Kōauau

A "Kōauau" is a small flute, ductless and notchless, four to eight inches long, open at both ends and having from three to six fingerholes placed along the pipe.

"Kōauau" resemble flutes the world over both in tone quality and in the range of sounds that can be produced by directing the breath across the sharp edge of the upper aperture. Māori "kōauau" players were renowned for the power it gave them over the affections of women (notably illustrated by the story of Tūtānekai, who, by playing his "kōauau", convinced Hinemoa to swim to him across Lake Rotorua). "Kōauau" are made of wood or bone. Formerly the bone was of bird bone such as albatross or moa; some instruments were also of human bone and were associated with chiefly status and with the precolonial practice of utu.