Weapon; Club

A taiaha (long club/fighting staff) with one end (the head) carved in the shape of a tongue with a human face on either side of the shaft below it, the other end is a smooth blade. Tufts of dog hair are bound to the staff with fibre halfway down the shaft, but have probably slipped from the neck, where there is an area of paler (unweathered) wood. The surface decoration on the tongue is double spirals formed by haehae (parallel grooves) and ridges with pakati (dog's-tooth notches). One eye is shell-inlaid, and the shell is broken.