roasted in the cook-houses, and duly eaten. But, first, the tohunga cut off a
portion of the flesh, and with certain incantations and mystic gestures, suspended
it upon a tree or pole, as an offering to the gods.
Mr. Angas describes one of the cooking-houses set apart for this horrid orgy. It
was erected by a Maori chief in the Waitahanui Pah; and when visited by Mr.
Angas, had happily ceased for some time to be used. The Pah stands on a low
swampy peninsula, which is washed on one side by the river Waikato and on the
other by the Taupo Lake. “The long façade of the Pah presents an imposing
appearance when viewed from the lake; a line of fortifications, composed of
upright poles and stakes, extending for at least half a mile in a direction parallel
to the water. On the top of many of the posts are carved figures, much larger
than life, of men in the act of defiance, and in the most savage postures, having
enormous protruding tongues; and, like all the Maori carvings, these images, or
waikapokos, are coloured with kokowai, or red ochre.
“The entire pah is now (1863) in ruins, and has been made tapu by Te Heuhen
since its destruction. Here, then, all was forbidden ground; but I eluded the
suspicions of our natives, and rambled about all day amongst the decaying
memorials of the past, making drawings of the most striking and peculiar objects
within the pah. The cook-houses, where the father of Te Heuhen had his original
establishment, remained in a perfect state; the only entrances to these buildings
were a series of circular apertures, in and out of which the slaves engaged in
preparing the food were obliged to crawl.
“Near to the cook-houses stood a carved patuka, which was the receptacle of the
sacred food of the chief; and nothing could exceed the richness of the elaborate
carving that adorned this storehouse.... Ruined houses—many of them once
beautifully ornamented and richly carved—numerous waki-tapu, and other
heathen remains with images and carved posts, occur in various portions of this
extensive pah; but in other places the hand of Time has so effectually destroyed
the buildings as to leave them but an unintelligible mass of ruins. The situation
of this pah is admirably adapted for the security of the inmates: it commands the
lake on the one side, and the other fronts the extensive marshes of Tukanu,
where a strong palisade and a deep moat afford protection against any sudden
attack. Water is conveyed into the pah through a sluice or canal for the supply of
the besieged in times of war.
“There was an air of solitude and gloomy desolation about the whole pah, that
was heightened by the screams of the plover and the tern, as they uttered their