Building Part / Mask

A wooden gable peak mask for a meeting house carved from a rectangular piece of wood with a round disc extension at the bottom. The beaked mouth has a split tongue joined at the tip. The eyes have central pegs for the attachment of shell inlays (missing) and are set into diagonally-slanting ellipses of ridges and long pakati (dog's-tooth notches). The surface carving also includes a large plain grooved double spiral on the disc below the tongue, and three others slightly smaller, one on the forehead and two at the corners of the mouth. There are rauponga (several parallel ridges and grooves with a notched ridge in between) and haehae (grooves) on the forehead, nose, around the mouth and on the tongue. On the forehead they form two 'horn' shapes and a round ellipse in the center. There are also two simple flat raised discs, one on each cheek. There are two hooks joined by wire on the top at the back. Traces of black and white paint remain in the haehae (grooves).