TE HEUHEU. 
525 
formed a deep channel near his house, under the ruins of 
which he was found; the place was then declared tapu, I went 
there, however, and was not interferred with, and read the 
burial service over the sp'ot where the pa stood, accompanied 
by Wiremu Tauri, my head teacher, even then the mud was 
so soft that we sunk in it nearly ancle deep. It was a solemn 
moment; an entire village laid buried beneath us, with all 
its inhabitants — the young, the old, the infant, and the 
hoary-headed — all in one awful moment were deeply en- 
tombed ; it was night when the accident occurred, and from 
one sleep they passed into another — the sleep of death. 
The Chief s body was kept concealed, according to the 
custom, with great arikis, for about four years ; it was then 
exhumed, and laid in state, dressed in the finest native 
garments, and placed in a highly-ornamented coffin, which 
was supported on a pole, until 1850, when it was privately 
conveyed to Tongariro, with the intention of being thrown 
down the crater of that volcano; but the difficulty of the 
ascent had not been sufficiently considered, and the bearers 
were contented to leave it on a ledge of rock, which projected 
from the side of the mountain. 
A NATIVE COMB, HE HEKU. 
