The Marakihau

A curious treatment of the human figure in some house carvings was the elongation of the lower end of the body into a "spiral tail". As pointed out by Archey (4, p. 178), a series of carved wall posts shows various forms of treatment from one leg being lengthened to curve in towards the body to a still greater extension to enable the elongated leg to curve over itself in a loop but still retaining a conventional foot. The other leg atrophied and its complete disappearance heightened the resemblance of the looped leg to a tail. Whatever its original significance, the figure has come to be regarded as a fabulous sea monster termed a marakihau. In carved house posts, the figure is in full face. Some nephrite ornaments classed as marakihau (Fig. 80g)resemble the pekapeka group but they are asymetrical in having a human figure on one side edge while the other side edge ends in a plain loop without a head. One ornament described has the figure in full face but others are in profile. The asymmetry appears to be due in some ornaments to lack of material to form a second head. Hence the headless body forms an extra loop to the single human figure and becomes identified as a marakihau.