Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1902), No. \%. 25 



in the Canterbury Museum,* which has also recently 

 acquired sonne actual specimens. Mr. Travers likewise 

 has to some extent dealt with and illustrated them in the 

 Transactions and Proceedings of the Nezv Zealand 

 Institute. Whilst on the Island I myself made sketches 

 of several of the carvings, which will be reproduced in 

 the same publication. 



The figures are commonly about three feet in height, 

 and those which I saw evidently represented the human 

 skeleton in a sitting posture, the elbows pointing down 

 and the knees up, nearly or quite touching the elbows. 

 Some of them have unmistakable ribs, while the head is 

 commonly depicted with a curious deep notch on top. 

 They appear always to have been carved in the bark 

 of the Kopi or Karaka tree, whose large succulent 

 fruits formed a staple article of food amongst the natives. 

 It has been suggested that they might have been placed 

 on the fruit trees as marks of ownership, or that they 

 might have been intended to represent tutelary deities. 

 The few remaining Morioris appear to know little or 

 nothing about them, while the Maoris seem to have had 

 a curious idea that the carvings were a sign that the 

 Moriori race was doomed. For my own part I am 

 inclined to believe, as already indicated, that they are 

 connected with burial customs. It seems certain that one 

 of the ancient methods of disposing of the dead amongst 

 the Morioris was by so-called " tree-burial." This custom 

 appears to have been abandoned in later times, probably 

 under missionary influence. The custom of carving figures 

 of skeletons upon the trees may then have been instituted 

 with a view to averting the supposed evil consequences of 

 abandoning an ancient rite, for the Morioris were ex- 

 tremely superstitious, and this may have been the origin 



• At Christchurch, New Zealand. 



