E Rua, E Pari and E Hoki, women of Ngatitoa tribe, Cook's Straits, Plate 13. From the book: The New Zealanders

PLATE XIII.

E RUA, E PARI, and E HOKI,

WOMEN OF THE NGA-TI-TOA TRIBE.

THE figures in the annexed plate are portraits of three females residing at Porirua, in the neighbourhood of Rangihaeata's Pah, on the northern shores of Cook's Straits. Two of them are dressed in garments of native manufacture; the third wears a red blanket, purchased from the European traders, a costume highly esteemed amongst the Maories, and displayed by them on festive occasions. All their native clothing is formed of the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand Flax: their mode of manufacturing it consists in interweaving perpendicular threads, with others placed horizontally, knotting every thread together at regular distances of about half an inch; the horizontal threads forming the groundwork of the intended garment, and stretched between upright poles, placed in the floor of the house, before which the women sit for hours together, busily employed in interweaving the flaxen threads with their slender fingers. When completed, these mats are remarkably beautiful and durable, and frequently occupy a period of twelve months in their fabrication. These mats are of various qualities and descriptions; the one worn by the women in the accompanying sketch is called E tatara; it is ornamented with a profusion of black strings, made of threads of flax, twisted, and dyed by an infusion of hinau bark. The red spots are tufts of scarlet wood, of which substance the natives are very covetous; formerly the red feathers from the breast of the Kaka were employed for this purpose.

Text for plate 13: The New Zealanders illustrated / by George French Angas. -- London: Thomas M'Lean, 1847 (RB001054)