"Nulla-mullahs, paddy-melon sticks, boomerangs, tomahawks, and heelimen or shields lay about in every direction."
<hw>Pah</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Pa</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Pake</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a coarse mat used against rain. A sack thrown over the shoulders is called by the settlers a <i>Pake</i>.
<hw>Pakeha</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori word for a white man. The word is three syllables, with even accent on all. A Pakeha Maori is an Englishman who lives as a Maori with the Maoris. Mr. Tregear, in his `Maori Comparative Dictionary,' s.v. <i>Pakepakeha</i>, says: "Mr. John White [author of `Ancient History of the Maoris'] considers that <i>pakeha</i>, a foreigner, an European, originally meant `fairy,' and states that on the white men first landing sugar was called `fairy-sand,' etc." Williams' `Maori Dictionary' (4th edit.) gives, "a foreigner: probably from <i>pakepakeha</i>, imaginary beings of evil influence, more commonly known as <i>patupaiarehe</i>, said to be like men with fair skins." Some express this idea by "fairy." Another explanation is that the word is a corruption of the coarse English word, said to have been described by Dr. Johnson (though not in his dictionary), as "a term of endearment amongst sailors." The first <i>a</i> in Pakeha had something of the <i>u</i> sound. The sailors' word would have been introduced to New Zealand by whalers in the early part of the nineteenth century.
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' (Church Missionary Society), p. 187:
"Pakeha, <i>s</i>. an European; a white man."
1832. A. Earle, `Narrative of Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand,' p. 146:
"The white taboo'd day, when the packeahs (or white men) put on clean clothes and leave off work" [sc. Sunday].
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. p. 73:
"We do not want the missionaries from the Bay of Islands, they are pakeha maori, or whites who have become natives."