water in which certain barks have been steeped, and afterwards it is placed in a certain black mud. For this black dye the bark of either the hinau, tawai, tawhero, or hinau-puka is used. This bark is placed upon a stone and beaten with a wooden mallet of maire wood, shaped like a thick pestle, until the bark is all bruised and broken up. The patu for beating fibres are made of black volcanic stone (karä and uri), which have a rough, open grain, the same being considered preferable for pounding fibre for io threads. These beaters are very neatly made, and were highly prized, being handed down for many generations. The one here obtained for the Auckland Museum is five generations old. When thoroughly crushed a portion of the bark is put into a wooden trough or bowl, or a trough hollowed out of a log. A layer of crushed bark is placed in the bottom of the trough. On this is placed a layer of fibre, then another layer of bark, and soon. The trough is then filled with water, and the fibre left to steep in the dye thus formed for twelve or sixteen hours. When taken out the fibre is sticky to the feel and by no means black, but of a dirty-brown colour. The fibre is then steeped for twenty-four hours in a peculiar black mud, such as is found in a white-pine swamp, and in which is seen a reddish exudation. (Kia noho tetahi mea whero, waikura whenua, kai roto i te repo. Hai te woo kahikatea te paru pena. Ko aua tu paru he mea heri ki etahi kainga, ka whakato ki tetahi repo, a ka nui haere.) Such swamps are famous places, and have been used for centuries, such as the one at Rakau-whakawhitiwhiti, near Te Umu-roa, while at Kaka-nui is a small swamp to which the desired mud has been “transplanted” from the former. This mud renders the fibre a deep black; in fact, it is the black dye, while the dark sap of the bark sets the dye of the mud. (Ko te hinau hai pupuri i te pango o te paru.) When dried the fibre is ready for the weaver.

Red Dye: This was obtained from the bark of the toatoa (or tanekaha). The bark is pounded and broken up. A separate fire is then kindled away from the settlement. It must not be a fire at which food it cooked, nor may it be kindled from such a fire. Thus there is a certain amount of tapu about this fire, and the process of dyeing fibre thereat must not be witnessed by others save the manipulators, otherwise the latter would lose their knowledge (ka riro te matauranga), which, however, may mean that onlookers would thus acquire the knowledge of dyeing, a circumstance by no means desired by the conservative members of the whare pora.

The crushed bark is placed in a vessel, which is then filled with water and placed on the fire, where it is allowed to boil for some time. In ancient times the bark was placed in an oko