610 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Art. LXX. — Maori Preserved Heads, 

 By the Eev. Philip Walsh. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 1st October, 1894.'] 



Most of the early writers on New Zealand mention the prac- 

 tice of preserving human heads, which appears to have been 

 universal among the Maoris in their primitive state. None 

 of the numerous accounts, however, are very complete, and 

 most of them appear to be rather descriptions at second-hand 

 than records of personal observation, the reason probably 

 being not so much a lack of curiosity on the part of the writers 

 as the fact that observers were necessarily few, and would, 

 from prudential motives, naturally keep aloof from the scenes 

 of which the heads formed the central point of interest ; 

 besides which in many cases, the actual business of prepara- 

 tion being strictly tapu, or sacred, an effectual bar would be 

 placed against a too minute scrutiny. 



In the present paper I do not pretend to give an ex- 

 haustive account of the subject so much as to propose the 

 consideration of a question not only curious in itself but of 

 great interest from an ethnological point of view, throwing 

 light as it does on many peculiar aspects of aboriginal life and 

 character, in the hope that it may be taken up by those who 

 are better able to do it justice than myself. 



In seeking for information I have largely availed myself of an 

 unpublished journal" of the Eev. Samuel Marsden, the founder 

 of the Church Mission in New Zealand, who, during several 

 visits to this country in the early days of the century, enjoyed 

 peculiar advantages for observing the customs of the natives 

 in their primitive state. I also obtained a most minute and 

 graphic description from Mr. W. King, of Waimate North, 

 who, when a little boy, happened to be an eye-witness of the 

 actual process of preservation of two heads, which, according 

 to the general belief of the Bay of Islands natives, are those 

 which are now in the Auckland Museum. 



Though the custom from a civilized point of view was 

 certainly a barbarous one, it was not practised from mere 

 wanton brutality, or simply from a desire for personal aggran- 

 disement on the part of the conqueror — like that of scalping, 

 for instance, among the American Indians. No dishonour 

 whatever was intended to the owner of the head : in fact, the 

 exact opposite was the case. The distinction — for such it 



* The original MS. is in the possession of Dr. Hocken, of Dunedin. 

 The published journal consists of extracts from this work. 



