2-995-678 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pah, or fortified village, of the natives in the province of New Plymouth (Taranaki), New Zealand, 1860. 'New Zealand abounds with isolated and steep hills, which afford to the different tribes places of refuge. On such hills they have built villages, which are fortified with palisadoes and ditches, and to these small fortresses they retire when attacked by an enemy. These...pahs...as recent events have shown, with stout arms and hearts to defend them, are not to be despised...A common pah consists of two or three rows (two or three feet apart) of stout split paling, ten to twelve feet high, lashed with flax and creepers to posts... the houses...[are] little rush-and-pole verandah-huts, devoid of window, door, or chimney...Here, too, are stacks of fuel, the Warepuni, some chief's or rich man's better house, and perchance a bell-decked wooden chapel. Here, too, is the larder - kits of kumera and potatoes, maize and wheat, dried eels, roots, and berries, stowed aloft on shelves or poles away from rat and dog...In several of the Maori pahs are houses with pillars, which are covered with carved figures, executed with considerable skill, and probably having reference to the military exploits of then possessors'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.