358 Ilssays. 



ofEspring; their belief that barrenness always pro eeededfromtlie female; and 

 tbeir rule of a brother always taking the widow of bis deceased brother ; were 

 among the main causes of polygamy. Politically speaking, had polygamy 

 and divorce not been too eaiiy and rudely ecclesiastically interfe^'ed with 

 and prohibited, the New Zealanders as a nation would, in all probability, 

 have now been very much more numerous and better off. 



(7.) Death was always gloomy to a New Zealander, and yet they often 

 met the " king of terrors " bravely. . Whether they slowly died from 

 disease, or from barbarous cruelties practised by their enemies ; — whether 

 suddenly from unlooked-for casualty, or the excited anger of a superior, or 

 in the battle-field, they all, young and old, of either sex, died bravely, though 

 not willingly. This is the more striking, from the fact of their belief, that, 

 whether they died at home from disease, or at sea from a canoe upsetting, 

 or from a fall from a lofty tree, or through a house taking fire, or in the 

 battle-field, or as a captive, — such was invariably owing to the anger of the 

 atua (or man-destroying demon). Often did they, when sinking, calmly 

 give their last words (alas ! too frequently of deadly revenge) to their 

 weeping relatives ; which burning words the hearers treasured up never to 

 be forgotten. They rarely ever died in a good house ; mostly in the open 

 air, or under some wretched shed ; this was done because the house in which 

 any one died would have to be forsaken as tapit. At death there was much 

 loud lamentation, accompanied with gashing themselves on their arms, chests, 

 and foreheads, through which the blood flowed profusely. They also further 

 disfigured themselves by cutting their hair close on one side ; sometimes a 

 few locks of long hair were left untouched, and these were seldom after- 

 wards trimmed, but allowed to grow and mat together as a constant and ever 

 present memento of the departed. The whole place was very sad ; several 

 of the principal resident mourners have been known to die from sheer ex- 

 haustion. Such miserable wailing continued for a long time ; as fresh 

 parties of mourners kept continually arriving. Some came before the body 

 was removed ; some not till long after ; but this made no difference. All 

 sang and wailed with much gesticulation and lacerating of themselves, with 

 their faces towards the deceased, or his tomb, or the place where he had 

 breathed his last ; the burden of their lament invariably being, " Gro, go, 

 depart, depart; go before us to thy people: we follow." The body was 

 sometimes tied up in a sitting posture, and clothed, and placed with its 

 greenstone onere* &c., in a small house, or mausoleum, prepared for 

 it. Sometimes, though not frequently, it was boxed up in the corner of 

 the veranda of the house in which it had lived ; oftener it was placed 

 on a small canoe or bier, and taken to a gloomy forest, anciently set 



* Short ewtting ch\b. 



