STRANGE CURIOS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 465, 25 March 1909, Page 6

STRANGE CURIOS.

MAORI CARYED BURIAL CHESTS. RELICS OF AN ANCIENT RACE. ARRANGED IN MUSEUM. A' startling new feature has been addoc to the Dominion Museum. Tho brilliant huh mats and soft inviting kiwi mats have beoi ' removed from the long show-case on the fai side of tho Maori room, which hushes nov with straugo and solemn trophies. Sever carvon, man-shaped figures of about humai siao, are ranged at equaT distances alonf tho wall. ■ They are the burial chests hollowed out in ancient days to contain tin bones of departed chiefs. Tho chests wen elaborately carved, and placed in lonelj caves. The custom must have boon a verj raro and ancient one, for no modorn Maori: ' were acquainted with this curious form ol sepulture, and few chests have Been discovered. Ranged in an imposing lino, the former guardians of dead, men's bones re mind one of tho lives of mummied kings, in "King Solomon's Mines." Earlier Acquisitions. • ' There are two other' chests of this sort in the museum. One of them, a small one, fitted to contain tho remains of a child, and with the head slanting curiously inwards, conveying an absurd expression, was pur- ■ chased by Mr. Hamilton about thirty yoars ago. Two chests wero obtained at tho same time by an Auckland dealer. Tho better of tho two is now in the Melbourne museum, and the other, which bad suffered a good deal from decay, was bought by Mr. Hamilton. Another excellent example of the chests was purchased by the director two or three years ago, and has a case of state in the museum. It is supported on two props, and the legs bend up curiously, so that the soles of tho foet aro turned frontwise, tho entire casque having a ridiculous resemblance to a huge Antarctic penguin. ■.Jill the chests came from tho sarao district, in the Auckland province. Tho Natives now inhabiting the locality are supposed to have no knowledge of whon and how they came there, or whose the bones wero which it was sought so carefully to presorye. Tho back of each chest forms a lid, which was lashed to tho front to keop tho bones together. The Maoris and Their Dead. In none of tho earlier accounts of Maori burial customs has any description of these burial chests been found. The usual disposal of Maori bones is described as follows by Colenso:—"After being exhibited, seen, wept and wailed over they were carried by a 6ingle man and near relative to their last resting-place,-the exact spot of deposit, for wise political reasons, being only known to a select Sometimes the bones were-thrown into some old volcanic rent or chasm; sometimes thrown into very deep water-holes; and sometimes neatly and regularly placed in a deep, dark cave; always, if possible, whorover thoso of his ancestors happened to be." Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, F.C.S., F.Z.S., curator of the Auckland Museum, who made a study of the subject, reported to the Philosophical Institute that the only reference of old date respecting tho use of coffins that he had been able to find —and that a mere passing mention—was in Mr. Colenso's account of his discovery of the tree -manoao, where, he said, "speaking of the tree and , tho durability of its wood, that the Maoris wherever they could find a tree reserved it for a coffin to hold the remains of a chief." No Maori word is known which correctly indicates a coffin. The word "atamira," used of' late years, is thought to have referred originally to the stage or platform upon which a dead body was set out. Discovery of Chests. In the autumn of states Mr. Cheeseman, two Europeans were pig-hunting in a rough and rugged part of the Waimamaku Valley, a few miles to the south of Hokianga. While so doing they accidently discovered two small oaves situated on the face of a precipitous cliff. Entering these, they found that they were literally packed with human skeletons, and that they also contained nc fewer than eight carved burial-chests, most of them full of bones. The'caves being or Government land, the finders reported the discovery to the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Auckland, wjth the result that Mr. Menzies, Government Road Inspector, was instructed to proceed 'to. the" caves', and "take charge of the chests, impressing",., on the Natives the desirability of presenting them to the Auckland Museum. The discovery of the burial-chests naturallj caused great excitement among the Maoris residing near Waimamaku, and at first the} Btrongly objected to tne proposed removal oi the chests to the museum. They were unable to understand why these sacred articles should be taken from them, especially as they were actually the receptacles of tic bones of their ancestors. They regarded the matter as an attempt to trample on theii most sacred rites and traditions; and if was not until there had been several heated discussions between the Maoris and the resident magistrate, Mr. Blomfield, that an arrangement could be arrived \ at. Mr. .Blomfield at length succeeded in convincing thorn that 83 the chests, if left at Waimamaku would soon perish by the ravages of time it would be wise on their part to deposil them in a secure place where they wonlc bo preserved for ages to come, and would form' a permanent memorial of their ancestors who-made them, and whose momorj they themselves wished to keep alive, intimately it was agreed that the articles shoulc be handed over by the Natives to the Native Minister as their trustee, and that he'shonlc place them in the Auckland Museum to re main there for ever. The chiefs concerned in tho gift were Ngaknra Pana and lehv Moetara, of Waimamaku, and Hoterene W Pou and Heremaia Kauere, of Otaua. Tho carving on the chests in the Welling ton Museum is of v a very ancient order.