Behind the Tattooed Face
By (Author) Heretaunga Pat Baker
Cape Catley
Cape Catley
1st January 2003
New Zealand
Paperback
276
520g
A sweeping story of action and suspense, Behind the Tattooed Face presents the complex web of Maori belief, tribal rituals and discipline which existed at the time of the voyages of Captain James Cook. The story is set in the late 1700s, about 600 years after the great canoes from the Central Pacific had arrived in New Zealand. Here in the new land off the Canoe Coast, in what is now known as the Bay of Plenty, the people settled and prospered and here Maori society reached the zenith of its power and development. Then, as the people multiplied, the question of survival became inextricably interwoven with the concepts of mana and tribal honour. The delicately poised balance of power was easily upset so that bloody warfare, cannibalism and slavery prevailed.