13.2 Evidence from Early European Descriptions of Maori Pa
219
those times, they would have been utterly untenable unless held by at least ten times the
number of men the whole surrounding districts, for two or three days journey, can produce;
and yet, when we remember that in those times of constant war, being the two centuries
preceding the arrival of the Europeans, the natives always, as a rule, slept in these hill forts
with closed gates, bridges over trenches removed, and ladders of terraces drawn up, we must
come to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the fort, though so numerous, were merely
the population of the country in the close vicinity. Now from the top of one of these pointed,
trenched, and terraced hills, I have counted twenty others, all of equally large dimensions,
and all within a distance, in every direction of fifteen to twenty miles; and native tradition
affirms that each of these hills was the stronghold of a separate clan, bearing its distinctive
name. There is also the most unmistakeable evidence that vast tracts of country, which have
lain wild time out of mind, were once fully cultivated. The ditches for draining the land are
still traceable, and large pits are to be seen in hundreds, on the tops of the dry hills, all over
the northern part of the North Island, in which the kumara were once stored. . .These pits,
being dug generally in the stiff clay of the hill tops, have, in most cases, retained their shape
perfectly, and many seem as fresh and new as if they had been dug but a few years. . .
Another evidence of a very large number of people having once inhabited these hill forts
is the number of houses they contained. . .Now in two of the largest hill forts I have
examined. . .the houses had been arranged in streets, or double rows, with a path between
them, except in places where there had been only room on a terrace for a single row. The
distance between the fireplaces proved that the houses in the rows must have been as close
together as it was possible to build them, and every spot, from the fort to the hill top, not
required and specially planned for defensive purposes, had been built on in this regular
manner. Even the small flat top, sixty yards long by forty wide, the citadel, had been as
full of houses as it could hold, leaving a small space all round the precipitous bank for the
defenders to stand on (pp. 25–26).
Best collected information on the great size of many of the pa:
Mr Colenso wrote as follows of the Whakawhitira pa, a fort that was said to have held
2,000 men:
Its fence [stockades] was also threefold, the massy and combined outer one being twentyfive to thirty feet high; its main posts consisting of entire and straight trees denuded of their
bark, with large carved full length figures painted red on their tops; of these figures there
were above a hundred. During our stay there we measured, by stepping, one of the sides
of this pa, and found it to be more than a mile in length, and the huge carved figures we
ascertained to be more than six feet high, with their heads fully and deeply tattooed (p. 28).
The hundred tattooed heads is a remarkable detail, the labour involved astonishing, especially given that the posts would have been hardwood and the chisels
of stone. It suggests the psychological importance of these figures as a deterrent
to attack. There is, too, a clear connection between carved figures such as these
on Maori palisade posts and those on palisade posts in Borneo. The connection is
remarkable enough to suggest a very ancient, possibly even a Lapita, origin for this
Maori practice, since it is matched in eastern Indonesia (Figs. 13.1 and 13.2). Best
quotes Ling Roth:
Some of the tribes of Borneo protected their communal houses by means of stockades.
These defences consisted of a double row of palisades. Many of the poles of which it
consists are ironwood, sometimes 30ft high, with rough carvings, representing disfigured
[grotesque] human faces with long tongues. . .in order to frighten as it were the attackers
(p. 431).
219
those times, they would have been utterly untenable unless held by at least ten times the
number of men the whole surrounding districts, for two or three days journey, can produce;
and yet, when we remember that in those times of constant war, being the two centuries
preceding the arrival of the Europeans, the natives always, as a rule, slept in these hill forts
with closed gates, bridges over trenches removed, and ladders of terraces drawn up, we must
come to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the fort, though so numerous, were merely
the population of the country in the close vicinity. Now from the top of one of these pointed,
trenched, and terraced hills, I have counted twenty others, all of equally large dimensions,
and all within a distance, in every direction of fifteen to twenty miles; and native tradition
affirms that each of these hills was the stronghold of a separate clan, bearing its distinctive
name. There is also the most unmistakeable evidence that vast tracts of country, which have
lain wild time out of mind, were once fully cultivated. The ditches for draining the land are
still traceable, and large pits are to be seen in hundreds, on the tops of the dry hills, all over
the northern part of the North Island, in which the kumara were once stored. . .These pits,
being dug generally in the stiff clay of the hill tops, have, in most cases, retained their shape
perfectly, and many seem as fresh and new as if they had been dug but a few years. . .
Another evidence of a very large number of people having once inhabited these hill forts
is the number of houses they contained. . .Now in two of the largest hill forts I have
examined. . .the houses had been arranged in streets, or double rows, with a path between
them, except in places where there had been only room on a terrace for a single row. The
distance between the fireplaces proved that the houses in the rows must have been as close
together as it was possible to build them, and every spot, from the fort to the hill top, not
required and specially planned for defensive purposes, had been built on in this regular
manner. Even the small flat top, sixty yards long by forty wide, the citadel, had been as
full of houses as it could hold, leaving a small space all round the precipitous bank for the
defenders to stand on (pp. 25–26).
Best collected information on the great size of many of the pa:
Mr Colenso wrote as follows of the Whakawhitira pa, a fort that was said to have held
2,000 men:
Its fence [stockades] was also threefold, the massy and combined outer one being twentyfive to thirty feet high; its main posts consisting of entire and straight trees denuded of their
bark, with large carved full length figures painted red on their tops; of these figures there
were above a hundred. During our stay there we measured, by stepping, one of the sides
of this pa, and found it to be more than a mile in length, and the huge carved figures we
ascertained to be more than six feet high, with their heads fully and deeply tattooed (p. 28).
The hundred tattooed heads is a remarkable detail, the labour involved astonishing, especially given that the posts would have been hardwood and the chisels
of stone. It suggests the psychological importance of these figures as a deterrent
to attack. There is, too, a clear connection between carved figures such as these
on Maori palisade posts and those on palisade posts in Borneo. The connection is
remarkable enough to suggest a very ancient, possibly even a Lapita, origin for this
Maori practice, since it is matched in eastern Indonesia (Figs. 13.1 and 13.2). Best
quotes Ling Roth:
Some of the tribes of Borneo protected their communal houses by means of stockades.
These defences consisted of a double row of palisades. Many of the poles of which it
consists are ironwood, sometimes 30ft high, with rough carvings, representing disfigured
[grotesque] human faces with long tongues. . .in order to frighten as it were the attackers
(p. 431).