Sir George Grey N.Z. Maori MS. 89
Payment for Women
Payment for Women
If young women wish to have
their lips or chins tattooed
they say to their fathers,
mothers and to the brothers-in-law:
We wish to have our lips or chins tattooed.
Then they collect an albatross and a huia.
When these are gathered together with good
food, birds, kiwi, kakapo, rats,
fish, fern root,
and so on,
then the tohunga is sent for.
He arrives and the many chiefly females
are tattooed by that tohunga.
When it is finished they arise,
and albatross skin is placed in the
ear, and they are decorated with
feathers on the head; they are dressed in
kaitaka cloaks and when ready taken
to eat.
However, there is plenty of food for the
tohunga; food is the payment for
the tattooing of the many women of rank,
but some of the treasures given are
taken on their bodies.
Enough.
This is finished.