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The Coming of the Maori
Close Single-Pair Twining
Close Single-Pair Twining
A development from spaced single-pair twining consisted of making the weft rows as close together as possible and so producing a thick, strong textile like canvas (Fig. 31). Three types of garments were made with this technique.
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Fig. 31. Close single-pair twining.
| 1. | War cloaks (pukupuku). These were plain without any decoration and were said to give protection against spear thrusts. |
| 2. | Dogskin cloaks (kahu kuri). These were formed from the plain war cloaks by the addition of long narrow strips of dog's hide with the hairy surface external. They were sewn on in vertical strips so as to page 171completely cover the outer surface (91, pp. 53, 153). Variations in the arrangement of different coloured hair strips in vertical panels received specific names such as ihupuni, topuni, and puahi. See Plate XIV. |
| 3. | Tufted hair cloaks (mahiti). These were decorated with seized tufts of long white hair from dogs' tails. |
The dogskin cloaks were highly valued as dogs were never plentiful and were the property of chiefs. They were a purely local invention and thus the story of the Aotea canoe being bought in Hawaiki for a dogskin cloak, is an interpolation. To further honour chiefly rank, the cloaks were ornamented with narrow side bands in colour and so they introduced the subject of ornamental coloured borders.