210 
KURA — RED. 
hahunga took place, the scraped bones of tbe chief, thus 
ornamented, and wrapped in a red-stained mat, were de- 
posited in a box or bowl, smeared with the sacred color, 
and placed in a tomb. Near his final resting-place a lofty 
and elaborately-carved monument was erected to his memory ; 
this was called he tihi, which was also thus colored. 
In former times the chief anointed his entire person with 
red ochre ; when fully dressed on state occasions, both he 
and his wives had red paint and oil poured upon the crown 
of the head and forehead, which gave them a gory appear- 
ance, as though their skulls had been cleft asunder. 
Red appears to have ever been a sacred color ; it is still 
so in heathen lands, and has been from remote antiquity. 
The tabernacle was covered with skins dyed red • the idols of 
Egypt were red ; the houses of princes were ceiled with cedar, 
and painted with vermillion ; Ezekiel speaks of the Chaldean 
images pourtrayed with it ; Jezebel painted herself doubtless 
with a similar pigment, hence we gather that red was then 
used by princes as a mark of dignity. (2 Kings ix. 30.) 
The heathen power is described by St. John as a great red 
dragon, and the anti-Christian one as a woman, clothed in 
scarlet, and sitting on a scarlet- colored beast. 
Red was the distinguishing color of kings, princes, and 
rich men ; it is still the color of the Sovereign Pontiff and 
his Cardinals, who are clothed entirely in it, even from their 
hats to their very shoes. 
It is the chief prized color of all savages, and Maori 
tradition records, that when they came from Hawaiki, they 
brought a supply of hura with them, that they might not be 
without so necessary an article. 
CARVED BOX. 
