The Art of R. Terry Malone
The Art of R. Terry Malone
Fine Art Giclee Prints Depicting the Era of the 1700 and 1800s

 

A Maori Greeting

A Maori Greeting
Original-Vinyls on Illustration Board
When Captain Cook was circumnavigating New Zealand, the Maori would attack by throwing spears, performing war dances, and making speeches. The ship surgeons diary noted: "They treated us with a kind of heiva or war dance performed by striking their paddles upon the gunwall, beating time in exact regularity to the parts of a song which they chanted in a very martial tone ... (one of the natives) ... in bending forward, throwing his arms behind him, elevating his head, staring wildly upwards and thrusting his tongue forward ... At the close of the song, pronouncing the last sentence with a hoarse expirations - the rest followed his example in the last manoeuvre. We commended the performance and they obliged us with a repetition of it."





© 2005 R. Terry Malone