"There is no need to go into detail regarding the further creeds and customs [in addition to the belief in Kane / Tane] in which various Maori-Polynesian tribes follow the pattern of their Northwest Coast neighbors, such as nose rubbing as a salute, topknots as masculine coiffure, feathers of big birds as hair decoration, head flattening, body tattooing, finger severance, fire walking, armor for combat, the tongue as a symbol of defiance, and weapons carved as stylized heads with an outstretched tongue as the blade, the ignorance of stringed musical instruments which had their main world center between India and Indonesia, and a Maori repetition of the Northwest Coast rattles, percussion instruments, and the wooden flute or flageolet carved as a grotesque human face with sound issuing from its wideopen mouth, the system of taboo, the dread of burial in the ground and preference in both areas of placing the dead on wooden platforms raised on poles, the dried-up remains or skeletons wrapped in bark blankets and deposited in a sitting position with knees below chin in caves, trees, or (also in both areas) in part of a canoe."

(Heyerdahl 2)