It is to this lovely fairy woman the old song of the Ati clan

alludes:

:

Kua ve'eia te pou enua,

Ka paa 'i te rau atua o Ati e i Vaitipi ē!

Akana tu a kino te inangaro!

She has descended again to spiritworld!

Men praised the divine being first seen by Ati at the fountain.

But his heart is now filled with grief.

Hence the origin of the common name "Tapairu' one, in memory of their fairy ancestress.

CHAPTER XII.

DEATH-TALKS AND DIRGES.

GHOST-KILLING (TA I TE MAURI).

UPON the decease of an individual, a messenger (" bird,” so called from his swiftness) was sent round the island. Upon reaching the boundary line of each district, he paused to give the war-shout peculiar to these people, adding "So-and-so is dead." Near relatives would start off at once for the house of the deceased, each carrying a present of native cloth. Most of the athletic young men of the entire island on the day following united in a series of mimic battles designated "ta i te mauri," or slaying the ghosts.

The district where the.corpse lay represented the "mauri,” or ghosts. The young men belonging to it early in the morning arrayed themselves as if for battle, and well-armed, started off for the adjoining district, where the young men were drawn up in battle array under the name of "aka-oa," or friends. The wardance performed, the two parties rush together, clashing their spears and wooden swords, as though in right earnest. The sufferers in this bloodless conflict were supposed to be malignant spirits, who would thus be deterred from doing further mischief to mortals.

The combatants now coalesce, and are collectively called "mauri," or ghosts, and pass on to the third district. Throughout the day their leader carries the sacred "iku kikau," or cocoanut leaf, at the pit of his stomach, like the dead. Arrived at this third village, they find the younger men ready for the friendly conflict, and bearing the name of "aka-oa." "The battle of the ghosts " is again fought, and now with swelling numbers they pass on to the fourth, fifth, and sixth districts. In every case it was supposed that the ghosts were well thrashed.

Returning with a really imposing force to the place where the corpse was laid out in state, a feast was given to the brave ghostkillers, and all save near relatives return to their various homes ere nightfall.

So similar was this to actual warfare, that it was appropriately named " e teina no te puruki,” ¿.e. “ a younger brother of war.”

DEATH-TALKS.

The "ghost-fighting" took place immediately after the decease; the "dirge-proper "months afterwards. The former was common to all; the latter was reserved for persons of distinction. Sometimes the friends of the illustrious dead preferred a grand tribal gathering for the purpose of reciting songs in their honour. This was called e tara kakai," or "talk about the devouring," i.e. a death-talk." For when a person died, it was customary to say, "he was eaten-up by the gods."

66

A "death-talk," like the festive "kapa," ie. dance, came off at night but whilst the other was performed under long booths, the former took place in large houses built for the purpose, and of course well lighted with torches.

As many as thirty songs, called "tangi," were often prepared for a death-talk. These were the "weeping songs." Each "tangi" was supplemented with a song designated a "tiau," or "pe'e" proper. Thus, in all, as many as sixty separate songs would be mournfully chanted in honour of the dead. Of course the merit would greatly vary. Each adult male relative must recite a If unable to compose one himself, he must pay some one to furnish him with an appropriate song. The warrior chief and poet, Koroa, supplied to different parties ten different songs for one "death-talk."

song.

A near relative of the deceased was appointed to start the first "tangi," or "crying-song." At the proper pauses the chorus catches up and carries forward the song. In the "tangi" the weeping is reserved for the close, when the entire assembly abandon themselves to passionate cries and tears. A song of this description invariably begins, "Sing we—————” (Tiō ra).

The appropriate "tiau," or "pe'e" proper, follows. "Tiau " means "a slight shower;" and metaphorically, "a partial weeping." The songs relating to Vera and Puvai are, with one exception, "showery" songs. In these the chief mourner was the solo. Whenever, as indicated, the entire assembly took up the strain, the former solo wept loudly until it again became his duty to take up his part in a soft plaintive voice.

The accompaniments of this performance were the great wooden drum, called "the awakener" (kaara), and the harmonicon. Sometimes the "paû" was added. The musical instruments were called into use between each song; in the case of the "showery" songs the great drum accompanied the grand chorus. The true accompaniment of the "crying songs" was the passionate weeping of all present.

1

The most touching songs were the most admired and the longest remembered. Several months were requisite for the preparations needful for a "death-talk." Not only had the songs and dresses and complexions to be thought of, but a liberal provision of food for the guests.

If a person of consequence in the same clan died or was slain within a year or two, the old performance might be repeated with the addition of a few new songs. It was then termed "e veru,"

or "second-hand."

The songs relating to Vera are known as "te kakai ia Vera” the death-talk about Vera." So, too, the dirges for Mourua, the friend of Captain Cook, are known as appertaining to “the death-talk about Vaepae," his mother. These are ancient. Some of the best modern songs belong to "the death-talk of Arokapiti," whose eldest son was the first to embrace Christianity, which necessarily put an end to this high effort of heathen poetry.

EVA, OR DIRGE-PROPER.

Some months after the decease of a person of note, funeral games called "eva" were performed in honour of the departed. These entertainments invariably took place by day.

Ve'eteni was fabled to have been sent back to life for a day, in order to instruct mankind in the art of mourning, and to institute solemn "eva" in memory of the dead.

There are four varieties of the dirge-proper

:

1. The "eva tapara," or funeral dirge, with blackened faces streaming with gore, shaved heads, and stinking garments. This was a most repulsive exhibition, and well expressed the hopelessness of heathen sorrow.