Artwork Information

Angas's description:

"PLATE LV.

IMPLEMENTS AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

1. Mode of fishing with nets on Lake Taupo: the fish, which are all small, are caught in a seine with very fine meshes, and a pole about twenty feet long, with tufts of grass fastened at the end, is employed to drive the fish into the net.

2. A fishing weir, or eel pah, on the river Mokau.

3. Wooden fish-hook.

4. Fish-hook generally in use, made of wood, with a layer of pawa, or pearl shell (Haliotis), and the hook formed of human bone. A feather of the kivi kivi (Apteryx Australia) is fastened at the extremity. The lines are of flax, and, as these hooks dangle astern of the canoes, the glittering appearance of the pawa attracts the fish.

5. Kupenga, or eel trap, formed of twigs, from Mokau.

6. Ko, a wooden spade, for rooting up ferns, and preparing the ground for plantations.

7. A pestle for beating flax, formed of volcanic trap.

8. Wooden Flute, one of the orifices of which is tattoed to resemble the lips of a woman.

9. Bark Bucket, and Calabashes for holding water: the orifices of these latter are also tattoed in a similar manner.

10. Ornamented flax basket for household purposes.

11. E Kumeti, ancient wooden bowl for kumeras, from the deserted pah of Otawhao,near Waipa, eight feet in circumference.

12 and 13. Flax sandals from Otago, in the Southern Island.

14. Portrait of an aged slave woman, at Pouketouto, in the interior, beyond Mokau."