Best. — Maori Eschatology. 161 



and trusts of your people who have gone before.' The Tuoi 

 arose : ' sir, the father of the people, the holder of the tribe, 

 salutations to you ! ' And Toi replied, ' Hold to the welfare 

 of your people, preserve it for the generations to come.' Arose 

 the Eaupo-ngaueue : ' father, we greet you — you who nur- 

 tured the people that they might retain life in this world.' 

 Said Toi, ' My words to you shall not differ. Your salvation — 

 it is the advice given by Puhao-rangi and Ioio-whenua — the 

 welfare of the tribe, preserve it.' So died the famed Wood-eater. 

 Toi of Ka-pu-te-rangi." 



It must not, however, be supposed that the last words of a 

 Native chief were always of the above nature : far from it. 

 The much-quoted Toi was the high chief of the tangata whenua, 

 or original people, of the Bay of Plenty district, a people who 

 were not, apparently, of a warlike disposition, in which respect 

 they much differed from the later migration of Polynesians 

 to these shores. 



A leading feature in such valedictory addresses of a dying 

 chief to his people lay in his strenuous urging of them to avenge 

 such defeats, or murders, or insults as had been suffered by his 

 tribe, and which accounts were not yet " squared." 



The term " oha " is applied by the Maori to all wishes, instruc- 

 tions, and advice of a dying person, as also to the property he 

 leaves to his descendants. It also applies to his widow and to 

 the tribe (Ko te hapu, he oha na te tangata rangatira kua mate). 

 Williams's Maori Dictionary gives : oha = to greet ; maioha — 

 to greet ; koha = parting instructions, respect, regard, a present, 

 gift, &c. ; oha = a relic, keepsake, a dying speech ; whakatav- 

 oha = to make a dying speech ; oha = generous, &c. 



Dying people are sometimes farewelled by the assembled 

 people before they expire, but most of such speeches are uttered 

 when the body is lying in state — i.e., after death. The tangi 

 (wailing) also sometimes commences when the person is in 

 extremis. The farewelling remarks of the people at this time, 

 however, are as a rule not long speeches, but brief, sententious 

 remarks, pregnant with mytho-poetic ideas and the mentality 

 of a primitive people : e.g., " Haere ra, E Pa ! Haere ki ou 

 tipuna. Haere ki Hawaiki. Haere ra. E te pa-whakawairua ! 

 Haere ki Paerau." (" Farewell, father ! Go to your an- 

 cestors. Depart to Hawaiki. Farewell. the pa-ivhakawairua / 

 Go to Paerau.") 



The terms " Hawaiki " and " Paerau " are in such cases used 

 to imply the spirit- world, or perhaps the fatherland of the race in 

 the sense of its being the place where the genus homo originated. 



At other times the wailing commenced when the breath left 

 the body. 



6— Trans. 



