Page:Pounamu, notes on New Zealand greenstone (IA pounamunotesonne00robl).djvu/24

20 specimen may be seen in the museum at Auckland. It consists, as our illustration shews, of four parts. The first is a rod of wood called the pou, about two feet in length and three-quarters of an inch in thickness, shewn upright in the accompanying illustration. To the lower end of the pou is fastened the boring point of mata (obsidian), kiripapa (flint), or some other hard stone, chipped to a rough point. The pou passes through a hole in the middle of the porotiti, a disk of heavy wood (maire is that most often used) which is firmly fastened to the pou at about one-third of its height, and serves the purpose of increasing by its weight the momentum of the implement. The kurupae, that is, the cross-piece shewn in Figure 2, is a shaped piece of wood, twenty inches long and two inches wide in the middle, where there is a hole through which the pou passes, fitting loosely. The aho is a cord of plaited fibre fastened to the top of the pou and having its two ends tied to either extremity of the kurupae, which thus is held at right angles to the pou.

The method of operating the drill is as follows:—the boring point at the lower end of the rod being placed upon the spot where a hole is to be made, the cross-piece is twirled round until the cord, now twisted about the upper part of the upright rod, raises the cross-piece up the rod, up which it slides easily. A downward pressure of the operator’s hand upon the cross-piece now causes it to slide back down the rod, unwinding the cord as it descends. The rotation thus given, which is both increased and controlled by the heavy disk, causes the cord