Best. — Maori Eschatology. 203 



Pukaka, axe in hand, jumped for Meremere, intending to kill 

 him, but Nga-maihi closed in and prevented him. The singing 

 of the canoe-hauling song was in disparagement of Eangi-takina ; 

 it likened his body to a canoe. Enough ! That party crumbled 

 away, each to his home, each to his home." 



It often occurs that a Native will claim a small piece of ground 

 where a parent or ancestor of his was buried or slain, although 

 he has no real right to such lands, either ancestral or by con- 

 quest, and such claims are often agreed to by the Native owners 

 of the block. When the Whaiti-nui-a-Toi Block was before the 

 Court, Parakiri, of Ngati-Manawa, stated in his evidence, " I 

 claimed a small part of Tahu-pango where my ancestor Taupoki 

 was buried. Ngati-Whare had handed over the piece when my 

 father told me that Taupoki's bones had been exhumed and 

 taken away. I then waived my claim." 



There are many singular methods by which the Maori of yore 

 sought to discover the cause of death and to avenge it. The 

 following is another specimen, and the death of the wizard 

 would be compassed by means of magic spells : " Another 

 custom of the Maori people : A person dies and is buried. If 

 it was believed that his death had been caused by witchcraft 

 a stick would be procured, over which magic spells were 

 uttered, and it was stuck in the centre of the grave and left 

 standing there. Now, should that stick descend (of its own 

 accord) into the ground, to the body which lies below, then not 

 one of the persons who caused his death will survive : they 

 will all perish. Such is the method adopted by the Maori 

 people in order to avenge a person destroyed by witchcraft." 



In regard to the Earth taking back her children (man) to her 

 bosom at death, a similar idea may be discerned in the Rig-veda : 

 the earth seems to have been invoked " to receive the dead, as 

 a mother receives her child." Observe a quotation at page 256 

 of Max Muller's " Anthropological Religion " ; also, at page 254, 

 an account of purification by immersion of the body in water 

 after funeral rites. Note the quotation, " They should not cook 

 food during that night." This is Maori. Funeral and many 

 other religious rites were performed by the Maori early in the 

 morning, and none were permitted to partake of food until the 

 ceremony was over and the tapu removed. We note in trans- 

 lations of and writings upon these ancient Oriental works, as 

 given by Max Muller, that fire and water were used for puri- 

 fication, just as they were among the Maori. In ancient Greece 

 this custom also obtained : "It was usual at Athens to place 

 a vessel full of water near the door, so that those who had 

 become impure by entering the house [of the dead] might purify 

 themselves." 



