Cheeseman. — On Maori Carved Burial- chests. 451 



Art. XXXIX. — Notes on certain Maori Carved Burial-chests in 

 the Auckland Museum. 



By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Curator of the Auckland 



Museum. 



[Bead before the Auckland Institute, Srd October, 1806.] 

 Plates XII and XIIl. 



Very little appears to be known respecting the occasional former 

 use by the Maoris of carved burial-chests or coffins in which the 

 bones of deceased chiefs were placed after the ceremony of 

 hahunga, and then deposited in the burial-cave of the tribe, 

 [n none of the earlier accounts of Maori burial customs can I 

 iind any description of such articles. The usual statements made 

 as to the disposition of the bones after the hahunga are well 

 summarised by Mr. Colenso in his " Essay on the Maori Eaces 

 of New Zealand," where he says (page 20) : " After being 

 exhibited, seen, wept, and wailed over, they [the bones] were 

 carried by a single man and near relative to their last resting- 

 place, the exact spot of deposit, for wise political reasons, being 

 only known to a select few. Sometimes the bones were thrown 

 into some old volcanic rent or chasm ; sometimes thrown into 

 very deep water-holes ; and sometimes neatly and regularly 

 placed in a deep, dark cave ; always, if possible, wherever those 

 of his ancestors happened to be." 



The only reference of old date respecting the use of coffins 

 that I have been able to find — and that a mere passing mention — 

 is in Mr. Colenso's account of his discovery of the tree manoao 

 {Dacrydium colensoi), printed in the " London Journal of Botany " 

 (vol. i, p. 298), where he says, speaking of the rarity of the tree 

 and the durability of its wood, that the Maoris "wherever they 

 could find a tree reserved it for a coffin to hold the remains of 

 a chief." Nor do I find in any Maori dictionary a word that 

 could be applied to a coffin or burial-chest ; and Bishop Williams, 

 to whom I applied for information on the subject, has informed 

 me that he is unacquainted with a Maori term for such articles. 

 The word " atamira,^^ which of late years has been applied to 

 them, he considers to be more correctly used for the stage or 

 platform upon which a dead body is laid out. 



Mr. Elsdon Best's valuable paper on Maori eschatology, 

 printed in the last volume of Transactions (vol. xxxviii, pp. 148- 

 239), which is a storehouse of information lespecting the cus- 

 toms, &c., relating to death and burial among the Maori people, 



