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The Maori Canoe

Canoes of Manihiki

Canoes of Manihiki

There is in the Dominion Museum a very good specimen of the Manihiki canoe, though, unfortunately, it lacks the outrigger. (See fig. 150.) Its length is 29 ft.; width in middle between top-strakes, 14½ in. In cross-section it much resembles that of a model of a Cinghalese outrigger in the Museum, the rounded inward-trending sides surmounted by the straight top-strakes. The page 294sheer of the hull is, as in the Maori canoe, reduced by the form of the top-strakes, which are wider in the middle than at the two ends. Apart from the tumbling-in of the upper parts of the sides of the hull, the cross-section may be likened to that shown in Maori Art, which does not illustrate any known Maori form, but the narrow-beam, straight-sided outrigger canoe of the Pacific, except that thickness has been exaggerated.

The hull of this Manihiki canoe is in three pieces—that is to say, it has a haumi at each end. The central piece is about 10 ft. in length, and the two attached pieces somewhat shorter. The joinings are butt joins, two square cut ends placed together and so lashed by passing cords through two series of holes bored near the two edges. The lashing-cords are flat, thin plaits that are drawn very tight, and contain and grip very thin narrow battens covering the vertical joins. These lashings are exposed, and not countersunk, as a Maori of New Zealand would fix them, though the thin flat cord is not prominent, but lies close to the timber-surface. The work is extremely neat and sightly, though the butt join is a method much inferior to the tongue-and-groove style employed by the Maori.

The upper parts of the hull-sides trend inwards; thus the widest part of the hold is below the level of the joining of hull and top-strake. At the join it is 11¾ in. wide, but 14½ in. between the upper parts of the top-strakes. The hull is 12 in. in depth, and the top-strakes add another 8 in. to that depth—20 in. in all. The bottom of the hull is much rounded amidships, but sharpens towards both stern and stem. The top-strakes are 9 in. wide (i.e., deep) in the middle, and decrease in width both ways to 6½ in. at the ends, to which the prow and stern pieces are lashed, as in the canoes of New Zealand. Fig. 150 Diagrams showing Prow, Stern and Cross-section of a Manihiki Canoe in the Dominion Museum. The cross section shows interior lashings of the Fijian type. Sketch by Miss E. Richardson Both top-strakes are composed of three pieces (which no Maori would approve of), which are butted together and lashed by means of passing cords through holes pierced near the edges, as in the case of the hull; but the mode of lashing is different, some strands being page 295horizontal while others are crossed. The joins of the top-strakes do not, of course, coincide with those of the hull. The hull is made from a light-coloured timber, while the top-strakes are of dark wood. The latter carries a cant or bead on its outer upper edge, as in the Maori canoe. The top-strake is 1 in. thick; the beading makes the top of it 1½ in. thick. All joins of the hull and top-strake have very thin and narrow strips of some material used as battens to cover joints, being confined and tightly gripped by the lashings. The join of top-strake and hull resembles that of the Niue canoe described by Te Rangi-hiroa in Bulletin No. 3. The bottom of the top-strake has a cant on its inner side projecting 1 in., through which vertical holes are bored. Corresponding holes seem to have been bored through the inward-trending upper edges of the sides of the hull, through which the lashing-cords are passed. Some fibrous caulking-material has been used, and a slight covering batten placed over the joint, gripped by the lashings. Thus the lashing is on the inner side only, and does not appear on the outside of the canoe. This method is that of Fiji, Tonga, and other isles, but was unknown in New Zealand. The outer side of the bottom of the top-strake carries a flange that fits over the gunwale of the hull, projecting downwards, and, this flange being ¼ in. in thickness, the join on the outer side does not present a flush surface. The outer surfaces of the top-strakes are adorned with designs composed of inlaid pieces of pearl-shell. Two designs are employed, arranged alternately—one consisting of two vertical rows, each of five pieces of round cut shell; the other of a star-like design composed of a central round piece with four diamond-shaped pieces radiating from it. Across the top of the canoe, projecting upwards, are six braces of singular form, the ends of which rest on the upper surfaces of the top-strakes, to which they are lashed in a neat and peculiar manner. Six cross-pieces 3½ in. wide serve as seats, their ends resting on the cants or beadings on the bottom of the top-strakes; they are loosely tied in position. The narrowness of this craft is startling to those who know only New Zealand forms.

The prow, or head-piece, is in three parts, lashed to the hull and top-strakes. Its forward end is scarfed so that the widened extremity drops over the end of the hull. On its upper surface four square-cut knob-like projections, about 1½ in. high, are arranged fore and aft, while at the rear end of the prow-piece are two more, set athwart. Just in front of the last is an elevation with a ridge-like top fore and aft. The object of these projections is unknown. The prow is adorned with inlaid pieces of shell—round, triangular, and diamond-shaped; also the name "Tauhunu" is thus inlaid on the right side of the prow, and the island name of "Manihiki" on the left side.

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The stern-piece is also in three parts, and is produced to a point, with a flush base showing no scarf or shoulder. It carries two of the knob-like projections.

Colonel Fox speaks as follows of a peculiarity of the central Pacific area (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Bowditch Isle, &c): "The ends of the canoe are covered with a deck extending over about one-third of its length fore and aft, and on this deck there is a row of upright pegs, carved out of the same piece as the deck, and running down the centre of it. Each peg is surmounted by a whiteCypraea ovula shell tied on. The origin and meaning of this custom is unknown, but it was probably adopted originally as insignia of the rank of the owner. Its distribution is limited to a group of islands lying between about the 10th and 20th parallels of south latitude, and 170° and 180° west longitude. Cook, in 1773, speaks of it in the Friendly Isles; and Wilkes, in 1838, mentions it in Samoa, Fiji, and Bowditch Isle."

The late Maori chief known to us as Wi Marsh made a rude sketch of the "Arawa" canoe that brought his ancestors hither from Polynesia. This shows the prow of the canoe to be quite unlike the Maori forms known to us, and it has three vertical projections of considerable height on it, the object or use of which is not explained. (See fig. 157A)