oubtless
connected with the verb _hahu_ which means "to exhume the bones
of dead persons before depositing them in their final
resting-place." See E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, p. 42, _s.v._ "hahu."

[55] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 543, 545.

Not uncommonly the bones of the dead, instead of being preserved, were
burned.[56] But cremation, though not unusual, seems never to have been
a general custom with the Maoris. They resorted to it only in
exceptional circumstances, for example, in order to stay the spread of
disease, or in cases where a tribe occupied open country and found no
suitable place where to lay the bones of their dead after exhumation.
Cremation for the latter reason is said to have been practised by the
Ngati-apa tribe in the Rangatikikei District, and also by the tribes who
occupied the Waimate Plains. An old earthwork fort near the present
township of Manaia was the scene of many cremations of the Maori dead in
former days. Again, it was a common custom for a raiding party to
cremate their dead in the enemy's country, when there was no time to
carry them home for the usual obsequies. The intention of burning them
was to prevent the enemy from eating the bodies and making fish-hooks
out of the bones. For a similar reason even the wounded, whom they could
not carry with them, were sometimes thrown into great fires and burnt
alive. If the slain man was a chief, only his body would be consumed in
the flames; his head would be cut off, steamed, cured, and carried home,
to be wept over by his friends. In the Bay of Plenty district the bodies
of persons who died of a certain disease called _Kai uaua_, apparently
consumption, used to be burnt to prevent the spread of the malady, and
all the ashes were carefully buried.[57]

[56] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 220. This was called
_tahunga_, "burning," a word no doubt derived from _tahu_,
"to set on fire, kindle." See E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian
Comparative Dictionary_, p. 444, _s.v._ "tahu."

[57] Elsdon Best, "Cremation amongst the Maori tribes of New
Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) pp. 110 _sq._

Often enough the heads of dead relatives were cut off, dried, and
preserved by the family for many years in order to be occasionally
brought forth and mourned over. Sometimes a widow would sleep with her
husband's severed head at her side. After a victory, too, it was
customary to dec