TE HEUHEtl’s TOMB AT PUKAWA. 
CHAPTER IX. 
WHARE-KURA, 
Although the natives had no places particularly devoted to 
religious purposes, there are still traditions of a temple 
having once existed amongst them. The wahi-tapu or 
sacred grove was not a place of assembly for worship ; it 
was entered by the priest, and merely contained the tombs 
of chiefs, offerings to the gods and sacrifices, together with 
food baskets and fragments unconsumed by sacred per- 
sons, rags, and the old garments of chiefs, their hair, 
when it had been cut, and such things ; they were rather 
places to put things out of the way, a kind of sacred 
store of odds and ends. The Whare-kura is spoken of 
as having been a very large edifice, in which all the tribes 
were accustomed to meet together for worship, and the 
rehearsal of their several pedigrees, as well as the heroic 
deeds of their ancestors, for holding their solemn councils, 
and administering justice. The word literally means a 
red house from the color it was painted, and is said to have 
