130 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



commenced an affectionate and whining korero with a skull 

 suspended from a branch. I said, ' What old friend is 

 that?' 'Oh,' said she, 'it is my first husband; he was a 

 tine pai' (a good husband). My wife and I used both 

 entreaties and arguments to break them from such inde- 

 cent and unholy customs. One day, during my absence 

 from home, a person was about to be interred in the usual 

 manner. My wife, however, hastened to the spot and in- 

 sisted upon having a deep grave dug. She was instantly 

 obeyed, upon which she read an appropriate prayer, and the 

 body was interred with decency. From that time the old 

 custom was never revived." 



If for any reason the Morioris really did abandon their 

 ancient custom of tree-burial, it is not difficult to believe that 

 they might, in place of the actual bodies, carve upon the bark 

 •of the trees those remarkable figures which are so clearly 

 intended to represent skeletons. Such carvings would serve 

 as a memento mori almost as well as the corpse itself, without 

 the obvious disadvantages of the latter. There are several 

 reasons why the kopi-trees should always have been selected 

 for the carving. It is almost the only tree large enough, and, 

 on account of the smooth nature of the bark, quite the most 

 suitable ; while, if there was any right of individual ownership 

 in the trees, it is not unnatural to suppose that the effigy of 

 the departed would be placed on his own property. This 

 view of the case may also in some measure explain the 

 Maori idea that the carvings indicated the doom of the 

 Moriori race, for the abandonment of the ancient burial 

 custom would probably be regarded as a most serious in- 

 fringement of tapu, and as such would be expected to entail 

 disastrous consequences. In this connection it is interesting 

 to note Mr. Shand's statement that " the Morioris began to 

 die very rapidly after the arrival of the Maoris, the cause 

 of which they attribute to the transgression of their own 

 tapu, for the Morioris were an exceedingly tapu race." 



There are also rude rock-carvings on the island, but these 

 are of quite a different type from those which I observed on 

 the trees. At the entrance of a shallow cave at Mororoa the 

 soft limestone rock is scored with bird-hke figures in endless re- 

 petition (Plate V., fig. 5). These may possibly represent shags. 

 Mr. Shand told me that a Moriori showed him two figures on 

 the rock at Moutapu, which they say were the models from 

 which all the bird-figures were taken ; but they seem, accord- 

 ing to the same authority, to have called the figures on the 

 trees birds, so that there is doubtless some confusion here. 

 I was also told by a lady on the island that she had found 

 the figure of a shag carved on hard wood in a Moriori grave. 

 Possibly the shag was regarded as a sacred bird. 



