Bullek. — On some peculiar Maori Remains. 14.9 



assumed that its original owner was one of the ancestors of 

 the Muaupoko people, now residing at Horowhenua. 



The other specimen is part of a Maori skull, in which there 

 is an abnormal growth of one of the teeth. It will be seen 

 that the left upper canine or " eye-tooth " is turned com- 

 pletely upside down in its socket, the crown appearing in the 

 region of the nostril, and the fang coming out in the roof of 

 the mouth or palate. From the condition of the adjoining bi- 

 cuspid, the enamel being worn away by long grinding and the 

 dentine exposed, it evidently belonged to an adult, presumably 

 a person past middle age. The reversed tooth is of the normal 

 length, and its singular position is perhaps due to some injury 

 to the upper jaw during youth, but not during infancy, because 

 this is a fully-developed second tooth. The proper socket has 

 become obliterated by absorption, and a thick covering of 

 bone has been formed in front of the eccentric tooth, giving 

 quite a normal appearance to the jaw. 



This relic was obtained by my son in 1878 from a ioahi 

 tapu or sacred grove some six or seven miles up the Opotiki 

 Eiver, on the East Coast. The place of sepulture was a 

 hollow tree about 4ft. in diameter. The bones of the dead had 

 been deposited within the tree from an aperture about 12ft. 

 from the ground, and the interments had been continued from 

 time to time, till the hollow tree was completely filled up with 

 human remains. For a long period of time this burial-place, 

 protected by a thick clump of bush, had been unvisited by any 

 Maori, the resident tribes having, with the advent of civilisa- 

 tion, adopted other modes of disposing of their dead. But 

 the hollow tree-trunk, containing the remains of a former 

 generation, had decayed with time and broken asunder, dis- 

 charging its ghastly memorials in a confused heap all around. 

 At the time of my son's visit, in company with Captain Mair, 

 the place was so strictly tapu that it was considered unsafe for 

 any European to trespass upon it, to say nothing of inter- 

 fering with the human relics. My son had therefore to content 

 himself with only a hurried inspection, and, in order to bring 

 away the remarkable specimen now exhibited, had to break off 

 and leave behind the major part of the skull. I believe 

 the clump of bush is still under strict tapu, and it will pro- 

 bably remain so for many years to come. The island in the 

 Papaitonga Lake, on the other hand, where he obtained the 

 heavy cranium now exhibited, although the scene of a terrible 

 slaughter, and practically the cemetery of the Muaupoko tribe, 

 has never been tapu at all. This will no doubt seem strange 

 to you, but it is readily explainable. The two cases afford 

 a good illustration of the manner in which the Maoris of old 

 understood and interpreted what Mr. Colenso has fittingly 

 termed " that mysterious and intricate institution of the tapu." 



