NEW ZEALAND. 387 



and various contortions of the 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 three 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 worn, 

 though they are gradually disappearing, and the dress is becoming 



