Tregear.- -fj// /he Moriori. 75 



deuce of the bird's existence in tlu- Soutli Island, at least, in 

 recent times, that is an argument entitled to our consideration ; 

 but if we are to be told that the evidence of the Maoris them- 

 selves places the matter beyond dispute, then T say that it is 

 due to those who hold the opposite view that the evidence 

 should be put on record. 



Art. VII. — The Morion'. 

 By Edward Tregkar, F.E.Ci.S. 



Read before the Wellington PliUosopliical Society, 4tli December, 1S89.. 



The Chatham Islands are a small group about four hundred 

 miles to the eastward of New Zealand. They were originally 

 inhabited by a race called Moriori, a people akin to the Poly- 

 nesian Maori not only in appearance, liut in language. The 

 jMoriori are on the average slightly shorter and broader than 

 the Maori, but the hookecl nose sometimes seen on the Maori 

 face, especially in the north, is here very common, and in 

 some cases exaggerated to portentous dimensions. They differ 

 in some customs from the Maoi-i : thus, they do not "tattoo, 

 and know nothing of the art ; they appear to have had a 

 regular marriage ceremony ; and the disposal of tlie dead was 

 peculiar : If a man celebrated as a fisherman died, he was 

 lashed in a sitting-posture to a canoe and sent out to sea ; if 

 a great bird-catcher, his body was fastened to a tree with the 

 face turned towards the locality he had most hunted over in life. 

 The women were married very young in order to prevent any 

 indiscretion : adultery was punished by the offender being- 

 beaten nearly to death with clubs. The women ate apart 

 from the men, in the usual Polynesian fashion. The ancient 

 huts were either /\-shaped, like those of the Maori, or conical, 

 and formed by bundles of poles tied together at the top, after 

 the fashion of the North American wigwam. Children were 

 baptised (i.e., named, with sprinkhngs, &c.) with ceremonies 

 accompanied by the planting of a tree, as in New Zealand. 

 The New Zealand birds to be found in the Chathams are the 

 tui, hawk, pigeon, pukeko, fantail. lark, and titmouse : but 

 formerly they had a kiwi, the bittern, weka, white crane, and 

 kakapo. 



In 1832 the Maoris of the Ngatiawa and Ngatinuitunga 

 Tribes made a raid upon the Chathams. They found a peace- 

 ful and inoffensive people utterly unable to resist them, and 

 they took possession, treating the Moriori like sheep for the 

 butcher, which simile they carried further by devouring them 

 wholesale. 



