Best. — Maori Eschatology. 193 



open near O-potiki Captain Mair counted over three hundred 

 skulls. 



A rata tree at Raorao, on the Wai-riko Block, was formerly 

 used as a burial-tree. The bodies were placed among masses 

 of Astelia, with which the leaning trunk was covered on the 

 upper side. 



The bones of the dead of the Ngai-Te-Kapo clan, of Rua-toki, 

 were placed in a hollow pukatea tree (Atherosperma novce-zea- 

 landiw). 



A kahikatea tree at Nga-whakahiwawa, in the Horomanga 

 Valley, was an old-time burial-place, as also was a similar tree 

 at Raro-po. 



When some of the Tuhoe Tribe were living at Anini, near 

 Te Pa-puni, their dead were not buried in the ground, but placed 

 in trees. 



It is said that the remains of Mura-kareke and Tama-pokai, 

 two famous chiefs of Tuhoe, were concealed in a hollow rata 

 tree at Owhakatoro. 



When Te Korowhiti died at Te Kohuru his body was placed 

 on a platform or staging constructed among the branches of a 

 tawhero tree. This making of a platform in a tree-top, on 

 which to place a dead body, was by no means an uncommon 

 occurrence. 



Swamp Burial. 



As observed above, it was a Native custom to place bodies 

 in swamps and lagoons or ponds, the body being usually thrust 

 down into the mud, and the water-plants, rushes, &c, would soon 

 grow up and so obliterate all signs of disturbance. There are 

 several such swamp burial-places at Te Whaiti — indeed, they 

 exist in most parts of the Matatua district, being perhaps more 

 numerous in the open country where no forest existed in which 

 the dead might be concealed. Te Korokoro, Wai-pokere, and 

 Te Kowhai are three of these burial-swamps at Te Whaiti. In 

 a good many cases dead were buried near a settlement (where 

 the graves could be protected from enemies), and when the bones 

 were exhumed they would be conveyed to a swamp and there 

 trampled into the mud for concealment. This method was 

 common among the Ngati-awa and Ngati-Pukeko Tribes, who 

 inhabit open country. 



A small lagoon named Te Roto-tapu (the sacred pond), at 

 Kaka-tarahae, near Rua-toki, has been used as a burial-place 

 by Tuhoe for the past fourteen generations, hence it is a very 

 tapu place. It is said that Toi, a famous ancestor of the Bay 

 of Plenty Natives on the aboriginal side, was the first to be 

 buried in a swamp, at a place called Marae-totara, at O-hope. 



When Ngati-Rongo, under Pa-i-te-rangi, attacked Te Kea 

 7— Trans. 



