Page:Pounamu, notes on New Zealand greenstone (IA pounamunotesonne00robl).djvu/18

 the region to be traversed by the searchers after greenstone added to the dangers of the task, for beyond the small quantity they were able to carry with them, travellers were entirely dependent for their food upon the wekas and eels, which they were able to catch as they went along. Besides all these difficulties they were in constant danger of encountering hostile bands of men bound on the same errand as themselves. But when even the journey was so far successful that the treasure sought after was found, its great weight made it impossible for the discoverers to carry back more than a few fragments, and these were obtained by breaking them off with stone hammers. In spite of the longing desire of the northern Maori to enrich themselves with the treasures of greenstone which existed on the west coast of the South Island, the serious obstacles which beset the approach to that region deterred them from making the attempt to get there, and they had to content themselves with what they were able to acquire from their fellow countrymen in the south, in exchange for mats and canoes and such other manufactures as their southern neighbours were willing to accept. The constant and bloody wars in the history of the South Island were caused by many pretexts, but behind all was the covetous desire to possess the land of wai pounamu, the valuable greenstone.”

These picturesque passages well describe at once the difficulties of the acquisition of greenstone and the constant efforts that were made to obtain the coveted mineral. But they do not exhaust the means, fair and foul, by which the Maori obtained possession of it. Ornaments and weapons, as well as rough unworked blocks of the stone were given as presents. They were paid as utu, that is, compensation for injury inflicted or wrong committed;