apitate the slain foes and dry their heads, which were
then carried home and used as scarecrows or stuck on short stakes in the
village, where they were jeered at and reviled. When the time came to
plant the sweet potatoes, and the priests recited their spells for the
sake of the crops, the dried heads were sometimes brought out and
placed at the edge of the field, for this was believed to promote the
growth of the sweet potatoes.[58] Apparently the spirits of the dead
were thought able to quicken the fruits of the earth.

[58] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xii. no. 4 (December 1903), pp. 195-197. Compare W. Yate, _An
Account of New Zealand_, pp. 130 _sqq._; E. Dieffenbach,
_Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 66.

At all events the Maoris undoubtedly believed that the souls of the
departed survive the death of their bodies for a longer or shorter time
and in their disembodied state can influence the living for weal or woe.
The belief in the survival of the soul is strikingly manifested in their
old custom of killing widows and slaves to serve dead chiefs in the
other world. It found expression in the more harmless custom of laying
food beside a dead person or burying it with him in the grave; but, as
usually happens in such cases, the ghost only consumed the spiritual
essence of the victuals, considerately leaving the gross material
substance to be despatched by the priest.[59] A dying Maori, unable to
eat a loaf which a missionary had offered to him, begged that it might
be kept for his ghost, who, after his death, would come and fortify
himself with it for the journey to his long home.[60] At Tanaraki the
child of a chief was buried in its father's house, grasping in each of
its little fists a taro for consumption in the other world. Over the
grave were laid boards, and the family slept on them. When they thought
that the child's body was sufficiently decayed, they dug it up, scraped
the bones, and hung them in the verandah, where from time to time the
priest recited spells to assist the soul in its ascent to heaven. Every
spell was supposed to raise the soul one stage nearer to the abode of
bliss. But the ascent was long and tedious, for there were no less than
ten heavens one above the other; the tenth was believed to be the
principal abode of the gods. When the parents of the child who had been
despatched to