RITES AND CUSTOMS RELATING TO THE DEAD. 
221 
sacred grove in which they were interred, was filled with 
their spirits, and if a person died a violent death, he wan- 
dered about until the priest, by his spells, brought his spirit 
within the enclosure. 
When a chief was killed in battle, and eaten, his spirit 
was supposed to enter the stones of the oven, with which 
his body had been cooked, which retained their heat so long 
as it remained in them ; his friends repeated their most 
powerful spells to draw his spirit out of the stones, and bring 
it within the wahi tapu ; for it was thought otherwise it 
could not rest, but would wander about inflicting injury 
on the living, all spirits being considered maliciously in- 
clined towards them ; so when any were slain in battle, if 
the body could not be obtained, the friends endeavoured to 
procure some of the blood, or fragments of their garments, 
over which they uttered a karakia, and thus brought the 
wandering soul within this spiritual fold ; these places are still 
looked upon with much fear, as the spirits are thought occa- 
sionally to wander from them, and cause sickness. In them 
the tuahu, or native altar, the toko and pataka, or stage 
for offerings to the gods, were placed : it was thought to be 
extremely dangerous for the living to enter either them or 
the houses where the dead were buried ; in almost every pa 
nearly half the houses belonged to the dead ; these being 
in every stage of decay had a very unsightly appearance ; 
the tohunga cut off the hair of the relatives, and cast it into 
the fire ; fern root was eaten in the morning. Kainga i te 
ata te aruhi. 
When friends arrive at a pa, it is customary for them to 
cry over all those who have died since they were last there. 
They wore a pare or taua, chaplet of green branches, or of a 
beautiful lycopodium ; one of the elder females of the party, 
who acts as chief mourner for the occasion, has a chaplet of 
dog ; s hair round her temples, sometimes it is very tastefully 
made of a kind of black sea- weed ; they then present them- 
selves before the house of the dead, and begin the wail in a 
low plaintive tone ; the lady, who leads the ceremonies, 
throwing about her arms, and slowly raising her head and 
