E—No. 7

LECTURES ON Still holding the kite he sends up a messenger upon the string : when it is half-way up he let goes the line, taking care to have such advantage of the wind as that the kite will fly across the pa; if the kite catch on the palisade, it is thought that the incantation (repeated by the priest while flying the kite) will produce such an overwhelming dread in the inhabitants that they will be easily conquered ; this ceremony, like that of Niu, described before, must be commenced before day-break, and before any food is allowed to be cooked or eaten. A cloudy misty day is favourable to an assault, for the mist is the brains of the slaughtered enemies; such was tho day on which the troops attacked Heke's pa at Mawhe, a circumstance which highly encouraged Tamati Waka's natives as giving them a presage of victory. Before they attack a Pa, and while yet on the march, the priestly leader performs another rite called " Tuahu" (the hill-making). He makes a number of long- narrow mounds, one for each of the tribes engaged, and at the end of each he plants a stick and names it by the name of its tribe: this stick is called " Mauri" (the life or seat of life), and upon each hillock is laid another stick which is called "tahuhu" (ridge pole) bearing also the name of its own tribe; he then repeats this incantation, turning his back to the mounds and his face to the East:— Shake thou, rend thou, beating breast, That thou, weak heart, may be held in the world, The world of light The darkness has heard, and the light Has been told by Peketna and Pekearo, Heave now 0 breast of Pc, and come forth. While the priest is repeating this incantation the gods come and scratch the mounds to pieces, and move the stick that lies upon the mound up to the Mauri. The omens thus yielded do not, as in the Niu, tell of the fate of the battle and point out the conquerors and the vanquished, but they decide the tribe which is to win the prize of valour. The actual assault must be deferred until the inhabitants of the Pa discover their assailants, who on their side use divination; for example, a chief at Hokianga, whose pa was thus beset, took his son (an only child) killed him and burnt his heart in a fire kindled outside the pa: if the smoke came across the pa it would be captured, if not it would resist the assault. The cannibal rites of a Maori battle-field I will pass unnoticed, as any description of them would disgust you. I would, however, notice the name given to the first man killed in battle "Te Ika a Tiki" (the fish of Tiki), which is the corpse of warriors slain in battle ; and Mataika or Matangohi, the first of such trophies, is the name applied to the body of a man carried off by some noted champion who rushes in and slays and bears away his man before the ranks join in fight. The accomplishment of this feat is considered highly honourable, but it is an essential condition to its success that the warrior who performs it should effect his retreat without receiving a wound from any other hand but that of the antagonist whom he slays. If a chief is slain in the melee of the battle, his slayer claims at once his prize by pulling out a lock of hair wherewith to identify the body after victory ; should the honour, however, be afterwards disputed, it is referred to the judgment of the priest, who decides it by an ordeal called Whangai hau; the "hau " is any part of a corpse which may be taken by the priest over which to repeat incantations, it is therefore an offering to the gods who reside in the wind (" Hau " meaning wind). The want of time precludes us from giving more than the conclusion of this ceremony. When several incantations have been recited over the disputants as they sit beside a stream with whose water they have been sprinkled, they return to the army, and there the priest pitches in the ground a forked stick three paces from the disputants, who stand side by side and hold each two fern stalks, to which are tied locks of the dead man's hair, The priest then pointing with his forefinger to their foreheads, says :— There is the plume now stuck in thy head, The plume of the gods above and below. That thy sacred power Tv may be known, Hearken ye powers above and below, Hearken ye sides of heaven, breath of heaven blow, Ha! ha ! give thy power to the just. He then casts the fern stalks towards the fork of the upright stake, and the gods will cause the sticks of him whose claim is purest to hang upon the fork as he thus flings it. The warrior who thus fell into the enemy's hands was of course eaten, nor was the priest exempt from this doom: the god who resided in him departed with his breath, as the proverb used on such occasion means " The god is gone, and Hapopo (the body so called in time of war) may be eaten." If the captive he a chief he must not in honor ask his life, but smile at him who gives him the death-blow. If a chief fall or die in any way on the victorious side, the body is burnt and the head preserved, those in whose charge it remains being for such time tapu. If the avenging of a murder be the origin of the war, and the murderer or any of his descendants be among the prisoners, the fate reserved for them was attended with circumstances of peculiar horror. Every portion of the body was devoted to some particular use; for the skull was reserved the greatest indignity, to carry water for the native ovens ; from the arm bones were made pins to eat periwinkles, from the small bones of the legs the heads of bird spears and the barbs of fish hooks; tame parrots were fed from the collar bone; from the thigh bones were cut rings for the decoy birds and the remainder were fashioned into flutes. It is said that the rank of the deceased could always be known by the colour of the bones ; for those of a chief were red ; those of one of inferior rank were of a light colour ; sometimes even the character of the men could be guessed from signs afforded by the use of these ; if the bird, for instance, when struck with such a spear, did not die at once, but fluttered and screamed in falling, the man whose bone it was must have been a nonsensical, talkative fellow. The teeth were made into a necklace and given to the relatives of the murdered; so also were the eyes, which were always eaten ; the other bones were made into needles, and the dog-skin mat was sewed with them, which was always greatly