EXTINCT SPECIES. 145 



A sort of mummification process was customary amongst 

 the Maories, until Christianity had gained ground amongst 

 them. The process was not exactly similar to that by which 

 Egyptian mummies were formed ; but resembled it in the par- 

 ticular of desiccation. Smoking was the exact process fol- 

 lowed ; and smoked Maori heads are common enough in 

 naturalists' museums. In a general way, Maori heads alone 

 were smoked; certain principles of food-economy prompting 

 a more utilitarian treatment of entire bodies. Nevertheless 

 as a mark of particular respect to some important chief now 

 and then affectionate survivors exempted his corpse from 

 the oven ; and, smoking it entire, set it up amongst Maori 

 lares and penates, as an ornament. This explanation is not 

 altogether par parenthese, for it leads up to evidence favour- 

 able to the opinion that the dinornis cannot have been extinct 

 in New Zealand even at a recent historical period. 



Not long ago, the body of a Maori was found in a certain 

 remote crypt ; and, resting on one hand, was an egg of this 

 bird-giant. Contemplate now the bearings of the testimony. 

 The Maori race is not indigenous to New Zealand, but arrived 

 there by migration from Hawai. Not alone do the records of 

 the two groups of Pacific islands in question advert to such 

 migration, but certain radical coincidences of language lend 

 confirmation. It is, farther, a matter of tradition that the 

 migration took place about three hundred years ago. Now, 

 even if the recently discovered specimen of Maori mummy art 

 had been executed on the very first advent of the race, the 

 period elapsed would be historically speaking recent. The 

 laws of chance, however, are adverse to any such assumption; 

 and, moreover, the degree of civilisation if the expression 

 may be used implied by the dedication of an entire human 

 body to an aesthetic purpose, instead of devoting it to one of 

 common utility, could only have been achieved after a cer- 

 tain lapse of time. 



According to Professor Owen, there must have been many 



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