powerful family, realizing his impotence, spake bitterly and said, “Ko te moko ta kau i au; mehe ko te moko i a Rangi-nui-te-Ao, e mana ana te kohatu, e mana ana, te tukituki” (” Alas! the tattooing of my face was in vain; were it but the tattooing on the face of Rangi-nui-te-Ao, then the stone club and the stone pounder would be backed by the authority of power”). Rangi-nui-te-Ao was the eldest of the seven brothers. This saying reached the ears of Tukutahi and Rehetaia, the powerful kinsmen of the helpless one. Inquiries and explanations led to the advent of a war-party, which effectively—but that is another story.

The ahi-ka-roa, the fire that has been alight for a long period, is a well-known term in establishing claims to land. It takes its origin from the custom or necessity of not allowing the fire to become extinct.

Apart from the method of rekindling a cooking-fire, charcoal fires were the ordinary means of heating the wharepuni, or dwelling-houses. The lack of ventilation, prohibited the use of wood, owing to the nuisance created by smoke. The charcoal as it burnt down was covered by a deposit of ash, which was usually gently waved off with the fire-fan ere a fresh supply of charcoal was added.

The necessity for a fire-fan was further occasioned by the general repugnance of the Maori to blowing a fire with the breath. This took its origin from the prohibitions imposed by the law of tapu. If a chief blew on an ordinary fire, the breath, coming as it did from his sacred or tapu head, impregnated the fire with tapu and prohibited its use for cooking purposes. Food is noa, or common, and at the opposite extreme to tapu, and food could not be cooked on such a fire. If cooked inadvertently, the tapu affected those who partook of it, and the act thus transgressed the chief's tapu. The act of cooking food on such a fire was also a direct insult to the chief, and it is probable that the abstaining from cooking was due not only to fear of the supernormal guardians of the chief's tapu, but also to fear of active human reprisals. Thus the principle of blowing a fire with the human breath was dangerous, and was avoided by using a mechanical contrivance, the fire-fan. In these degenerate socialistic days the fear of tapu has vanished to a great degree, and the fire-fan has lost its monopoly. Two generations ago, however, every old woman had her fire-fan, which, when not in nse, was kept under the edge of a floor-mat flanking the fire.

The fire-fan is generically known as piupiu ahi. The many words used to express fanning a fire were also used for the fan. Such are towhiriwhiri, kowhiuwhiu, powaiwai, and powhiri. The technique of the fire-fan is quite simple. Ordinary wefts of green flax are plaited, usually with a twilled-two stroke, in the manner of a miniature floor-mat of the taka variety. The one figured in Plate 37, fig. 1, is 8 ½ in. long by 5 in. wide. The beginning-edge may be done by plaiting the butt wefts with a three-ply braid as in the taka mat. The kopetipeti finish is often used with the hiki plait as well. In the fan figured, the beginning was simply commenced by interplaiting the wefts for a short distance and then using the kopetipeti finish to secure them. The last wefts of the finishing-border are sometimes continued into a braid to form a loop by which the fan may be hung up; though, as mentioned, it is usually kept under the edge of a floor-mat.