OCR Text |
Show 2a - Roa remembered that the tangi ceremony would be surrounded by much ritual beginning with the preparation of the dead person and would not cease until he was buried. This might s^an several days. The taiwhetuki or death house was now ready to receive the family and friends of Roa's uncle. They would come from tribes far and wide, for the word of such events travelled rapidly. As the first guests began to arrive with their mournful weening and wailing sounds also called tangi, made in high falsetto ^itcb, "me me me meeeee," Roa felt shivers of dread travel UP and down his soine. Roa's father, Chief Turi, officially greeted each person in the Maori custom of pressing their noses and foreheads together. After all had arrived and after much weening and wailing, Turi, brother of the deceased, made an official welcome speech to those gathered. The soeecb was not merely sooken but partly chanted in the tongue of the very ancient Maori. Having no written language, the Maori committed everything to memory and sang or chanted traditions, nassing.them down from generation to generation. It is said that some of them could chant their famil- genealogy back to |