362 REPOKT— 1891 . 



and the powers and faculties of the soul diminished until at 

 Toke the darkness was complete, and the soul assumed the 

 shape of a worm and came back to this earth and died and 

 ceased to exist. But all souls did not so pass on, for the 

 chiefs and priests were believed to be the offspring of certain 

 gods who came down from the temple Nahe-rangi and co- 

 habited with the daughters of Tiki, and the souls of their 

 descendants were supposed to go up to the heavens, there to 

 exist eternally. 



The souls of children still-born were supposed to be of a 

 particularly malevolent character, and, in revenge for loss of 

 life on earth, they remained there and became plagues of 

 blight, pains, accidents, misery, disease, and death. 



It will therefore be observed that the Maoris believed in 

 eternal life for the souls of their priests and chiefs, and annihi- 

 lation for those of the common people. In their ceremonies for 

 the dead this is more particularly noticeable ; for the body of 

 the priest or chief was laid out with its feet towards the north 

 before it was taken to the place of burial, and all the blood- 

 relations of the deceased, men, women, and children, assembled 

 round the corpse, the men standing with the boys on the right 

 or east of the dead, the men being nearest to the head of the 

 corpse and all in a line ; the women and girls on the left or 

 west of the corpse, all in a line, with the girls next to the feet 

 of the dead. The priest, standing at the head of the corpse,, 

 between the rows of the people, then chanted, — 



It is Pi and Pa. 

 The day dawns ; 

 Pood is eaten 

 At the settlement 

 Where the parents 

 Cultivate, and where 

 They left some food 

 In this world. 



And this incantation is also chanted by the priest : — 



Climb up Tawhaki, 

 To the first heaven, 

 To the second heaven, 

 To the highest heaven, 

 To the host of Tawhaki — 

 The Tawhaki of Hema ; 

 And cry in Whare-toreke 

 Toreke (poreke — all gone). 



This incantation was supposed to assist the soul to ascend. 

 The priest then put a taro-bulb into the left hand of the corpse,, 

 and again chanted,— 



It is Pi and Pa. 

 Dawn has come ; 

 Pood is eaten. 



