Page:Pounamu, notes on New Zealand greenstone (IA pounamunotesonne00robl).djvu/47

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GREENSTONE ORNAMENTS.
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of a shark’s tooth with its root, the graceful curves of the original being faithfully copied. When correctly worn it hung from the ear with the point to the front. The natural white tooth Left image is in the shape of a shark’s tooth, complete with the root, carved from greenstone. The right image is a side view.
Figure 19
of the shark was also much prized as an ornament, but its inferiority to a jewel of kahurangi, jade of the finest quality, is recognised in a native poem which has been translated as follows:—


That is worthless,
That is the bone of a fish;
But if it were the little pounamu,
That ancient source of evil,
The fame whereof reaches
Beyond the limits of the sky—eh!

The poria (Figure 20), otherwise called moria, was a small double ring of round or oval section, made for the leg Two samples of a greenstone leg ring for a parrot or kaka. One on the left is circular and the right one is more oval shaped. The smaller ring at the top is for a flax cord to passed to secure the bird to its perch.
Figure 20
of a decoy or the large russet brown parrots (nestor meridionalis) called kaka, which were kept as pets by the Maori. Through the smaller ring shewn at the top of the two examples here figured, was passed the cord by which the bird was secured to its perch.