Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 12.djvu/188

156 have been made upon the colour organs of the Maori. The word matomato, often employed to express the idea of greenness in vegetation, signifies luxuriance, and whatever colour-impression it conveyed to the mind would be associated with the idea of luxuriant growth.

Blue was not formerly recognized, as no word exists to represent it. Anything blue was classed with black, and went under the heading of pouri, or pango, or mangu. The blue depths of ocean and sky were pouri, or dark. At the suggestion of Europeans, the indigo-blue plumage of the pakura (Porphyria melanotus,) is sometimes employed to indicate the colour, which before intercourse with Europeans was unrecognized.

No words are found in the Maori language to express violet, brown, orange, and pink colours; but there are no less than three words to express pied or speckled objects. Kopurepure = reddish speckle; Kotingotingo = dark speckle; tongitongi = spotted.

The limited number of colour-expressions that exist in the Maori language, cannot be attributed to the absence of objects presenting those colours for which the terms are wanting. If nowhere else, at least in the rainbow, they were fi-equently to be seen. But the Maoris appear to have had very vague ideas respecting these colours. While they regarded the rainbow as a divinity, and spoke of its exceeding beauty, they do not seem to have perceived, much less to have separated, its prismatic colours; to their organ of sight, it presented one characteristic tint, and that was ma, or allied to light. Its effect upon the eye was described as aniwaniwa, or dazzling. Further proof of their imperfect perception of colour is furnished by the fact that the Maoris have never shown any real appreciation of floral charms. It is true that the kowhai ngutukaka, which was said to have been imported from Hawaiki, was occasionally cultivated for the sake of its scarlet flowers, but it is equally true that flowers generally were despised, and the greatest astonishment was expressed by Maoris in the early days, when they observed the pains taken by colonists to cultivate any but flowers of the gaudiest hues.

The ornamental scroll-work, and the elaborate patterns employed in tattooing and carving, showed that the Maoris were capable of appreciating the beautiful, both in form and in colouring, and we can only account for their indifference to the more delicate tints of flowers which call forth our admiration, by supposing that their colour-sense was not so well educated as our own.

Although Maori literature is very hmited, we fortunately possess a few standard works, which will always serve for reference, whenever a question may arise as to the meaning of any word in the language. One of the most reliable of these is the translation of the Bible; the work of Archdeacon