410 NEW ZEALAND. 



body, performed by a number of men and women. The only music 

 was that of the voice, two or three singing in a high monotonous key. 

 The dance was, however, seen to disadvantage by candlelight. 



On the top of the hill is a sacred enclosure, or Kianga-taboo, in 

 which is erected the tombs of the chiefs. A few days before our visit 

 one was interred here, the vignette represents the tomb. 



This tomb is formed of a small canoe, cut across through the 

 middle, and the two parts joined face to face, forming a hollow cone, 

 about seven or eight feet long. The corpse is placed inside, in a 

 sitting posture, and would remain there a year, after which the bones 

 would be carried up the river, and, as Charley Pomare expressed it, 

 would be "thrown away any where." 



The tomb is painted red, and ornamented with feathers on each 

 side, from the ground to the top ; it is covered with a small shed, to 

 protect it from the weather, and enclosed all around with a fence. 

 The funeral ceremonies were not witnessed, but, from the description 

 of the natives, were very noisy, and accompanied with firing of many 

 guns, — a general practice on all public occasions. Their faces and 

 arms bore evident marks of their having been engaged in the cere- 

 mony, being covered with scratches which they had inflicted on 

 themselves. 



The pas of the natives are not in reality strong places, but are 

 little more than insulated and commanding situations. Pomare 

 makes some show of warlike instruments, in the formidable array of 

 tbree ten-pounders, all of them in bad condition, though looked at 

 and spoken of by the natives with no small pride and conceit. The 

 natives, in time of peace, do not live constantly in these pas, but 

 are mostly occupied at their plantation-grounds ; for which reason 

 only a few men were seen lounging about in front of their houses. 

 The women were generally engaged in making and plaiting mats, or 

 cooking, and the men seemed the greater idlers. 



Their native dress consists of mats of various kinds, made of the 

 native flax (Phomax), which are braided by hand, and are, some of 

 them, finer than carpeting, while others are as coarse as our corn-leaf 

 mats. The latter were worn by the women while at work, tied 

 around the hips, and sometimes over the shoulders. They carry 

 their children on the back, like our Indians. 



The men were more luxurious in their dress, having fine mats, 

 nearly as large in size as our blankets, ingeniously and beautifully 

 wrought, and sometimes embroidered. Both of these kinds are still 



