ces again, the corpse was laid in a
sort of canoe-shaped coffin and deposited among the branches of a tree
in a grove, where it remained for several months. This burial in the
branches of a tree seems to have been usually adopted for the bodies of
commoners; the corpses of chiefs, enclosed in coffins, were placed in
mausoleums, carved and painted red, which were raised on pillars.
Whether buried in the earth or placed in a tree or on a stage, the body
was left until the flesh had so far decayed as to permit of the bones
being easily detached; there was no fixed time allowed for
decomposition, it might vary from three months to six months, or even a
year. When decay was thought to have proceeded far enough, the bones
were dug up or taken down from the stage or tree and scraped; the
ornaments also were removed from the skeleton and worn by the relatives.
In the south, where the custom was to bury the dead in the ground, this
disinterment took place four weeks after the burial; the bones were then
buried again, but only to be dug up again after a longer interval, it
might be two years, for the final ceremony. When this took place, all
the friends and relatives of the dead were summoned to assist, and a
great feast was given: the bones were scraped, painted red, decked with
feathers, and wrapped up in mats. The precious bundle was then deposited
in a small canoe or a miniature house elevated on a pole; or it was
carried to the top of some sacred tree and there left on a small stage.
Sometimes the bones were concealed in a hollow tree in a secret place of
the forest, or hidden away in one of the numerous limestone caverns or
in some lonely and inaccessible chasm among the rocks. The motive for
secret burial was a fear lest an enemy should get possession of the
bones and profane them by making fish-hooks out of them or converting
the skull into a baler for his canoe. Such a profanation was deemed a
deadly insult to the surviving relatives. After a burial the persons who
had dressed or carried the corpse, and all indeed who had had anything
to do with it, repaired to the nearest stream and plunged themselves
several times over head in the water.[53]

[52] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 541.

[53] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 543 _sq._; W. Yate,
_op. cit._ p. 137; Servant, "Notice sur la Nouvelle-Zelande,"
_Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xv. (1843) p. 25; E.
Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Z