Weapon; Club
54.160.267
Information
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 and feathers are bound to the shaft at the neck with plaited and twisted fibre cord. The surface decoration on the tongue is double spirals formed by haehae (parallel grooves) and ridges with pakati (dog's-tooth notches). There is a hole through the shaft. One eye is shell-inlaid.