A MAORI MUMMY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 726, 27 July 1929, Page 10

A MAORI MUMMY

Sir, I read a startling paragraph in The Sun of July 17, under the heading, “Valuable Maori Relics Secured for the Museum.” It stated that the Auckland War Memorial Museum would probably receive the only specimen of a mummified Maori in New Zealand, that only three specimens had been found in New Zealand, and that two of them were taken to Vienna. These statements may or may not be correct. I myself have seen three petrified Maoris, and I know others who have done so. I have net seen the one in Whangarei, or the two which are said to have been sent to Vienna. I think, myself, that Maori mummies were fairly common, if not all over New Zealand, at least in the North. I have spoken to old Maoris on the subject and it came as no surprise to them. They knew what I meant and could describe the process. There should be in the Auckland Museum a wooden casket. Cut out of totara, on the lid, is a life-size carving of a tuatara. This casket was made to hold a mummified Maori woman. When first I saw the mummy I thought it (Continued in next column.)

was that of a dwarf child. Then t changed my opinion when I saw the long coarse hair. The Maoris presented the casket to the Museum, but not the mummy. All the same, the mummy did not leave New Zealand. T.M. Hokianga.