DOI Heft:
No. 95 (February, 1901)
DOI Artikel:Praetorius, Charles J.: Maori houses
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19787#0037
Maori Houses
pronounced. So fearful were the natives of
approaching this property under tapu that they
would not come within some yards of the outer
enclosure.
The painted designs and patterns on the rafters
of a house lasted but a short time; by the smoke
from the fire they were soon blackened and
obliterated.
The decorator worked without troubling about
symmetry or the completion of a pattern; if there
was not room for the whole scheme, he simply
omitted part. He painted with a wisp of flax for
a brush, and three pots of colours—red, white, and
black pigments, mixed with shark oil. In their
wood-carving the disregard of proportion is
noticeable. In figures, for instance, the head is
nearly always too large, although this may have
been intentional, in order to give a larger
field for the delineation of the moko or tattooing
of the face. Again, the body and limbs were
cramped into a
space too small
to allow of correct
proportion and
were generally
quite devoid of
carved pilasters from drawings
grace; the vacant by c- j- f^torius
T: TO r L» 3 •
carved from a drawing ornaments from lintels of doorways from drawings
slab by c j. pr/etorius by c j. i'r/etorius
22
pronounced. So fearful were the natives of
approaching this property under tapu that they
would not come within some yards of the outer
enclosure.
The painted designs and patterns on the rafters
of a house lasted but a short time; by the smoke
from the fire they were soon blackened and
obliterated.
The decorator worked without troubling about
symmetry or the completion of a pattern; if there
was not room for the whole scheme, he simply
omitted part. He painted with a wisp of flax for
a brush, and three pots of colours—red, white, and
black pigments, mixed with shark oil. In their
wood-carving the disregard of proportion is
noticeable. In figures, for instance, the head is
nearly always too large, although this may have
been intentional, in order to give a larger
field for the delineation of the moko or tattooing
of the face. Again, the body and limbs were
cramped into a
space too small
to allow of correct
proportion and
were generally
quite devoid of
carved pilasters from drawings
grace; the vacant by c- j- f^torius
T: TO r L» 3 •
carved from a drawing ornaments from lintels of doorways from drawings
slab by c j. pr/etorius by c j. i'r/etorius
22