Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The study of man / by Alfred C. Haddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
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![slender under jaws become entangled. (Fig. 36, No. 4.) The Fijians know of the kite by the Polynesian name of Mammtanu, bird, but apparently they do not fly it.* The use of the kite was widely spread in Polynesia, being recorded from the Society Islands and as far south as New Zealand. ElHs states, The boys were very fond of the tt,o, or kite, which they raised to a great height. The Tahitian kite was different in shape from the kites of the English boys. It was made of light native cloth instead of paper, and formed in shape according to the fancy of its owner. t In New Zealand the name of the kite is the old term for the hawk. Their figure is generally a rough imitation of the bird with its great out-spread wings ; these kites are frequently made of very large dimen- sions of raupo leaves, a kind of sedge, neatly sewn together and kept in shape by a slight framework. The string is most expeditiously formed and length- ened at pleasure, being merely the split leaves of the flax plant [Phormium tenax]. This is a very favourite amusement.! Diefifenbach says, The kite is of triangular form, and is very neatly made of the light * Seemann, Viti, p. 45. t W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. (2nd Ed., 1831), p. 228. X R. Taylor, Te Ika a Maui; or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 1855, p. 172.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21444584_0290.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
