really was—was strictly reserved for persons of importance, and the heads of the chiefs of the tribe, and occasionally those of their wives and children, were preserved as well as those of the chiefs of the enemy who were slain in battle. Mr. Marsden states that “it is gratifying to the vanquished to know that the heads of their chiefs are preserved by the enemy”; and the same authority relates the case of a chief's wife who had the head of her sister preserved and placed in an “ark” near her hut, “in order that she might relieve her feelings by weeping over it.” In fact, the curing of a head was an acknowledgment of the nobility of its original owner, and it is more than probable that many a young brave was supported under the pain of tattooing by the thought of the handsome and warlike appearance that it would give to his countenance whenever his head came to be preserved.

The principal object of the custom seems to have been to keep alive the memory of the dead; and the mokomokai, as they were called, supplied to a people ignorant of literature and the arts the place of statues and pictures and monumental records. In the case of the departed chief of a tribe they were a visible sign that in some mysterious way his presence still dwelt among his people, inciting them to emulate his virtues and to follow in his steps; while in that of the slaughtered warrior of the enemy they served to keep alive the memory of the injury received by the tribe in whose possession they remained, and were a constant challenge to revenge and retaliation.

As might be expected, the preserved heads were familiar objects about the old Maori pas. According to an interesting, account lately published by the Rev. G. Smales,^* those of the enemy were usually placed on the tops of the houses or on poles by the wayside, where they were exposed to the contemptuous taunts of the passers-by;^† while those of relatives and friends were carefully kept in some secluded spot protected by the strictest tapu, whence they were brought forth and exposed to public view on great occasions, as, e.g., the hahunga, a feast attending the ceremonial raising of a chief's bones, or the general gathering that took place on the eve of the departure of a war-expedition. The most important part which they played, however, was during the actual progress of the war, and in the negotiations respecting its continuance

or otherwise, when, as Polack^* aptly observes, and as will presently be explained, they were not only the “trophies of battle,” but the “oriflamme of either party,” by whom they were “preserved similar to the tattered rags that ornament the cathedrals of polished nations.”

In order to fully estimate the significance which attached to the various uses of these grim mementoes of departed grandeur it is necessary to understand something of the relations in which the chiefs stood towards their tribes. This may be roughly stated as very similar to that which existed in olden time between a Highland chieftain and his clan, and of which a shadow remains to the present day. Although there were often a number of minor chiefs scarcely inferior in rank, the position of the leading chief was distinct and supreme. He was the active intelligent representative head in whom was concentrated the strength and glory of the whole body of his people. He was their leader in war and their counsellor in time of peace. In all public matters his will was unquestioned, and on setting out on a fighting expedition his formal consecration by the tribal tohunga (priest) extended to the whole of his party. Any respect paid to the chief reflected honour upon the entire tribe; any insult must be wiped out if necessary by the blood of the whole body; and, conversely, an injury to the tribe was felt to be an injury to the chief, and must be noticed and avenged accordingly. Amongst his own people the person of the chief was enveloped in a peculiar sacredness (tapu), which extended to the most minute article of his belongings, but which was concentrated, so to speak, in his head, that part of the body being considered by the Maoris as the seat of honour and the home of all the virtues which the man possessed. To meddle with a chief's garments, weapons, or ornaments, or to eat the food prepared for him, was a grave offence, but to touch his head, although accidentally, or even to mention ti with disrespect, was a crime punishable with death.

In time of war the heads of the principal chiefs on either side formed the centre round which the whole business revolved. Whenever a chief fell within the lines of his own party, as Mr. Marsden was informed by Hongi and Te Morenga, the victors immediately demanded that the body be delivered to them, which was at once done if his people considered themselves unable to continue the fight. The head was then cut off, and all hostilities ceased, until, after an elaborate ceremony of “auguration,” the tohunga declared whether the combat should be renewed. The head was kept for the chief on whose account the war had been undertaken; and as soon as it could be conveniently done it was preserved and sent round

to all his friends and relations as a tangible evidence that justice had been satisfied, and the war brought to an honourable conclusion.

As a matter of course, so long as the heads remained in the possession of a victorious chief no amicable relations could exist between the rival tribes. Should he, however, desire to make peace, he took them and exhibited them to the conquered party; and if these cried aloud at the sight of them this was taken as a signal that they were willing to put an end to the contest, and were prepared to accept the terms, which might be offered; whereas if they kept silence it was understood that they were determined to hold their ground and risk the issue of another battle.^* Sometimes it was the desire of neither party to renew hostilities—generally, no doubt, when both sides were weakened by excessive loss of fighting-men and tired of the continued struggle, or perhaps when they were threatened by a common enemy. In this case it was not unusual for the heads to be purchased by the friends of the vanquished and returned to the surviving relations, who held them in the highest veneration.

As in primitive times war was the common pastime of the people, and disputes on a greater or lesser scale were of constant occurrence, the number of these preserved heads must have been very large. Mr. Marsden relates that on the return from one of Hongi's expeditions against the East Coast natives no less than seventy were brought to Rangihou in a single canoe. And it was no uncommon occurrence for the early missionaries, during the fighting season, which occupied several months of the year, to see the palisading of the adjacent pa, or sometimes the fence of their own compounds, ornamented with a row of these gruesome trophies.

As from a collector's point of view a preserved head formed a very desirable item in an assortment of foreign curios, attempts to secure, specimens were made from the very earliest period of our intercourse with the Maoris. For a long time, however, these attempts met with little success. Mr. Banks, the naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook's expedition, succeeded, after great difficulty, in purchasing one from the natives of Queen Charlotte Sound in 1770, but no inducement could prevail upon them to part with a second. And although Pomare, one of the principal chiefs of the Bay of Islands, and who was considered the most expert artist of his time in the preparation of heads, offered to show Mr. Marsden an example of his skill, and at the same time furnish him with some specimens if he would let him have some ammunition wherewith to shoot the people who had killed his son, his case seems to