ealand_, ii. 62 _sqq._; G. F.
Angas, _Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_,
i. 331; A. S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_, i. 188; R.
Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 218 _sqq._; E. Tregear, "The Maori
of New Zealand," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xix. (1890) p. 105; Elsdon Best, "Cremation among the Maori
Tribes of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) p. 110.

In some districts the removal of the bones from their temporary to their
final resting-place was the occasion of a grand annual festival in which
several neighbouring tribes took part. The bones of all members of the
tribes who had died within the year were taken down from the stages or
trees where the bodies had been temporarily deposited. The grave-clothes
having been removed, the mouldering remains were wrapped in new blankets
and carried in procession, attended by the crowd, to a place where they
were deposited on a carpet of leaves. Should any putrid flesh be found
still adhering to the bones, it was scraped off and buried on the spot.
A few old women, dressed in their best, oiled from head to foot, and
plastered with raddle, received the skulls into their laps. While they
held them thus, a funeral ode was sung and speeches, loud and long, were
delivered. Then the bones were tied up, decked with feathers of the
gannet, rolled up in blankets, and carried to their last place of rest
in a sacred grove, where they were left, securely fastened up and
gaudily decorated with red and white. Having thus discharged their duty
to the dead, the living gave themselves up to festivity; they ate and
drank, danced, sang, whistled, wrestled, quarrelled, bought and sold.
This Holy Fair, which went by the name of Hahunga, lasted several days.
At the end of it the mourners, or revellers, dispersed and returned to
their homes, laden with food which had been made ready for them by their
hosts.[54] Great importance was attached to the final disposal of the
remains of the dead. According to one account, the soul of the dead man
could not rest till his bones were laid in the sepulchre of his
ancestors, which was often a natural cave or grotto. There they were
deposited on a shelf or platform a few feet above the floor of the
cavern.[55]

[54] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 137-139; Servant,
"Notice sur la Nouvelle-Zelande," _Annales de la Propagation de
la Foi_, xv. (1843) pp. 26 _sq._ The name _Hahunga_ is d