330 WAITE. 
exception of the heads of the tribe, was allowed to come near this 
veritable house of the dead unless under the most extenuating 
circumstances. The curio collector looked on the tomb with longing 
eye, and offered the guardians all sorts of fancy prices for it, but 
the belief that the dead and gone ancestors would rise in their 
wrath and cause both destruction and bloodshed in the tribe were 
their resting-place disturbed, compelled the superstitious natives 
to warn the enterprising pakehas away. Thus year after year the 
famous Pou-Pou remained untouched. At the beginning of 1908, 
a local collector in the person of Mr. S. Dannefaerd endeavoured to 
secure the tomb, despite the reluctance of the owners to turn their 
valuable possession into some form of ready capital. After some 
trouble the head chief, one Kihiharoa, accepted a price submitted, 
and the negotiations were then closed. But, whether as penance 
for his action or otherwise is not clear, Kihiharoa joined his ancestors 
some days afterwards, and was duly interred in the Pou-Pou. 
“Four years later the tomb was taken to pieces and carted to 
Okere, whence it was brought by launch into Rotorua. 
“ The carving isin an excellent state of preservation, and despite 
the fact that the tomb must have stood for something like a century 
has not suffered from its exposure to wind and rain. Mr. Danne- 
faerd informed our representative that the Pou-Pou was the best of 
three known to be standing in the Dominion.”’ 
We are told that the tomb must have stood for something like a 
century and while the carvings have suffered little from exposure 
to wind and rain, the slabs have undoubtedly fallen as a result of 
the rotting of the portion in the earth, possibly more than once, 
with the result that the lower part of the carvings themselves have 
suffered, while in any case it would be merely a question of measur- 
able time when the whole structure was destroyed. There should, 
therefore, be some satisfaction in knowing that the life of the Pou- 
Pou has been preserved for a very long period indeed. With the 
money obtained by the sale of the carvings the Maories intend to 
erect a larger, if more modern edifice and will thus be able to include 
the whole of their graves within one enclosure, an arrangement which 
I am given to understand, meets with the approval of the whole 
tribe. 
The tomb as erected formed a rectangular house-like structure 
but Mr. Hamilton suggests that the carvings may originally have 
been used in a large house, and this view is certainly true of some 
of the slabs, for their uncarved side is notched for the reception of 
the foot of the rafter. As other slabs do not possess this notch 
they may have been specially carved to complete the tomb which 
would account for the fact noted by Mr. Hamilton that all are not 
of the same style, and were no doubt executed by different workmen 
at different periods. If some of the slabs were originally used for 
