Page:Pounamu, notes on New Zealand greenstone (IA pounamunotesonne00robl).djvu/32

 steel. The handle was of dark black wood, handsomely carved and adorned with feathers.” Rutherford failed his hosts in every particular. He not only warned the English sailors of their danger, but being taken off by the ship, a free man but no longer a Maori chief, he made a present of the ceremonial dress

and the war-adze to Captain Johnson, the commander of the ship which took him back to freedom and civilization.

A war-adze, similar, no doubt, to that which was entrusted to Rutherford, is illustrated in Figure 6 from a drawing by the Author.

It was only rarely that the Maori used tools or weapons shaped like our axes, and the reason is obvious. The greenstone never being drilled or cut to receive the tool handle, an axe with