Walsh. — On Maori Preserved Heads. 611 



really was — was strictly reserved for persons of importance, 

 and the heads of the chiefs of the tribe, and occasionally 

 those of their wives and children, were preserved as well as 

 those of the chiefs of the enemy who were slain in battle. 

 Mr. Marsden states that "it is gratifying to the vanquished 

 to know that the heads of their chiefs are preserved by the 

 enemy "; and the same authority relates the case of a chief's 

 wife who had the head of her sister preserved and placed 

 in an " ark" near her hut, " in order that she might relieve 

 her feelings by weeping over it." In fact, the curing of a 

 head was an acknowledgment of the nobility of its original 

 owner, and it is more than probable that many a young brave 

 was supported under the pain of tattooing by the thought of 

 the handsome and warlike appearance that it would give to 

 his countenance whenever his head came to be preserved. 



The principal object of the custom seems to have been to 

 keep alive the memory of the dead ; aud the mokomokai, as 

 they were called, supplied to a people ignorant of literature 

 and the arts the place of statues and pictures and monumental 

 records. In the case of • the departed chief of a tribe they 

 were a visible sign that in some mysterious way his presence 

 still dwelt among his people, inciting them to emulate his 

 virtues and to follow in his steps ; while in that of the 

 slaughtered warrior of the enemy they served to keep alive 

 the memory of the injury received by the tribe in whose 

 possession they remained, and were a constant challenge to 

 revenge and retaliation. 



As might be expected, the preserved heads were familiar 

 objects about the old Maori pas. According to an interesting 

 account lately published by the Eev. G. Smales," those of the 

 enemy were usually placed on the tops of the houses or on 

 poles by the wayside, where they were exposed to the con- 

 temptuous taunts of the passers-by ;t while those of relatives 

 and friends were carefully kept in some secluded spot pro- 

 tected by the strictest tapu, whence they were brought forth 

 and exposed to public view on great occasions, as, e.g., the 

 hahunga, a feast attending the ceremonial raising of a chief's 

 bones, or the general gathering that took place on the eve of 

 the departure of a war-expedition. The most important part 

 which they played, however, was during the actual progress 

 of the war, and in the negotiations respecting its continuance 



* " Episodes in the Life of an Old Missionary," Auckland Herald, 

 1894. 



f Mr. J. B. Lee, native teacher, of Waima, Hokianga, informs me, 

 on the authority of Hone Mohi Tawhai, chief of that district, that the 

 head of an obnoxious party would be dried, and, as an ito, would accom- 

 pany its rangatira on fishing excursions, when it would be so fixed on the 

 gunwale of tbe canoe as to nod freely if a fish took the baited hook, the 

 line of which was attached to the ear. 



