hidden by volcanic dust, and so, “ashes to ashes,” slowly mingled with the ancestral mass.[2] [2] The accepted tradition of Te Heu Heu’s funeral is that given above. After these pages went to the printer, however, I lighted upon a newspaper article by Mr. Malcolm Ross, in which that gentleman states that the bier and the body of the chief were not abandoned on the mountain-side, but were hidden in a cave still known to certain members of the tribe. The present Te Heu Heu, says Mr. Ross, talks of disinterring his ancestor’s remains and burying them near the village of Te Rapa. [Illustration: LAKE TAUPO] The chiefs of the Maori were often their own minstrels. To compose a panegyric on a predecessor was for them a worthy task. Te Heu Heu himself was no mean poet. His lament for one of his forefathers has beauty, and, in Mr. James Cowan’s version, is well known to New Zealand students. But as a poem it was fairly eclipsed by the funeral ode to his own memory composed and recited by his brother and successor. The translation of this characteristic Maori poem, which appeared in Surgeon-Major Thomson’s book, has been out of print for so many years that I may reproduce some portions of it here:-- See o’er the heights of dark Pauhara’s mount The infant morning wakes. Perhaps my friend Returns to me clothed in that lightsome cloud. Alas! I toil alone in this lone world. Yes, thou art gone! Go, thou mighty! go, thou dignified! Go, thou who wert a spreading tree to shade Thy people all when evil hovered round! Sleep on, O Chief, in that dark, damp abode! And hold within thy grasp that weapon rare Bequeathed by thy renownéd ancestor. Turn yet this once thy bold athletic frame, And let me see thy skin carved o’er with lines Of blue; and let me see again thy face Beautifully chiselled into varied forms! Cease, cease thy slumbers, O thou son of Rangi! Wake up! and take thy battle-axe, and tell Thy people of the coming signs, and what Will now befall them. How the foe, tumultuous As are the waves, will rush with spears uplifted, And how thy people will avenge their wrongs. No, thou art fallen; and the earth receives Thee as its prey! But yet thy wondrous fame Shall soar on high, resounding o’er the heavens