaments on the fore part. I believe that these ornaments are a sign of distinction, as I noticed that the chiefs have the ornaments at both ends, and the secondary chiefs only at the front part of the boat." Here we have the expression "some boards fixed to the boat," which might mean one on each side.

In Monneron's journal of de Surville's voyage, published in vol. 2 of McNab's Historical Records of New Zealand, are the following brief remarks on Maori canoes: "Their boats, as a rule, are very long, The bottom part is of one piece. To raise the boarding they sometimes make use of one or two planks. In the front and hind parts of the canoes are found some pieces of carving." This was in 1769. This is somewhat more definite, and possibly some canoes furnished with double top boards were seen.

During Cook's third voyage Mr. Anderson made some notes on the canoes of Queen Charlotte Sound natives: "Their boats are well built, of planks raised upon each other and fastened with strong withes, which also bind a long narrow piece on the outside of the seams to prevent their leaking. Some are fifty feet long, and so broad as to be able to sail without an outrigger; but the smaller sort commonly have one, and they often fasten two together by rafters, which we then call a double canoe. They carry from five to thirty men or more… Their paddles are about four or five feet long, narrow and pointed, with which, when they keep time, the boat is pushed along pretty swiftly. Their sail, which is seldom used, is made of a mat of triangular shape, having the broadest part above." Here again we have careless observation or careless writing. No native vessels were built of planks, but these were employed in order to raise the sides of dugout hulls.

1769. Of canoes seen on the east coast Parkinson writes: "Their canoes had from eighteen to twenty-two men in them, and were adorned with fine heads made out of a thick board, cut through like filligree work, in spirals of very curious workmanship. At the end of this was a head with two large eyes of mother-of-pearl, and a large heart-shaped tongue. This figure went round the bottom of the board, and had feet and hands carved upon it very neatly, and painted red: they had also high-peaked sterns, wrought in filligree, and adorned with feathers, from the top of which depended two long streamers, made of feathers, which almost reached the water. Some of these canoes were between fifty and sixty feet long, and rowed with eighteen paddles."

Parkinson was struck by the manner in which these canoe-crews beat time with their paddles when chanting their haka or ngeri songs, all striking their paddles on the thwarts at the same instant— "all of which afforded a truly comic act."

1769. Of the vessels seen in the Hauraki Gulf Cook remarks: "Their canoes were large and well built, and adorned with carving, in as good a taste as any that we had seen upon the coast." This writer also describes a canoe seen on the east coast: "The people page 54shew great ingenuity and good workmanship in the building and framing their boats or canoes. They are long and narrow, and shaped very much like a New England whaleboat. Their large canoes are, I believe, built wholly for war, and will carry from forty to eighty or one hundred men, with their arms, &c. I shall give the dimensions of one which I measured that lay ashore at Tolaga: Length, 68½ ft.; breadth, 5 ft.; and depth, 3½ ft.; the bottom sharp, inclining to a wedge, and was made of three pieces hollowed out to about two inches or an inch and a half thick, and well fastened together with strong plaiting. Each side consisted of one plank only, which was 63 feet long, and 10 or 12 inches broad, and about 1¼ inches thick, and these were well fitted and lashed to the bottom part. There were a number of thwarts laid across and lashed to each gunwale as a strengthening to the boat. The head ornament projected five or six feet without the body of the boat, and was four feet high; the stern ornament was fourteen feet high, about two feet broad, and about one and a half inches thick; it was fixed upon the stern of the canoe like the stern-post of a ship upon her keel. The ornaments of both head and stern and the two side-boards were of carved work, and, in my opinion, neither ill designed nor executed. All their canoes are built after this plan, and few are less than twenty feet long. Some of the small ones we have seen with outriggers, but this is not common. In their war-canoes they generally have a quantity of bird's feathers hung in strings, and tied about the head and stern as additional ornaments…. Their paddles are small, light, and neatly made; they hardly ever make use of sails, at least that we saw, and those they have are but ill contrived, being generally a piece of netting spread between two poles, which serve for both masts and yards."

Here we have a canoe-hull of three pieces joined together, a process to be hereinafter described, with a single top strake. The thickness of 1½ in. or 2 in. given for the hull was probably that of the sides; the lower parts would probably be thicker. It may be noted that outriggers were not common, and apparently only used with the small canoes.

In speaking of his intercourse with the natives of New Zealand Cook says: "Whenever we were visited by any number of them that had never heard or seen anything of us before, they generally came off in the largest canoe they had, some of which will carry sixty, eighty, or one hundred people. They always brought their best clothes along with them, which they put on as soon as they came near the ship. In each canoe was generally an old man, in some page 55two or three; these always used to direct the others, were better clothed, and generally carried a halberd or battle-axe in their hands."

1772. The Following Notes Are Those Of Crozet, Made In 1772 At The Bay Of Islands: "All The Villages Situated In The Middle Of The Bay Of Islands, Where We Anchored, Possessed A Considerable Number Of Canoes. These Boats, Which Were Dugouts, Appeared To Be Generally Well Made, With Lines Calculated For Speed, Well Worked, And More Or Less Carved. The Majority Of The Canoes Were From Twenty To Twenty-Five Feet Long, By Two And A Half To Three Feet Broad. Their Principal Use Is For Fishing, And Every Canoe Ordinarily Carried From Seven Or Eight Men. Besides These Boats, Which Appeared To Be Private Property, Every Village Possesses In Common Two Or Three Big War-Canoes For Attacking Purposes. I Measured One Of Them Which Was Seventy Feet Long By Six Feet Broad And Four Deep, Made Of The Body Of A Single Tree-Trunk, The Two Sides Of Which Were Raised By Means Of Planks Skilfully Sewn On, The Sewing Well Caulked, And The Whole Canoe Painted Red By The Aid Of Oil. These War-Canoes Have Carved And Very High Poops And Prows."

1773. Forster, In 1773, Noted At Queen Charlotte Sound The Curious Prow Attachment Known As The Ihiihi: "The War-Canoe In Which The Expedition Had Been Made Had A Carved Head Ornamented With Bunches Of Brown Feathers, And A Double Forked Prong Projected From It, On Which The Heart Of Their Slain Was Transfixed."

Forster also remarks as follows on Maori canoes: "Their boats are stronger than those of Tierra del Fuego, and not without taste in their ornaments, nor without contrivance in their whole structure and shape, which, with the dextrous management of their paddles, gives them an easy and swift motion."

1816. Ellis, who visited the far north of New Zealand in 1816, remarks concerning some canoes seen: "Their canoes were all single generally between twenty and thirty feet long, formed out of one tree, and nearly destitute of every kind of ornament." Evidently these were fishing-canoes. Shortly afterwards he saw some waka taua, of which he writes: "Their long, stately, and in many instances beautifully carved canoes were drawn up on the pebbly beach, and the chiefs and warriors were sitting in circles, at a small distance from them. Each party occupied the beach opposite their canoes, while the slaves or domestics, at some distance further from the shore, were busied round their respective fires, preparing their masters' food. Near his side each warrior's spear was fixed in the ground, while his patu, a stone weapon, was hanging on his arm."

1824. In Tyerman and Bennet's Voyage, 1824, occurs the following: "Their canoes were from thirty to forty feet in length, and page 56three to four in width, each hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree, narrow at either end, and broadest in the middle, having cross-bars to strengthen the sides. Some of these were painted red and rudely carved with figures… Their paddles were long, lancet-shaped, and very narrow. With these they navigate their simple vessels sufficiently well; the latter, being wide above, and reduced to an angle along the keel, are calculated for steady sailing." Apparently some of these early voyagers calling or sojourning at places in New Zealand did not chance to see specimens of the big canoes mentioned by others.

Earle, a sojourner in the far north in 1827, writes: "A dozen superb war-canoes were lying ready to convey the forces; and, considering their limited means, the solidarity of their structure and the carved work on them are surprising. None but men of rank are allowed to work upon them, and they labour like slaves. Some canoes were to be lengthened; others patched; others were condemned to be broken up, and the fragments taken to complete new ones… Here were carvers, painters, caulkers, and sailmakers, all working in their different departments… Some of their vessels were eighty feet long, and were entirely covered with beautiful carvings… When it is considered that in each canoe were seated eighty stout young men, each with a large paddle in his hand propelling the vessel forward, the velocity with which she flew may be imagined."

1838. Missionary Wade makes the following remarks concerning canoes seen by him at Roto-rua in 1838: "I was much struck with their war-canoes, which were arranged with regularity in a sort of dockyard outside the pa, some of them unfinished, but completing for the expected renewal of war. One of the canoes measured sixty feet long; another, of a broader and a more boat-like build than usual, was six feet six inches in the beam. One day, in crossing the lake, we were accompanied by three or four natives in a small fancy canoe, perfectly finished in imitation of a war-vessel, but as disproportionate in size to the persons who were in it as Raphael's boat in the cartoon of the draught of fishes: it could only be used on very calm days, and was attended by another canoe, in case of accident." This latter item is one on which we have absolutely no further information. Presumably it was an isolated case.

"Their canoes … are dug out of a single log. They have no outrigger, and are in consequence liable to accident from want of stability. Great ingenuity is shown in repairing them. We saw a war-canoe which was sufficiently large to be manned by fifty men; it had a prow extending ten feet upwards, which was elaborately page 57carved and decked with tufts of feathers. The paddles have spoon-shaped blades, by which the canoes are propelled with great swiftness." So wrote Wilkes, of the United States Exploring Expedition. His remark concerning spoon-shaped paddles is an error, as also presumably is that making a prow 10 ft. high. He must have been alluding to the stern-piece.

Wakefield has the following note in an account of a visit to Kapiti Island in the early "forties" of last century; "Whare-pouri and several other chiefs came across from Wai-kanae [to Kapiti] in their

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war-canoes to see us. Three, .. well manned and armed, came alongside. They look very pretty when at full speed. The finely carved head and stern of the canoe are ornamented with feathers of the pigeon and albatross; and bunches of the latter plumage, or that of the gannet, are disposed along the battens which cover the joint of the bottom and top side of the canoe… Two experienced hands in the stern use larger paddles for steering."

Angas, another writer of the same decade, gives us the following: "The canoes are elegantly shaped, and elaborately ornamented with grotesque carvings, painted red with kokowai; they have elevated stern-posts, and carry low triangular sails made of raupo (a species of rush), and look remarkably picturesque. A fleet of canoes, adorned, as they often are, with the snow-white feathers of the albatross or the gull, and each manned by a numerous band of paddlers, presents a singular and beautiful appearance—gliding swiftly over the waves, and lowering their mat sails as they dart into the bay and run up on page 58the beach, shooting like arrows through the white breakers. Many of the canoes that arrive at Wai-te-mata from the Thames will carry from fifty to sixty men, who all paddle together, singing in unison some Maori boat-song; their strokes and voices are timed by an individual who stands erect in the centre of the canoe, performing the twofold duty of conductor and prompter; beating each stroke with a staff which he holds in his hand, and prompting the words of the song. The voices of the crew, shouting in measured strain, may frequently be heard when the canoe itself is but a speck on the waves, and the distant sound falls on the ear with a wild and savage effect."

This traveller gives us an illustration of the "low triangular sail" in his works, but does not mention the long upright form of sail formerly used. The Maori employed two forms of sail, as we shall see later on.

The Rev. J. Buller, in his Forty Years in New Zealand, remarks: "Building, fishing, hunting, together with the clearing of the forests, the manufacture of their tools, and the moulding and carving of their canoes, were the proper work of the men. Cooking, weaving, and weeding belonged to the women. In cultivating the ground chiefs worked with the slaves…. They made canoes, some of which, with many hands, took years to finish. The largest of them carried two triangular sails, made of rushes…. The canoes were of all sizes: the largest would carry one hundred persons. … If the scene of war was distant they sallied forth in fleets of large canoes. These would hold from eighty to a hundred warriors in each…. In these canoes they would navigate the coasts, and, in passing from one river to another, would drag them by main force across an isthmus of many miles. It sometimes, but rarely, happened that opposing fleets met each other, and a contest would take place at sea."

Dr. Thomson, a sojourner in New Zealand in the "forties," writes as under:—

"War-canoes for sea navigation are eighty feet long, four feet broad, and four feet deep. Fifty paddlers sit on each side, and three fuglemen stand in the centre of the canoe, exciting the paddlers to exertion by their songs and actions…. The crew on board war-canoes kneel two and two along the bottom, sit on their heels, and wield paddles from four to five feet long; the steersman, sitting in the stern, has a paddle nine feet long. Over tempestuous seas war-canoes ride like sea-fowl. Should a wave throw a canoe on its side, and endanger its upsetting, the paddlers to windward lean over the gunwale, thrust their paddles deep into the wave, and by a curious action force the water under the canoe. This makes the page 59vessel regain her equilibrium, and gives her a vigorous impulse forward. Even when a canoe is upset, the crew can bale her out and put her right in the water.

"Conflicts in canoes occasionally occurred on lakes, rivers, and creeks… Naval engagements were exceedingly rare, as they were alike dangerous to both parties. War-canoes were chiefly used in transporting armies to the scene of action; but when they did meet in strife, the combatants on board discharged their spears, drove their canoes against each other, and then a hand-to-hand fight ensued. The great object in canoe conflicts was to upset the canoes, and kill the warriors helplessly struggling in the water.

"War-canoes were distinguished by well-known names, and when not required they were dragged inland, and carefully preserved in covered sheds. Launching war-canoes into the ocean was heavy work, and there were several chants for the purpose of enabling warriors thus occupied to exert simultaneous efforts. Their songs had various measures, adapted either for pulling heavy or pulling light. For up-hill work there were long-syllabled words in the chants, each of which seemed to issue from the pullers' mouths with the same difficulty as the canoe advanced. But when the hill was crowned, a succession of one-syllable words composed the chant. The first few lines of the chant were sung by one voice, to give notice for all to prepare for pulling. Afterwards, when the pullers had arranged themselves along the gunwales of the canoe, one line was chanted by a single voice while the pullers breathed, and the response was shouted by all who at the same time pulled together… Good singers frequently enlivened the chants with extemporaneous jokes suitable for the occasion."

The width of 4 ft. given for a canoe 80 ft. in length is too narrow; it would probably be 6 ft. wide in the middle, narrowing towards both ends. Again, if in these large war-canoes 4 ft. deep the paddlers either knelt on the bottom or sat on their heels they would certainly not be able to use their paddles. That position was only assumed in small canoes. The larger, top-strake craft contained a deck or floor beneath the thwarts; paddlers knelt on this, or sat on the thwarts. Nor did the Maori rely much on throwing spears: he was essentially an in-fighter.

The following extract from Colenso's essay "On the Maori Races of New Zealand" (why "races"?) is of interest: "If there was much to admire in their house architecture and fortification building, there was still more in their naval architecture bearing in mind that they did all without the aid of iron or any metal—their solid and strong double canoes (waka unua), long since extinct, page 60and scarcely known even by name to the present generation; their handsome, well-arranged war-canoes, of which there are not many, and perhaps not a single first-class one, left; their fishing and voy-aging canoes, also with raised sides (commonly called 'war-canoes' by the colonists); and their common canoes of several kinds and sizes, formed out of a single tree, and often of great length. A first-class war-canoe, with all its many fittings, its hundred paddles, its handsome elaborately carved stem and stern, and all its many ornaments and decorations of feathers, rouge, and mother-of-pearl, was always the work of many hands throughout many years. Fully to complete one was indeed a triumph, in which many hands would heartily join. Their largest canoes were rigged with two masts, and carried a large light triangular-shaped sail on each. Their small canoes had only one similarly-shaped sail."

The principal canoe, the most important to the Maori, was the waka taua, or war-canoe. Not that such craft were used for war raids only, for they were also employed in voyages and short trips of a peaceful nature, such as social visits. These craft were the result of arduous and long-continued labour, were highly ornate and greatly prized. An old warrior said to me, "This craft, the war-canoe, was man's companion in death, for oft he went to war and died on that canoe."

Some of these war-canoes were looked upon as being extremely high-class vessels, and were tapu—such never being used for fishing purposes. Others, again, were of less moment; and, in raiding times, any good-sized fishing-canoe might be used as a war-canoe, and so termed for the time being.

In some cases, when a chief died, his ornate canoe would be dismantled, the hull cut in half, and one-half carved, or painted, or both, and set up as a centotaph. (See fig. 108. p. 217.) Or, if a capsized canoe, of which the occupants had been drowned, drifted ashore, it would be utilized in a similar manner. There were different forms of stem and stern pieces of these high-class canoes, as will be seen by referring to the illustrations.

When a waka taua or waka pitau was used for fishing purposes, the ornamental carved pieces at stem and stern were often taken off and stowed away, and others, such as are affixed to fishing-canoes, lashed on to replace them. This refers to such canoes of this class as were not tapu. On being used again for state purposes their proper fittings were replaced.

A canoe might be destroyed, even by persons who held no owner-ship rights in it, under certain circumstances. For example, when Ta-manuhiri, of the east coast, went a-fishing in a canoe belonging page 61to Kahu-paroro, that vessel became tapu on account of the blood of a chief being shed on it, for his nose happened to bleed. He at once returned to land, and his people burned the canoe, the name of which was "Te Mataahi."

A canoe of importance was made tapu by the Maori in order that it might retain its mana, and to bring it under the protection of the gods. As the Maori puts it. "Ka purea te waka kia tapu, kia mau tona mana, kia noho nga atua ki te tiaki i te waka."

In his account of native wars, published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Mr. Smith makes the following remarks on Maori canoes:

The war-canoe of old was a fine sea-going vessel, and, notwithstanding its great length in proportion to breadth, could stand very heavy seas. They were sometimes double, fastened together with cross-ties, but these were rare, though Captain Cook mentions them, and it is known that the Ngai-Tahu people of the South Island used them in their war expedition as late as 1830. They were called taurua, unua, or unuku. Such were some of the canoes in which the ancestors of the Maori crossed the seas from Hawaiki, the "Arawa" being specially mentioned as a taurua. The Rev. T. G. Hammond tells me that the "Aotea" canoe, in which came the ancestors of the Patea and other Cook Strait tribes, was a waka ama, or canoe with an outrigger. Excepting the "Toki-a-tapiri" canoe, now in the Auckland Museum, there is probably not another specimen of the waka taua, or war-canoe, left in the country, and even that is not a first-class one: it is wanting in the handsomely carved rapa, or stern-post. These vessels averaged from fifty to one hundred feet in length, with a width of from four to eight feet, and many would carry a hundred paddlers. (See fig. 13.)

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Hoani Nahe describes as follows some of the Ngati-Maru war canoes of the earlier years of the ninteenth century: "It was Ngati-Paoa and Ngati-Whanaunga who supplied the waka taua nunui [great war-canoes] that enabled Wai-kato to escape in the night [after the battle of Tikorauroha]: their names were 'Otuiti,' 'Okunui,' and 'Whenua-roa.' These canoes were very much larger than any I ever saw. 'Okunui' and 'Otuiti' would hold five ranks of men abreast, right from the bows to the stern—a row of men on each side would paddle, whilst three others sat in the middle ready to take the places of those who became tired. 'Whenua-roa' was not so large; only three men could sit abreast on the seats."

A canoe was seen at the Thames some thirty or forty years ago [in 1855] lying in the forest, never having been finished, which measured 110 feet in length, and this was the hull only, without the projecting stem and stern pieces, which in such case would not be less than 15 feet long each.

The old war-canoe was a very beautiful object: painted red and black, with elegantly carved head and stern pieces, the bows adorned with grace-fully projecting curved rods, ornamented with tufts of white albatross-feathers, and with white feathers every few feet along the battens which covered the joint where the solid hull was built up by the top boards. They were very fast, and could, in favourable weather, travel ten miles an hour under the rhythmical dip of over a hundred paddlers. They sailed, too, but not very near the wind. The sails were triangular in shape, with the apex downwards; two were generally carried. The rapa, or stern-post, stood up often over fifteen feet in height, and was beautifully carved in delicate spirals, besides being adorned with albatross-feathers… Fleets consisting of from fifty to sixty war-canoes frequently left the Bay of Islands in the earlier years of the 19th century bound on warlike enterprises. .. It was not the custom to travel by night, though sometimes done, and all cooking had to be performed ashore, for the war-canoes were much too tapu ever to carry cooked food in them, or, indeed, sometimes even to carry food at all. For this purpose there were canoes which acted as tenders to the others, often paddled by the women, who frequently accompanied their relations on these expeditions….

To each canoe there was one or more fuglemen, kaituki, whose duty it was by song and action to give time to the paddlers. They stood up on the bars which served for seats, or on the long fore-and-aft beam which ran from stem to stern amidships, and there flourished their weapons, accompanying this by one of their canoe songs, of which there are several still preserved. The chiefs sat in the stern, and sometimes used the powerful steering-paddle, or urunga. Running fore and aft was a hurdle-like arrangement of stout manuka poles, which served as a deck, on which the paddlers placed their feet, or knelt on, which also served to keep the cargo out of the hold, or riu, in which there was always more or less water. In one or two places there was a break in this deck where the scoop-like balers, or tiheru, could be used.

The war-canoes were very tapu; every step in their construction was accompanied by incantations or prayers said by the priests, part of whose special functions it was to act as naval architects, and direct the whole proceedings, from the cutting-down of the tree to the last finishing adornment of the vessel. In former times, in the first launching of a canoe, the page 63 skids were the living bodies of slaves. When not in use the canoes were kept in sheds, or wharau.

The projecting stem and stern pieces alluded to as being not less in length than 15 ft. each must be an allusion to the pieces secured to the hull to lengthen it, as in cases wherein a sufficiently long tree-trunk could not be obtained. The "Toki-a-tapiri" is a good genuine waka taua, though dismantled for some time in past years. (See fig. 13. p. 61.)

It does not appear probable that the use of human beings as skids in the launching of a new canoe was ever a Maori custom: the evidence is against such a supposition. It was, however, a Fijian practice.

Vancouver remarks that when he visited Tahiti in 1792 he saw not a single specimen of the war-canoes of which Cook had seen so many twenty-three years before. He states that fighting at sea, formerly a common practice, had been abandoned in favour of actions on land.

Here we have an illustration of how in a comparatively brief space of time an ancient practice or usage may be abandoned by an uncultured folk. We also read that the introduction of European boats soon put an end to the use of double canoes on the coasts of the South Island of New Zealand.

Of the large-size Maori canoes Earle remarks: "These canoes are not calculated for sea service in rough weather; as, if poised on a wave underneath the middle, they would most probably snap asunder." It is highly improbable that any such mischance would occur; the Maori dugout was much too strong to render it likely.

We have noted the traditions of New Zealand being first peopled by drift voyagers, and of the arrival of other chance voyagers, as the Ngutuau people on the east coast and the black folk who reached Whakatane many generations ago. There have probably been other such voyagers to these shores, other ocean waifs who have been driven hither by strong and long-continued winds. Crawford, in his Recollections of Travel, &c., states that on a trip from Auckland to San Francisco made in the autumn of 1879 a head wind was encountered all the way from Auckland to Honolulu, "a noticeable fact in connection with the migration of the Maori race and the peopling of New Zealand by it… The direction of the wind will explain how canoes, driven off the shores of the Hawaiian or Samoan Islands, may have been accidentally driven as far as New Zealand, although it is difficult to suppose them provisioned for so long a voyage. Possibly the crew provided its own commissariat, and only the survivors landed on the New Zealand shore." There was no need to bring castaways from the far-away Hawaiian Group, but they might well have drifted here from the more southern lands of Polynesia and Melanesia.