Best. — Maori Eschutology. 109 



These omens will not be inserted here, on account of their 

 excessive number. Also, many of them have been published 

 already in my paper on " Omens and Superstitions of the 

 Maori." * 



We will now attend the bedside of the dying Maori and see 

 how he fares when caught in the " snare of Hine-nui-te-Po," 

 as the saying has it. We will note his thoughts regarding death 

 and the spirit- world ; we will look with his eyes on strange rites, 

 and stand by the priest who aids his soul to quit the wrecked 

 body ; we will follow him to the underworld and commune with 

 the gods of Hades : and you shall see a man who dies calmly, 

 and in times of stress — as under torture — bravely. For his mind 

 has not been terrorised for long centuries by pictures of eternal 

 suffering after death. His priests, in one respect, could teach 

 us one grand lesson. He has not been taught to fear the here- 

 after. 



The end is near. The sick person has been carried to the 

 plaza of the village home or fort ; his relatives and friends are 

 gathered here to hear his last words. If he be an important 

 person, practically the whole tribe are present— at least, all those 

 dwelling near by — though I have seen Natives travel forty miles 

 over rough bush trails to see their chief die and to hear his last 

 words. If he had been taken ill away from home his relatives 

 would carry him thence on a litter, so that he might die on his 

 own land and among his own people — a very desirable thing 

 among Natives. I have seen men so carried over the roughest 

 forest ranges. 



The dying man would be found lying on some mats placed on 

 the ground, and covered with the scant clothing of primitive 

 man, probably a cloak woven from the fibre of the so-called 

 flax (Phormium tenax). When a Maori dies, such of his clothing 

 as may have been used by him or have been in contact with him 

 during his illness is either buried with him or burned at his death. 

 In former times they possessed nothing in the way of clothing 

 similar to European garments, but merely cloaks, capes, and kilts. 

 Since the Natives have adopted European garments, relatives of a 

 person near his end will often say to him, " Put on your clothes," 

 and will assist him to do so. He thus dies in them, and is buried 

 in them. If any such are left they are burned. But if he has 

 any spare clothing packed away, such is not destroyed at his 

 death, but is taken by relatives. Also, the vessels used to cook 

 food in for a sick person, if his own property, are often destroyed 

 at his death. They are destroyed for the same reason that his 

 clothing was burned — lest others use them ; for death has its 



* See " Journal of the Polynesian Society," vol. vii. 



