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Kahu Kuri (Dogskin Cloaks).
These were probably the most highly prized of all the ancient) cloaks. There is but little information on record -anent the old Maori kuri. Pio, of Ngatiawa, states that the ancient tribes of New Zealand possessed the dog, it being known as “kuri ruarangi.” The kuri was used for hunting the kakapo, weka, and kiwi, and was also eaten. The tails and skins were used for cloaks, or, rather, to adorn the same, for the body (papa, or kaupapa) of the cloaks was almost invariably of whitau.
Kahu-waero: This was the most highly valued. The cloak was woven of dressed flax, and so thickly covered with white dogs' tails that papa of the cloak was quite concealed. The hair of these tails was long, and the tails thick and bushy.
Mahiti: This was of the same materials as the kahu-waero, but the tails were not so numerous, being attached at wide intervals.
Puahi: This was made of the skins of white-haired dogs, the skins being cut into strips, and sewn on to the body of the cloak.
‘Topuni: This was made in the same manner as the puahi, but of black skins.’ This was the least prized of these cloaks; still, all were worn by chiefs only.
Ihupuni: Of similar make to the topuni, and of black skins.
Tapahu: A war-cloak of dog-skin. Used, as a protection against spear-thrusts. “He tapahu o Irawaru” is an ancient saying, Irawaru being the tutelary deity of dogs. This cloak was formed by sewing together the skins of dogs, no flax being used in its contraction.
We have given a list of such cloaks as were used by the natives of this region in former times. These cloaks and capes were all worn across the shoulders, and were fastened either in front or on the right shoulder. The rougher class of such garments were fastened by means of the two strings before mentioned but the finer ones (kakahu) were often fastened
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by means of cloak-pins, termed “autui.” These autui were slender curved pins, about 4 in. in length, very neatly made of whalebone, and in later times from boars' tusks. A man would often have a bunch of these autui suspended to his cloak in front, as an ornament. The aurei were small, oblong, flat pieces of whalebone, similar to the kakara fastened to a dog's neck when hunting the kiwi. Four or six of these aurei were fastened to a chief's cloak in front, so as to make a rattling sound as he moved.
Ochre: No Maori chief or exquisite could be happy unless his dressing-case were well supplied with red ochre, red being the colour most esteemed by the Maori. This ochre (horu, or kokowai) was applied to both the body and the clothing in days of yore. It was mixed with shark-oil, or the oil expressed from the berries of the titoki, and thus used as a paint. Lateral bands of this pigment painted across the forehead were considered a great ornament, and were known as” tuhi korae,” or “tuhi marae kura.” Bands or stripes of the same crossing the face diagonally from the corner of the forehead down, over the eye to the cheek were termed “tuhi kohuru.” Ochre was either collected from certain springs or by burning certain earth. Famous springs of this kind generally had distinctive names, such as “Nga Toto-o-Tawera,” near Ohaua.