NAMES. 
325 
until it was cured, they were tapu, for if the process were 
witnessed by the friends of the dead, they would be unable 
to repress their tears, and the head would be spoiled ; but 
if it were only of an enemy, the operation was openly per- 
formed. 
The preserved heads of relatives were kept in baskets, 
carefully made and scented with oil ; when brought out to 
be cried over, they were ornamented with feathers and 
placed in some conspicuous place. 
Names. 
Native names have always a signification, and are never 
given at random ; those of chiefs, are selected with much 
thought, from the waJca paparanga , or genealogical tables 
of their ancestors, for none can exceed the natives in their 
pride of descent. Their genealogical tree is compared to 
the hue , calabash, the main shoot or stem of which is called 
the tahuhuj and the branches kawae. Very little is thought 
of a chief who cannot count back some twenty or thirty 
generations, and the high families carry their's even to 
the beginning of all things. I once obtained a pedigree of 
this kind, beginning with na te hore i ai, from the nothing 
the something, which went on gradually introducing name 
after name, and at last terminating with that of the speaker. 
The Tupunas and Arikis carefully taught their children the 
names of their ancestors, and to aid them in this work, each 
family had a curious carved board, called he waka paparanga 
rakau. This was made something like a saw, each tooth 
representing a name ; and here and there where a tooth was 
wanting, it implied that the male line had failed, and been 
continued in that of a female. 
It is considered rude to ask a chief his name, as it implies 
that he is a person of no consequence, from his not being 
known. A person speaking ironically of another, who thinks 
much of his dignity, says, 0 yes, he is a great chief indeed ; 
wherever he goes, they enquire, who is he V ' The polite way 
of apologizing for a person's ignorance of another's name, is 
