Artwork Information

Angas's description:

"PLATE XXXVIII.

ENTRANCE TO A DWELLING HOUSE AT RAROERA PAH.

SOME of the finest Māori works of art still extant, are to be met with in the ruined and deserted Pah of Raroera, about four miles beyond Otawhao, near the River Waipa. In one of the former plates was given a representation of the elaborately carved mausoleum erected in this Pah by the great chief Te Wherowhero, above the remains of his favorite daughter; not many yards from that tomb is the house which forms the subject of the present illustration; differing from the usual style of Māori architecture, with the pointed gable roof, the entrance to this building displays the more simple form of porch belonging to the dwellings of some of the inhabitants of the earliest ages, and its close affinity to many of the temples of Egypt is at once obvious: there is a nearer relation between the architecture of this Māori dwelling-house, and that of the temple of the Serpent Knuphis in Upper Egypt, or the ancient temple of Taetfa, than one might at first be disposed to imagine; but the singular resemblance the works of these people bear to those both of Egypt and Mexico, is a fact to be accounted for by theory alone."