Traffic in Heads
JONES: I don’t wish to appear callous, but actually I don’t see much out of place in this traffic in Maori-baked heads. After all, mummies are bought
for museums; also skulls and other parts of the human body. I’ve had no personal experience of the trade, of course.
ROBINSON: You're not taking into account the sinister side of the business. When trade became brisk it was the custom to tattoo a slave, then kill him and preserve his head for sale -an inhuman business, JONES: I agree, if that was the case. ROBINSON: It was the case. Maning told me of one slave
who was ungrateful enough to run away with his own head after his master had taken much trouble to prepare it for sale. It is pleasant to know that some of the traders were repaid in their own coin. Take the case of Joe Rowe, from Kapiti. He was earning great money in buying and selling dried heads. But he got careless. He showed some of his trophies to relatives of the murdered men, and only laughed and made fun of their tears when they entreated him to give them up. Shortly afterwards -this was in 1831-he left for Wanganui, and fell in with his former visitors. They turned the tables neatly by killing him and preserving his head.("The Background of New Zealand-Traders,’ 2YA, July 1).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 56, 19 July 1940, Page 8
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232Traffic in Heads New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 56, 19 July 1940, Page 8
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