A MAORI FUNERAL.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10042, 21 May 1898, Page 10

A MAORI FUNERAL.

THE BURIAL OF WIKITORIA MUTU. Hei konei ra to tinana, c Wikitoria. Haere «tv ra to Wairua, kite ao Marama kite ora. (Farewell to yon, Victoria. Here rests your body. Your spirit has gone to the Home of Light and Life). With these solemn words Canon Stack yesterday afternoon, at St. Stephen's Cemetery, Tuahiwi, by the side of an open grave, closed the final scene in. a. week of Maori mourning, and concluded the last service to the dead. Wikitorh Mutu, the de<--ise'l J-ic'v, wus -.>! kigu rank, being a daughter of Mcreta Tainui, and a descendant of the chief of the Arahura eection ot the Ngaitahu tribe, on the West Coast, named Tuhuru. She was the wife of Teoti Pita Mutu, and was a woman loved and respected alike by Maoris and Europeans. Her only living child is her daughter, Mrs W. Uru. Her only son, Te Heia, died when he was eighteen years of age, and her oihei daughter, Mrs M. Tniaroa, wife of a son of the Hon. Tai&roa, M.L.C., diet! some years ago. Natives trom all parts of the colony gathered to her funeral, and when Canon ritack arrived at the pah. yesterday nfternoou he was greeted \ be many that he hud known in years gone j by. "1 greet you, seeing in your face the ' redaction of many old mends dead and I gone," was the exclamation (aa customary on the meeting of old friends amongst tiie Maoris) made on every side as he came among them. Mr Mutu's house, where the body lay, was surrounded with Maoris, old men lying solemnly smoking, the elder women squatting on the ground in groups engaged in a similar occupation, young men and young 4 women chatting in subdued tones, and children running about oblivious to it all. As Canon Stack came among them a wail of Borrow, telling him of the bereavement they felt, broke from the lips of the women. It rose and fell lor a moment and then ceased. In the front room the body, embalmed and in a handsome coffin, lay in state surrounded by flowers, ami before the undertaker began his duty the friends and relations_ gathered with every sign ot grief to obtain a last glimpse ot the departed. Then rose the death chant, iiret solemn and low like a sad dirge rose and swelled, and then the men's voices joined, and thy wailing became intense with grief, fill, slowly sobbing, it /ell almost to a sigh, only to rise again louder and shriller than before. For full live minutes it continued, this Maori expression of unutterable loss, and then it died away. A eong of mourning that is like nothing earthly, it had a depressing effect on all who beard it. The coffin was removed to the house, the bearers being Ko Weepu Hopa, of Tauinutu; Ko Pirine Ileoni, of Poteriwi; Ko Teone Te Uruaki, of Waitivki; Kα Teo Tepa, of Otago; Ko Hone Taupoki, of Wairewa; and Ko Potango, of Temuka; whilst the pallbearers were Tare Tikao, of Raupaki; R. M. Taiaroa, of Arahura; Hoani Maaka.of Poteriwi; and Eruera To Aika, of Kaiapoi. They were dressed with mats tlirown over their shoulders, and with the symbol of mourning, a wreath of Matipo leaves, round thoir hats. But the mats were not the old Maori mats which were so handsome and valuable, and robed in one of which a chief looked as dignified as a king. They were igiiudy modern imitations, of all the colotirs of the rainbow, and ornamented with highlycoloured pieces of cloth. As fhe bearers bore the body to the hearse the wailing Tangi was again taken up by one of the women, and then the long procession moved oil to St. Stephen's Church to an accompaniment of wailing and lamentation chanted by at least fifty women. The chief mourners wer<j—Timuki Tainui, Ihaia Kaihere Weepu, Teoti Pita Mutu, Mrs Uru, Hoani Tainui, Miss Hariata Tohuni, Tore Paruti, Mrs Mason, Hon. H. K. Taiaroa, and Mrs Taiaroa jun., who followed immediately behind the hearse. It was a rery different funeral from the old burial rites in the past. Then the body was taken in hand by an old undertaker—Tohunga. If the deceased was a person of rank, the body would be laid out in state by the relatives, who. after that ceremony, would be tapu for many days, until by the incantations of the Tohungas, and by partaking of food consecrated to the Atuas, the tapu was removed. After the tangi the Tohunga, who acted the part of undertaker, performed his part. Hβ was always a Tohunga of inferior rank, and an old man who lived by himself, and was always dirty and strictly tapu. No one couUl go near him. On occasions when his services were needed he painted his face with ochre and donned old mats. Hβ took the body and bound it in a sitting position, with the head on tlhe knees, the hair of the corpse was painted with oclire and feathers stuck in it. The Tohunga would strap it on his back and carry it to the burial ground, generally a cave or a land-slip. The people would not attend the funeral, only a few friends of the deceased accompanied the body to its last resting place, and these kept a respectable distance off because of the tapu. The old mats which the Tohunga wore on his ghostly errand wc(re buried with the body. By touching it they had become tapu. This was the reason why he wore old ones. If the person was of "no importance the body was bound up by the Tohunga in its repulsive position, while yet warm, and taken by him to thv> burying ground. Of course all this has long been done away with, and of the old customs there only remains the tangi, the wailing outward expression of grief at the loss of tue departed. The procession to tot. Stephen's Church yesterday was a long one, and many Euro- ■ peans as well as Maoris joined in it. The service in the church was short and in* Maori. As the body was borne in "Days and moments quickly flying" was played on the little organ, and during the service the natives repeated the 90th Psalm, verse about with Canon Stack. After the service the coffin was again shouldered and transferred to the hearae and taken to the cemetery. Over 500 persons assembled round the grave, and Canon Stack read the solemn burial service in, musical Maori. Many flowers were thrown into the grave as the service proceeded, and at its conclusion Canon Stack, addressing the natives, pointed to the good, the Christian life the deceased had led as an example which they should all follow, and especially the young. As he ended with the words at the beginning of this article there were many audible sounds of grief. Amongst the representative visifors were Henare Alauhara, Rawiri Manaru, Teoteo Tipa, Tare Tβ Kaahu, Teone Te Weuraki, Rawiri Te Maire, Anaha Horomona, Potango Koruarua, Weipu Hopa, Hon. H. K. Taiaro*, M.L.C., Mrs Taiaroa, Hoani Maaku, Pirini Reoni, Tamati Wonka, Tari Tikao, Teoti, Rapatini, J. Mateni, H. Tainui, Riki Mairangi Taiaroa, and several •Maori ladies. The visitors numbered about eighty, many coming from Tauinutu, Raupaki, Port Levy, Little River, Waitaki, Waihao, Moeraki, Arahura, Greytown North and Temuka. Unfortunately" a delayed steamer prevented a number of the near relations of the deceased on the West Coast arriving in time for the funeral, but they are expected to-day, and a tangi will be held to-night.