nsion, by holding out her lips for me to kiss, an
honour I could have very well dispensed with, but which, at the same
time, I could not decline, without offering a slight to a person of such
elevated consequence."

He saw, also, some other female warriors, who exposed themselves in the
combat with great gallantry. Among them, Marsden tells us, was the widow
of Tippahee, a woman apparently not much less than seventy years of age.

Cook also sometimes saw the women armed with spears.

The principal native war-instrument of the New Zealanders is the short
thick club, which has been so often mentioned. This weapon they all
constantly wear, either fastened in their girdle or held in the right
hand and attached by a string to the wrist. It is in shape somewhat like
a battledore, varying from ten to eighteen inches in length, including a
short handle, and generally about four or five broad, thick in the
middle, but worked down to a very sharp edge on both sides. It is most
commonly formed of a species of green talc, which appears to be found
only in the southern island, and with regard to which the New Zealanders
have many superstitious notions. Some of them are made of a
darker-coloured stone, susceptible of a high polish; some of whalebone;
and Nicholas mentions one, which he saw in the possession of Tippoui,
brother of the celebrated George of Wangarooa, and himself one of the
leaders of the attack on the 'Boyd,' which, like that of Shungie, which
Rutherford speaks of, was of iron, and also highly polished. It had been
fabricated by the chief himself, with tools of the most imperfect
description; and yet was, in Nicholas's opinion, as well-finished a
piece of workmanship as could have been produced by any of our best
mechanics. This instrument is employed in close combat, the head being
generally the part aimed at; and one well-directed blow is quite enough
to split the hardest skull. The name usually given to it, in the earlier
accounts of New Zealand, is patoo-patoo. Anderson, in his general
remarks on the people of Queen Charlotte Sound, says it is also called
Emeeta. But its correct and distinctive name seems to be that by which
Rutherford always designates it, the mery or mairy.

[Illustration: _Christchurch Museum_

1. _Pou-wherma._
2. _Taiaha_ of white whale-bone.
3. _Taiaha_ (6ft. 3in. long) of wood, with flax mat and dog's hair.
4. _Hoeroa_ of white whale-bone.
5. _Tewha-tewha_.]

Savage tells us