NAMES. 
155 
the very individuals who came to purchase such things for the 
European market.* If the person to whom the head had 
belonged was a relative or friend, the operators had to remove 
to some distance from the pa, and neither they nor the rela¬ 
tions were allowed to touch any food until it was cured, 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 the head of an enemy, 
the operation was performed before all the people. 
These preserved heads of relatives were kept in baskets, care¬ 
fully made and scented with oil. When brought out to be 
cried over, they were ornamented with feathers and placed in 
some conspicuous place. 
i 
Native Names have always a signification, and are never 
given at random ; those of chiefs, are selected with much 
thought, from the waka paparanga, or genealogical tables of 
their ancestors, for none can exceed the natives in their pride 
of descent. Their genealogical tree was compared to the hue 
(calabash), the main shoot or stem of which is called the 
tahuhu, 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 back even to the beginning 
of all things. I was once very much amused in obtaining 
a tradition of this kind, beginning with na te kore 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 ivaka 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 
* See Life of Andrew Powers. 
