MAORI BONE-SCRAPING.

Patea Mail, 17 May 1881, Page 3

MAORI BONE-SCRAPING.

The Rarawa tribe assembled at Ahaipara, Kaipara District, to exhume the bones of their departed relatives. The old burial-ground is on the bank of the little river Wairoa, and as the periodical floods have been encroaching on it, the natives decided on removing the bones. These meetings are inseparable from a feast, and provisions in abundance were provided. The bones of the dead were placed under the willow. The shade and the pendulous branches of that emblematic tree were appropriate circumstances of the scene. Here weie found a number of females gathered, weeping profusely, some of experienced mourners accompanying their tears with a wailing lament, as they looked upon the rows of skulls peering above the shawls that enclosed them. And it would move the sternest observer to see the child, mother, or sister in deepest anguish, while reviewing familiar features that the grave had scarcely defaced. Grief for the dead is one of the characteristics of the Maori and it was here witnessed in its saddest form, while they wept the dismal di’-ge —“ Oye tears.” The chief custodians of these remains were some men considerably divested of attire, which would be rejected after contact with the bones. They were under the tapu seclusion for the time, and they gave the name and an account of each individual to whom a head belonged.