The common people of the inferior classes were interred without any



1 A lament for the dead : "My fragrant bundle of piripiri. My fragrant bundle
the moki-moki. My fragrant bundle, the tataka. My sweet juice of the taramea
The companion of the green-stone is gone, alas ! to the angai-ia-ana." Taylor's
Ika na Maui, p. 102. ~ J

This is neither poetical, nor eloquent, and is only produced to show that the
Maoris had very inferior literary capacities, and much less poetical genius.
MAORIS. 195

ceremonies ; and slaves were not even buried, but were either thrown
into the water, or they were exposed to decay in the open air ; and it
is said, that whenever a slave was executed for a crime committed by
him his body was sometimes devoured by the men of the tribe.
Sincere grief for the dead was manifested by cutting the forehead
and face with a sharp piece of obsidian until the whole body of the
disconsolate mourner was covered with blood. The tohunga cut off
the hair of the nearest relations and cast it into the fire. All persons
that came in immediate contact with the corpse were tabued, and they
were not permitted to touch their food with their hands until they had
been subjected to a certain process of purification.
The singular custom existed of robbing the house of a dead chief of
all its valuables ; and when a tribal chief died the greatest alarm pre-
vailed among the surviving relatives and friends, lest a neighbouring
tribe might make a sudden irruption with the object of plundering
during the time when their religious duties enjoined upon them to
abandon themselves to absolute mourning, which rendered them
entirely defenceless.
