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EMBALMING. 
Embalming. 
Connected with tattooing, was the art of embalming. This 
was done in order that great warriors might show the heads 
of all the distinguished chiefs they had killed ; but this art 
was not employed for that purpose alone ; it enabled them to 
preserve the heads of those who were dear to them, and to 
keep these remembrances of beloved objects ever near ; it 
was no uncommon thing to embalm in this way the head of 
a beloved wife or child. 
To prepare them for drying was called jpaki jpaki, or 
popo, which signifies taking out the brain ; they were then 
subjected to repeated steamings in the oven ; after each 
steaming, the heads were carefully wiped with the flowers of 
the kakaho, or reed, and every portion of flesh and brain was 
removed ; a small thin manuka stick was inserted between the 
skin and bone of the nose to preserve its form ; when this 
process was ended, they were dried in the sun, and after- 
wards exposed to the smoke of their houses ; one of the first 
things was to extract the eyes, fill the sockets with flax, 
and then sew the lids together. These heads, thus pre- 
pared, seemed to be exempt from the attack of insects, being 
thoroughly impregnated with pyroligneous acid. In former 
days the preparation of heads was very general; they were 
done for sale to the Europeans, and so great was the demand, 
that many a murderous attack has been made solely to ob- 
tain heads for the market ; and those who were the most 
finely tattooed, were chiefly sought for ; how many of the 
sins of those savage islanders have been participated in by 
Europeans ! Eew are aware of the extent to which this 
abominable traffic was carried, but it has now totally ceased. 
I have been assured, that not a few of the heads thus 
preserved were those of Europeans, and some of them of the 
very individuals who came to purchase such things for the 
European market. 
If the person whose head was to be embalmed had relatives 
in the place, the operators removed to some distance from it, 
and neither they nor the relations were allowed to touch food 
