Page:Pounamu, notes on New Zealand greenstone (IA pounamunotesonne00robl).djvu/43



HE Maori possessed a remarkable variety of ornaments, of great diversity of form, motif and size; for in spite of the dangers and the difficulties which attended the acquisition of greenstone, there were very few natives of either island who did not possess something made of it. All such ornaments were worn by men and women alike, suspended from a cord which passed through a hole bored through the stone at the top, either at the neck, or hanging from the lobes of the ears, or as long pendants to adorn the cloak.

The most common ornaments were the straight cylindrical ear-pendants called kuru, and straight flat pieces of stone, to which the name whakakai was given. But simple pendants of this kind were of all sorts of shapes, the form depending on the size and shape of the fragment of stone at the artist’s disposal. Ornaments of this simple type were noticed by Captain Cook, who remarks that “in the ears both of men and women, which are pierced or rather slit, are hung small pieces of jasper.” The great variety of their shapes, which is shewn in Figure 13, is no doubt due to the fact that the greenstone was so highly prized that any small fragment of it which could not be utilised in any