Longue massue "tewhatewha"

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Description

wood, shell inlay, perforation for feather attachment at bottom of blade next to shaft

These clubs with conspicuously asymmetrical heads are said to have been used by commanders as signalling devices during combat operations.

According to attached label: “Used to have an old label attached, dated 1827 or 1829, stating this club was given to a Mas. King and Clarke by a Maori Chief Shunhee in friendship after the plunder and destruction of the Wesleyan Mission settlement at Whangarooa Harbour and the destruction of the Boyd by Maori Chief Tepui from the Ngatehuau tribe.

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Littérature comparée

Mead, Sidney Moko (ed.), Te Maori, New York 1984, p. 185, ill. 36

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