Mere Pounamu
The mere pounamu is the short, broad-bladed club of the Maori, carved from pounamu, the greenstone of New Zealand, and regarded as a chiefly weapon and a great heirloom. The blade is leaf-shaped and polished, straight-edged and thicker along its length, and the rounded grip is pierced for a wrist cord, so that the club swings with a stroke of the forearm. Named meres were handed down through the generations, and the mana of the weapon passed from hand to hand, with the saying that a chief was lifted by receiving such a weapon. Because pounamu comes from the rivers and mountains of the South Is