Best. — Maori Eschatology. 183 



the head was kept, it was sometimes placed on a wooden peg 

 (turuturu) stuck in the ground, and people would mourn over it. 

 Near relatives would spread on the ground before it a kakahu 

 waero (cloak covered with dogs' tails), upon which they would 

 kneel before the head and chaunt an old-time dirge of the Maori 

 people." 



These dried heads were also exhibited at any important 

 function or meeting of the people. They were stuck on stakes 

 on the plaza, where meetings took place. Some had the lips 

 stitched together, which, if neatly done, would elicit the remark, 

 " M e te kuku Jca kopi " ("Like the neat closing of a mussel- 

 shell "). Some were left with the lips not fastened, hence 

 the lips contracted during the drying or curing process, and 

 the teeth became prominent. If the teeth were white and 

 sightly it was remarked. "Me te niJw kokota'''' ("Like kokota 

 teeth "). " Kokota " is the name of a shellfish. 



Heads of enemies were also preserved in a similar manner, 

 but for a different purpose. They would so preserve the head of 

 an enemy of the chieftain class that the}" might revile it, and 

 subject it to all indignities the fertile brain of the Maori might 

 conceive. Such heads Avould be placed in cooking-sheds and near 

 ovens, a fearful thing to the Maori. They would be exposed 

 to view on the plaza of the village, and reviled by passers-by. 

 Women would place them near where they worked at weaving, 

 &c, and occasionally turn to and curse them with great gusto, 

 heaping opprobrious epithets upon them, jeering and taunting 

 them, as though in the flesh. This would be when such women 

 had lost husbands or other relatives at the hands of the dead 

 or of his tribe. 



The method of embalming or preserving human heads 

 was a singular one. A steam- oven, similar to the ovens for 

 cooking food,* was made in the ground. This was covered over 

 save a small orifice left on the top and through which the hot 

 steam escaped. Over this the head was placed, the base thereof 

 being over the hole in the top of the oven (umu). The hot 

 steam caused the brains to melt, when they were easily got rid 

 of. The eyes were taken out, and the eyelids fastened down. 

 The skin was stripped off down to the shoulders to allow for 

 contraction ; it was then brought under the neck and there 

 tied. The Maori was very particular in preserving the heads 

 of his relatives to render them sightly when exposed to people 

 for crying over. He liked to see the lips closed so that the teeth 

 were not exposed. He was not so particular with the heads of 

 his enemies. 



* See Trans. X.Z. Inst., vol. xxxv, p. 88. 



