DEPOSITORIES FOR THE DEAD. 405 
this practice, they have said they supposed there 
was a spiritual as well as a material part of food, 
a part which they could smell; and that if the 
spirit of the deceased returned, the spirit or scent 
of the offering would be grateful, or they were 
influenced by a wish to appease any desire the 
departed might have to return and partake of the 
enjoyments of life. Connected with the deposi¬ 
tories of the dead, there was what they called the 
aumiha , a kind of contagious influence, of which 
they appeared to be afraid; and hence, at night 
especially, they avoided the place of sepulture. 
The family, district, or royal maraes were the 
general depositories of the bones of the departed, 
whose bodies had been embalmed, and whose 
skulls were sometimes preserved in the dwelling 
of the survivors. The marae or temple being 
sacred, and the bodies being under the guardian¬ 
ship of the gods, were in general considered secure 
when deposited there. This was not, however, 
always the case; and in times of war, the victors 
sometimes, not only despoiled the temples of the 
vanquished, and bore away their idol, but robbed 
the sacred enclosure of the bones of celebrated 
individuals. These spoils were appropriated to 
what the nation considered the lowest degradation, 
by being converted into chisels or borers, for the 
builders of canoes and houses, or transformed into 
fishing-hooks. In order to avoid this, they carried 
the bones of their chiefs, and even the recently de¬ 
ceased corpse, and deposited them in the caverns 
of some of the most inaccessible rocks in the lofty 
and fearful precipices of the mountain denies. 
Notwithstanding the labour and care bestowed 
on the bodies of the dead, they did not last very 
long; probably the most carefully preserved could 
