THE TOHUNGA MAORI. By Lieut.-Col. Gudgeon, C.M.G.

IN the good old days preceding the arrival of the tradng Pakeha on the coasts of the Ika-a-Maui; the tohunga was by far the most important man in a Maori tribe, and this was especially the case when it happened that the same man combined exa lted rank as a chief, with the priestly power and knowledge with which all tohun gas were gifted. Given this combination of rank and knowledge, and such a man wo uld be known as the Ariki or supreme head of the tribe. An Ariki of this class w ouldto speak irreverentlybe tapu an inch deep, and would moreover communicate his personal sacredness to everything he touched; so that if anyone were so ill advi sed or so ignorant as to give him water in a cup or food in a plate, he would ou t of kindness to the incautious owner pound those utensils to dust in order that no harm might come to those who, being less sacred than himself, might use the same in ignorance of the power of his tapu. Personal tapu might never be lightly treated or ignored, for common men have been known to die suddenly after using a pipe dropped by a tapu chief, or after eating the remains of food cooked for, and partly eaten by, such a man. A tohunga whether Ariki or not was always more or less tapu, sometimes to a degr ee that imperilled his very existance, and made him a very unsafe companion, but the value of his services to his tribe could not be overestimated. For instance , no war party could set out on its destroying course, until it had first consul ted the tohunga and obtained his approval. This might or might not be withheld, for the question of consent would depend altogether on the result of his communi on with the tribal gods, whose answers were for the most part so very indefinite in character, that in the matter of obscurity they might have challenged compar ison with those of the Delphic Oracle. Occasionally the tohunga would deign to translate the replies of the gods into i ntelligible Maori, for the benefit of the warriors who were so deeply interested , but more often if the reply was obscure he would decline to commit himself, an d allow the tribe to draw its own conclusions. This last course was pursued when the valient men of Ngati-Kuri anxious to attack the people of the Bay of Plenty , consulted their - 64 renowned tohunga (Te Haramiti) and received the following answer. A desolate land ! A desolate land! Tiki-whenua and his men had been so often successful, that the y could not believe in the possibility of defeat, and for this reason they somew hat hastily concluded that the desolate land must be that of their enemy. This e rroneous deduction was gallantly expiated on bare Motiti, where they fell to the l ast man surrounded by the exulting Ngati-Awa. One cannot justly blame the tohung a for this unfortunate occurrence. The Ngati-Kuri were brave and somewhat hasty in their conclusions, and there is always the possibility that Tiki-whenua and h is merry men may have committed some offence against the gods, in which case the y were without doubt rightly punished; but their sins of omission or commission we shall never know, for they were all slain, and among them the great Haramiti, who thereby became entitled to the benefit of the proverb De mortuis nil nisi bo num. To a Maori the tohunga was the sole medium of communication with the ancestral g ods; he was the exponent of the karakia (invocation), a word that is often impro perly rendered by the English word prayer. I am moved to make this remark by the fact that there is really no element of supplication in a Maori karakia. The go ds of that people would very properly despise a man who abased himself before th em, but they were at all times prepared to do their duty towards mankind, if com pelled thereto by a man who possessed the requisite mana, and hence the value of a first-class tohunga. The karakias were moreover the personal property of the tohunga and his disciple s, and in many cases were known only to them, therefore, the services of the toh

unga had a real market value in the eyes of the tribe, so long as there was no d oubt as to the efficacy of his karakia, which same depended very much on the per sonal mana of the tohunga. It cannot perhaps be said that each tribe in New Zealand had its own tribal deit y; but it would seem that each of the well-known canoes and the tribes descended from the ancestors who came therein had their own god, and this fact I regard a s fairly strong proof, either that the Maoris of that remote date belonged to se parate and probably hostile tribes, or that the canoes did not all come from one and the same island of the Pacific. Of these deities the most important are: Maru God of the Whanganui and Arawa tribes. Uenuku God of the Waikato and Mania-poto tribes. Te-pou-a-Tuatini God of the Tuhoe tribe. Rongomai God of the Ngati-Porou and Kahu-ngunu tribe. Tama-i-waho God of the Whakatohea and other tribes. These deities were it is said of a benevolent nature, and as a rule ready to int ervene on behalf of mankind without much persuasion, provided always that they b e treated with the consideration due to inhabitants of the nether world. There w ere, however, other gods, of - 65 whom I speak in the past tense since, it is not certain that they still exist, w ho were malicious and man-destroying spirits. Of this class was the Ngati-Porou god Kahu-kura, who, it is said, was visible to men only when they were eating: t hen if misfortune was at hand Kahu-kura would appear to his victim in the form o f a red lizard. An occurrence of this nature was a golden opportunity to the tri bal tohunga, who, if he could avert the impending evil, would gain, not only sub stantial reward, but also that form of reputation to which tohungas were no more insensible than other men. From the foregoing, it will be plain to my readers that those chosen as the reci pients of the traditionary lore of the tribe were mentally superior to their fel low tribesman. Only the very clever boys were chosen as tauira (disciples), and of these but few completed the severe course of training in the Whare-maire (sch ool of mystery), for the reason that it required a very able man to retain and a ssimilate the vast stock of tribal history, songs, karakia, and genealogical inf ormation, which were absolutely necessary before a man could start in life as a first-class tohunga. Certain of the sayings of the more famous tohungas have been handed down from fa ther to son, even to the present day, as sacred utterances, for the reason that these words were to the Maori mind both poetical and obscure, and therefore were not understood at the time; they were, moreover, possessed of a certain weirdne ss which suggested to the mind of the tribe a sense of impending evil. Such sayi ngs, though little understood at the time, were none the less retained in the mi nds of those who heard them, partly out of respect for the authors, and in part because they were the last words uttered by a great man, for a Maori holds that the near approach of death invests a man with both wisdom and the gift of prophe cy, and hence such sayings were held to be almost sacred until in due time that which had been obscure became plain to all men. Of this class were the proverbia l sayings of Tiriwa, a very famous warrior priest of the Ngati-Apakura, who prob ably died about the date of Capt. Cook's arrival in New Zealand. One of these sa yings is rather singular, and would seem to indicate that Tiriwa had the gift of prophecy in a high degree. His words were as follows:Kei tua i te awe kapara, he tangata ke mana e noho te ao nei, he ma. It is not easy to give a translation of this very figurative and idiomatic sentence, but the idea may be rendered somewh at as follows:When the tattooed face has passed away, strangers will occupy this w orld (New Zealand). They will be white. It was not till the Pakehas appeared on t he scene that the Maoris really comprehended the full meaning of this speech. Th en, however, it was known that Tiriwa had foretold our coming.

Yet another of this man's speeches is worthy of notice, inasmuch as it has made a lasting impression on the mind of his tribe, probably - 66 from the fact that the meaning is distinctly uncertain. It is thisHe roto kei te r angi, ko mangungu; te kai o roto he mapunapuna he manewanewa. This we may interpr etThere is a well of dissatisfaction in the heart of man, and hence vexation and a nxiety. In like manner Te Rangi-tauatia, a very learned man of the Ngati-Porou tribe, wh en at the point of death, foretold the occupation of the tribal lands by the Nga -Puhi and the European. His words wereKia toro te pakiaka hinahina i runga i au, k a rongo ake au e mara ana e kihi ana. When the roots of the hinahina have grown over m y grave, I shall hear the mara and the kihi. This saying was not understood by th e Ngati-Porou, for at that period they had not seen the Nga-Puhi of the far Nort h, nor had they heard the the peculiar salutation of E mara, common to that tribe and to no other. Still less had they seen the Pakeha or heard his hissing speech , and therefore they knew not the meaning of the kihi, which is descriptive of t he sibilant sounds in our language, which are so strange to Maori ears. The prop hecy is interesting since it recognises not only the possibility of a future sta te, but that the dead had a knowledge of, and interest in the affairs of the wor ld even after they had left it, and their spirits had entered Ameto, the Hades f rom which there can be no return. As a rule a tohunga was treated with great consideration, not so much from love of himself or office, as from a very natural dread of his power and supernatural connections; for such a man had ever at his command gods, taniwhas and other fa miliar spirits, many of whom, when in the flesh, had been his own ancestors, and had by virtue of the karakias of the tohunga, a limited jurisdiction over the a ffairs of man, and would when called upon avenge any slight offered to their mas ter; for such was the position occupied by a tohunga that he did not supplicate assistance, he demanded it, and so long as his mana lasted he received it. But i f by any sin of omission or commission he lost his mana, his own gods would be a mong the first to destroy him. In the good old times if a man fell sick his ailment was attributed to witchcraf t; for at that period of Maori history, men died only of old agete mate o Aituor per chance in battle, and therefore it was that fancy deaths were considered unfashi onable and uncanny, and were almost unvariably ascribed to bewitchment. In all c ases of this nature the services of a tohunga were required with as little delay as possible, in order to counteract the mischief. The greater the reputation of the tohunga, the better the chance of the patient to retain his hold on this wo rld, since it then became a duel between the tohunga and the wizard, the prize b eing the life of the afflicted man. If any person learned in the black art desir ed to take the life of an enemy, he would, as a preliminary measure, procure som e article belonging to his intended victim; such as a lock of his hair, piece of his clothing, or shred of his finger nails. With any one of these things in his possession - 67 he would destroy his subject within a week, for be it understood that the art wa s always most successful, when practised through the medium of something belongi ng to the doomed man or woman, and such a medium would be called the Hau or Ohon ga. There were tribes in New Zealand which it would seem had but little knowledge of the mysteries of witchcraft, whereas there were others such as the Tuhoe and Wh anau-o-Te-Haemata, who were famous or perhaps infamous for their practice of thi s science. As for the last named tribe, I have heard it said that travellers pas sing the village of Akuaku, never failed to walk within the wash of the tide, in order to hide all trace of the foot print. This was deemed to be a necessary pr

ecaution when in the neighbourhood of the descendants of Te Haemata, for that tr ibe were credited with the power of taking the manea of the wet foot print, and in this manner bewitching the passing stranger. Given a man with the requisite k nowledge of this destructive art, he could not only kill a man, but could also i noculate him against any form of witchcraft, so that from the date of the operat ion he could defy all of the powers of darkness with impunity. That grand old wa rrior of the Ngati-Porou, Major Rapata, told me that when a very young man he wa s inoculated against every form of makutu, and therefore he feared no wizard, ho wever great his powers. I have asserted that a man could be destroyed in a few days by means of witchcra ft, but I ought to have made this reservation: provided no greater tohunga inter vened to save him. In such a case the curse, like the chickens, might come home to roost, and destroy the man who had invoked the evil thing. This makutu busine ss was indeed the dangerous part of a tohunga's profession, for if a man believe d that his life was threatened it was not unusual for him to load his gun and an ticipate the ordinary course of events by shooting the tohunga. I have known mor e than one instance of this nature: in one of these an old man, who had threaten ed his daughter-in-law because she refused to allow him sole charge of his grand son, was shot by his own son with the full consent and approval of the tribe. He was rather notorious as a wizard, and it was felt that he could be spared. Among the many duties that devolved upon a tohunga was the imposition of the tap u, and its removal from any person or thing whensoever the interests of the trib e demanded this exercise of his powers. He was also required to offer up the inv ocations to compel those sea gods and Taniwhawho might have power over the sea an d its inhabitantsto behave quietly, and ensure the safe return of fishermen. The adventures of Te Manihera, a chief of the Ngati-Ira of the Wairarapa, will s erve to illustrate the strong belief held by the Maoris as to the power of their old gods and tohungas, as also their very natural desire to keep on good terms with the great god of the Pakeha. It would seem that shortly after Christianity was introduced into the - 68 Wairarapa, Te Maniherathen a very young man, but of high rankaccompanied the old m en of his tribe on a fishing excursion. Now it is very noticeable, that under no circumstance does a Maori display more ceremonious care than when engaged in de ep-sea fishing. On such occasions, even at the present day, the observances of t heir ancient religion are not neglected. No food is taken in the canoe, and in m any cases the crew are not allowed to smoke, and all of this is done to the end that the great god Tangaroa (Poseidon) may allow his descendants to be slain wit hout attempting to avenge them. I refer to the fishes of the sea when I speak of the descendants of Tangaroa, for they are generally referred to under the colle ctive name of Ruamano (the two thousand). On this occasion we may presume that s ome important ceremony had been neglected, for hardly had the party reached the fishing grounds, when a sudden storm arose and raged with such violence, that th e canoe was blown out to sea, despite the efforts of the crew. From the foregoin g pages my readers will have discovered, that the Maori is nothing if not a beli ever in the efficacy of the karakia, and, therefore, as the crew of this wind-to ssed craft had but lately been converted to Christianity much prayer of that var iety was offered up, but to very little purpose, seeing that for twenty-four hou rs their skill was severely taxed to keep afloat. During this period of danger a nd suspense, the old men on several occasions implored Te Manihera to allow them to use their old and time-honoured remedies for extreme cases of this nature, s aying: It is on your account that we are anxious, to us it matters little, tho' we should never again set foot on land, for we have come near to the end of our liv es, whereas you are only at the commencement of yours; hence we ask you to allow us to call on the spirits of your ancestors to save us. To Te Manihera, who had all the fiery zeal of the recent convert, this was a ser

ious request, for the Missionaries had given him a fairly vivid impression of th e fate reserved for those who would relapse into heathenism. He furthermore felt that it would be mean to desert his newly acquired faith on the first breath of danger, and that Christianity being as it were on its trial, it ought to be giv en a fair chance of proving its value. It is not improbable that he felt like th e animal of tradition when between the two cabbages, but whatever his feelings m ay have been he resolved that the Christian faith should have a show, and sternl y forbade any appeal to the old gods, whether ancestral, taniwha, or otherwise. At the end of the twenty-four hours things had not mended for the better, and th en Te Manihera, feeling that he had done all that could reasonably be expected f rom the most zealous convert, consentedthough unwillinglyto leave matters in the h ands of his heathen friends, and who shall blame him for this backsliding, life is sweet at the age of twenty years, and he was worn out with cold and hunger. T hen was heard the weird chant of the spirit controlling - 69 karakia, calling on the sea gods and monsters of the deep to come to their assis tance, and this ceremony being finished the elders of the party requested the yo ung chief to lie down and rest, since there was no further cause for anxiety. Wh en Te Manihera awoke on the morning following, he found that the weather had cha nged and that the sea was smooth, though the canoe was trembling all over by rea son of the speed with which it was rushing through the water unaided by either s ail or paddle. The facts of the case were, however, simple and explainable; for among the numerous ancestors of Te Manihera were many sea gods and taniwha, who, when called upon, had taken the matter in hand con amore, and were now rushing the craft swiftly through the water, and finally brought them safely to land. A respectable tohunga, that is a man of any standing in his profession, would, a s a rule, disdain to use his powers against any ordinary man who might affront h im, unless, indeed, the insult was so gross that it could not be passed over, in which case discipline had to be maintained. Between rival tohungas there was ne ither love, forbearance, nor generosity, bitter enmity was the rule, and they di d not hesitate to destroy one another whenever opportunity offered; thus verifyi ng the truth of the old adage, that two of a trade can never agree. I may mentio n as a mere matter of detail that all tohungas are not respectable, and I have k nown at least one of them, viz.Te Uhi of Whakatane. Of all the many exploits performed by tohungas of bygone ages, and recorded by t radition, it is hardly possible to imagine a more terrible exhibition of occult power, than that which is said to have resulted in the heke (migration) of Marui wi. This tribe is said to have descended from the remote ancestor Awa-nui-a-rang i, and to have resided in the Waimana 1 Valley, under the mana of one, Awatope, who had married a woman of the Arawa tribe. This woman had living with her a son , by a former marriage, named Koira, and an argument arose between that man and Awatope as to the proper time for digging and storing the kumara. Lest it should be thought that this was a matter of small importance, I may mention the fact t hat anything connected with the growth of the kumara was, in those days, regarde d as sacred, and hence the disputants maintained their respective views with muc h warmth. Koira contended that the crop should be gathered on the first appearan ce of the star Whanui; Awatope held other views and enforced them by striking Ko ira. Now, the latter belonged to the great Arawa people who call themselves the M igration from Heaven; it was therefore impossible that Koira should tamely submit to such an insult. Intent on vengeance he returned to his grandfather, Rakeiao, the eldest son of Rangitihi, and demanded his aid. According to tradition, Rake iao had at this time reached the utmost age of - 70 man; but his mana was still great, and in spite of his advanced age, he caused h imself to be lowered into a deep narrow pitwhich had been dug for the purposeand t here standing on his head in an exceedingly uncomfortable and undignified positi on, repeated the terrible curse known as a Whakatahi. The result of this ceremony was that fear and apprehension fell upon the Maruiwi. From that time forward the

re was no peace or safety for this unfortunate people. They were impelled by som e hidden power to leave their homes, and attack other strong tribes in the vicin ity, for their courage was unabated in the presence of an enemy; it was only the unseen that they feared. Often successful, they were nevertheless driven from p lace to place, so that all men knew that they were deserted by the immortal gods . They could rest neither by day nor night, and were often smitten with sudden p anic, which impelled them to wander too and fro like the restless spirits of evi l men; until at last being worn-out and half crazed by reason of their fears, th ey, in the darkness of the night, walked over a steep cliff and fell into the be d of the Tutaekuri river: the edge of the cliff being hidden from view at that t ime by a strong growth of Kiokio (Lomaria). It is said that the blood from their bodies tinged the waters of the river, and that this fact led to the discovery of their remains, certain it is that the locality of the tragedy is still pointe d out by the tribes of inland Hawke's Bay, and the place itself is known as the Waro-o-Maruiwi. 2 In this manner perished not only the Maruiwi, but also a remnant of the ancient tribe of Kawerau and others, who, being fugitive from their own lands, had joine d the heke of Maruiwi; but it is not true that all of the Maruiwi were destroyed , for there is not a chief in the district of Hawke's Bay, who cannot boast desc ent from that tribe, or, who does not trace a line of ancestry from Awatope. It seems to me that the Maruiwi were identical with the Tini-o-Awa, of whom it is r elated that they were living with the Whatumamoa, when Taraia and Te Aomatarahi invaded Hawke's Bay some twelve generations since. 3 Perhaps the greatest tohunga of modern days, in the matter of witchcraft, was th e notorious Te Kooti, indeed most of his power over the Maori people was the res ult of a belief, not altogether unfounded, that those whom he disliked did not l ive to a green old age. In any other capacity than that of wizard, Te Kooti coul d hardly be classed as a tohunga, for his character in early life was so bad tha t no man possessing priestly knowledge would have taught him the carefully hidde n mysteries of the craft. Undoubtedly, Te Kooti did pretend to have the gift of prophecy, and if true this would involve a knowledge of matakite - 71 (second sight); but I have heard that in private life he laughed at his own pred ictions, a most improper and irreverent proceeding, which would in itself be suf ficient to condemn him in the opinion of any decent Maori, even though there had been nothing else objectionable about the man. It was, at any rate, sufficient to show that he was not a tohunga, but, from the Maori point of view, a dangerou s imposter, but bold beyond all measure. Shortly after the escape of the Maori prisoners of war, from the Chatham Islands in 1868, and while they were yet on board the Rifleman, the sea being rough, and the wind adverse, many of the weaker spirits became alarmed at their position, f or they feared that they would not reach the main land, or that they might, perc hance, be recaptured by some wandering war-ship. When this state of mind became known to Te Kooti, he saw that there was danger to himself in such sentiments, i f allowed to continue, he therefore boldly took the initiative, and declared tha t there was a Jonah on board the schooner, and after communing with his gods ind icated an old man, who was a near relative of his own, as the offender, and orde red him to be thrown overboard. This order was promptly obeyed, for the fugitive s had not yet reached that stage of terror and distrust, which might have encour aged them to disobey their spiritual director. The remedy was heroic but it was attended with the best results, for, not only did the wind and sea moderate, but a quick passage was made to a point twenty miles south of Poverty Bay, where th e whole party landed unmolested. Among his fellow-fanatics, Te Kooti gained great credit for his behaviour on thi s occasion, and apparently he deserved it, for to them it seemed to be a genuine case of matakite; but, I regret to say, that many years after this same Te Koot

i, while discussing the affair with a friend of mine, laughed at the idea of a J onah, and then revealed the real motive for destroying his aged relative. He sai d: The old man had not behaved like a friend or relative to me, he had done nothi ng but croak, predicting an evil end to all of us, and had frightened some of th e more timid men so that they were almost ready to turn round and assist the cre w against me and my friends. Te Kooti, in nipping this growing discontent in the bud, showed all of the qualities necessary in a leader of men; but from the tohu nga point of view, it does not excuse his assumption of the power of matakite, w hen he clearly had not the gift. Many years ago I had the pleasure of arresting the famous Te Uhi (whom I have al ready mentioned), under circumstances that gave me a very fair insight into the position held by men of his profession among the Maoris. This event took place d uring the year 1865, at which period the Opotiki district was occupied, in force , by a large body of the Colonial troops, who had captured many prisoners, of wh om perhaps thirty had taken part in the murders of Messrs. Volckner and - 72 Fulloon. Te Uhi was at this time living in a village at no great distance from o ur camp, and unmolested, for he was regarded as a man well affected towards the European. Consequent, however, on information given by some of his own people, t o the effect that he had instigated the murder of Mr. Fulloon, and the crew of t he cutter Kate, I was ordered to arrest him, dead or alive, and was at the same ti me warned that Te Uhi was a dangerous man, and that it would be well that I shou ld take a few men with me. To this end, I proceeded by way of the camp of the Na tive Contingent, where there were many young men idling about. To these men I sa idI want some of you fellows to come with me and arrest a murderer. About half of t hose present at once seized their rifles and stood ready to march off, when I ad dedWe go to arrest a man called Te Uhi. Instantly the demeanour of the men was alte red, some of them promptly disappeared, while others said plainly that they did not care about going unless they were allowed to shoot him at sight. This behavi our was to me inexplicable, for at the time I did not know that Te Uhi was the t error of the district, and had whatever credit might be due to the fact of havin g bewitched many people. At last Winiata Te Pakoro, one of the bravest of men, s olved the difficulty by sayingYou are asking us to do no ordinary work, Te Uhi is a great wizard, and a bad man, and you at any rate know that I do not fear death , but this man can kill me by karakias, against which I have no defence. Why the n should I face him? I admitted that this view of the case was fair enough, but p ointed out that my orders admitted of no delay, and if they would not come with me, I must, perforce, arrest the man single handed. The idea of deserting me in the hour of danger was a thing that Winiata could not entertain, he therefore de cided to go at all hazards, and take a leading part in the proceedings. Probably very few Europeans will be in a position to realise the courage shown by my lit tle friend, when he elected to join me in the arrest, for, however brave a Maori may be, he is none the less desperately afraid of the power of the Maori gods. I, however, knew my man, and was from the first confident that he would do his d uty at any cost. En route to the village, Winiata gave me the benefit of his views on the subject of wizards. He said that nothing would persuade him to enter Te Uhi's whare, fo r the reason that he had probably bewitched the door posts thereof, in anticipat ion of the visit, and in such case anyone touching them as they entered the whar e, would soon be as dead as the proverbial herring. Indeed, it was not possible to say what this man, aided and abetted by his evil gods, might not do, and ther efore it would save much trouble if we were to shoot him quietly at sight, and s ay that he had resisted or tried to escape. He, moreover, dwelt strongly on the point, that whatever there might be of kudos in the affair would result from his death, and not from his arrest. - 73 There was so much simplicity and truth in these arguments, that I did not attemp

t to argue the point. I simply assumed the rle of the guileless European, and obj ected on high moral grounds to such crooked ways, at the same time pointing out that as tohungas had no mana over the Pakeha, I would enter the whare and arrest Te Uhi, while Winiata stood outside ready for any emergency that might be settl ed with men or men's weapons. One stipulation he did, however, make in the inter est of Te Uhi, namely, that I should warn him before he came out of his whare th at he should not look at my small friend, for if he did so nothing could save hi m from a sudden and violent death. When we reached the village, the few people who where there were evidently prepa red for our visit, and stealthily pointed out Te Uhi's whare. The programme was carried out as previously agreed upon. I entered the chief's house and told him my errand, at the same moment relieving him of his tomahawk, which had a beautif ully finished bone handle. He glowered savagely at me, and demanded to know what he had done to deserve arrest; when, however, I had explained the charge to him , his manner changed, and he laughed, sayingIt is not true, but I understand the w hole affair, my own people have made this charge in order to get me out of the w ay, they would like to ruin me, but they cannot do so, and they will not dare to disprove the evidence I shall bring. Then again his mood changed, and he said he would not go with me, that he was a rangatira, and not a dog. The game was so e ntirely in my hands that I was able to treat him with great gentleness, and I to ld him I was sorry he had decided to give me trouble, because he would thereby c ompel me to call in the assistance of my friend Winiata, and suggested that he h ad probably heard of this famous toa, who was a man afflicted with an hereditary t endency towards manslaughter, and specially dangerous in this instance, since, t hough he was a great warrior whose reputation was firmly established, he was non e the less human, and, therefore, would not be likely to resist the natural desi re to hear people saythat is the man who killed Te Uhi! A Maori is nothing if not reasonable, and the soundness of my argument convinced Te Uhi, who said, Ka tika, me haere taua (it is true, let us depart). Once more I impressed upon my prisoner that as a mere precaution it was as well that he sho uld refrain from looking at Winiata, and we left the village. I must say that Te Uhi showed more nervousness than could have been anticipated from so famous a m an; in fact, as we walked towards Opotiki he became so fidgety and anxious, that I dreaded lest he should inadvertently turn towards my warlike comrade, for in such case I knew that nothing could save him. As it was we reached our destinati on without a wayside tragedy, and I handed over my prisoner to the main guard wi th much relief. - 74 Te Uhi was not long a prisoner, for he had no difficulty in establishing his inn ocence of the charge laid against him, and to prove that the fears of his own pe ople had induced them to make a false statement in the hope that they might ther eby rid themselves of an objectionable chief. I have heard of late that Te Uhi h as fallen a victim to the powers of a still greater wizard. It would appear that for some reason or other he paid a visit to Te Kooti, who either suspected or h ad been told that his guest intended to bewitch him. On a certain evening during Te Uhi's stay, Te Kooti harangued his people somewhat as follows.I am surrounded by my enemies, there are people in this camp who seek to bewitch me, but they wi ll not succeed. For more than two years I have been followed by a man who seeks to avenge his brother's death; he cannot harm me, but if he desires to live let him leave this village early tomorrow morning, for I am tired of him. I will now speak of another man, who having no provocation has none the less come here to compass my death. I tell him plainly that he will not succeed in his design, my mana is too great; he, however, will die within one week. In the morning a man of the Arawa tribe, whose brother had been slain by Te Kooti's people years before , was reported absent; he had left without ceremony. Te Uhi also departed that d ay, and I am told, died within the time allotted to him.

One of the greatest tohungas of the early European period was the wizard of the north, Papa-hurihia, sometimes called Te Atua-wera. This man was the chief pries t and director of the Nga-Puhi tribes under Hone Heke, and it would seem that he was one of those tohungas who may be said to have been born to the office, for he could boast a long line of wizard ancestors on both sides of the house. His m other, Taimania, had herself been a renowned sorceress, and an oracle of the Tan iwha. His wife was even more famous, for she was a descendant of the Waiariki, a tribe of spirits, and therefore by all the laws of heredity and evolution, the children of such a pair were bound to be past masters in magic art from their ve ry infancy, and such indeed was the case. The eldest born was not even human, bu t a spirit of great power, and known to the people as the Nakaihi, or Serpent. I t was by his agency that the father was able to do many strange things, such as flying thro' the air, etc. It is claimed that the ancestors of Papa-hurihia had never been cannibals, for the reason that they feared lest a practice so impure might interfere with their sacredness, and superhuman powers. In this as in othe r matters the son followed closely in their footsteps. Like his father Te Whareti, Papa-hurihia had, it is said, the power to transport himself through the air from place to place, in a moment of time, quite irrespe ctive of distance. He could also summon the shades of dead men from Hades, and c ompel them to converse - 75 with their living friends and relatives. Above all, he could render himself invi sible to mortal eyes, for on the disastrous day of Ahuahu, when Te Waka-Nene and Taonui defeated Heke, Te Wharepapa and others; when men who had never before tu rned their backs on an enemy fled like sheep, leaving the great chief Heke wound ed in the midst of his foes; who, but Papa-hurihia could have rescued that man, and how could he have performed this great feat except by rendering himself and Heke invisible to the fierce eyes of Te Waka-Nene, and his warlike following? Yet another great tohunga, of our times, was Te Unuaho of the Ngati-Whakaaue of Rotorua; most famous of all the priests of that learned tribe. Very amusing tale s are told of the wizard power of this man. Among other things, it is related th at when the first Missionary (Mr. Chapman) visited Rotorua, he was, as a delicat e attention, escorted by all the leading chiefs of the tribe, and taken to the r esidence of their own great tohunga. During the conversation that ensued, Mr. Ch apman ascertained that Te Unuaho had not embraced christianity, and he therefore suggested that the ceremony of baptism should be performed as speedily as possi ble. Now it was a peculiarity of the early Missionary, that, being very much in earnest, he was almost invariably wanting in tact, and in this instance Mr. Chap man had assumed a superiority over his brother priest that bitterly affronted Te Unuaho, who, however, showed no feeling other than by asking what possible good the ceremony of baptism could do him. Mr. Chapman thereupon explained the theor y of original sin, and this also did not tend to improve the temper of the old m an, who saidIf you can show that your powers are greater than mine, I will consent , but first of all we must test those powers. So saying, he sent one of his disci ples for some dead leaves of the Ti (Cordyline), and taking one of them in his h ands said, Can you make this dry leaf fresh and green? No, replied the Missionary, no man can do that. Te Unuaho laughed and said, Now shall you see the work of a tohu nga, and, so saying, threw off his mat, and clothed only by the sacred girdle, ut tered his karakia over the dead leaf. Until lately, there were men living who ha d been present at this ceremony, and it is from them that I have derived my know ledge of the event. They say that as the karakia proceeded the leaf became fresh and green, until at last it appeared as though it had just been taken from the tree. At this astonishing sightsay the Maoristhe Missionary fled, leaving the vict ory to his Maori brother. I do sincerely hope that this tale is true, because th e ordinary Missionary is inclined to be a Pharisee, whereas the Maori tohunga is fairly modest, but I cannot believe that the orthodox preacher fled, my experie nce would have led me to believe that he would have accused Te Unuaho of dealing with the father of all evil, and by this means have converted his defeat into a

victory. - 76 My belief is, however, of little moment, for I can safely say that the whole Ara wa tribe are prepared to swear that the affair happened as I have related it. 4 Te Unuaho was not one of those inferior tohungas, who do things secretly. On any great occasion, as for instance, when the tribe intended to make war; he would call his god to him, so that all men might see, and the god would appear on the palm of his hand, in the form of a lizard, and while the appropriate karakia was being said would run along his arm, and thence to the nape of his neck. If the omens were propitious, the lizard would run thence to the ground and disappear, but if misfortune was about to fall upon the Arawa, then the lizard would fall t o all appearance dead to the ground. On two occasions only did the Arawa neglect the warnings of Te Unuaho, and in ea ch instance the unbelievers were utterly annihilated. On the first occasion the tribe was called together and solemnly warned as from the gods themselves, that the Arawa tribe must on no account make war outside their own boundaries, or fig ht other tribes except in self-defence. A few months after this the Ngati-Raukaw a, who were hard pressed by Waikato, came to the Arawa for assistance, and Te We hi-o-te-rangi responded in defiance of the warning. The result was that the Te W ehi and all of his men fell at the pa called Hanga-hanga. On the second occasion , Te Ahu-karamu, induced some of the Arawa to join him, and these also were slai n to the last man at Otautahanga. As a practical magician, Tuhoto-ariki, the successor of Te Unuaho, was almost as famous as his predecessor, and exhibited his powers soon after the first introd uction of Christianity. About the year 1847, there was rather serious fighting a t Roto-kakahi, between the Ngati-Wahiao and Ngati-Tu-matawera tribes, the latter being supported by the Ngati-Whakaaue, who were their relatives. In the war tha t followed Te Rangi-tohe-riri, a chief of the last-named people, was mortally wo unded, and being a man of rank, the body was placed in a canoe and taken to Taur anganui, where it was handed over to his people; it was then found that there wa s much blood in the canoe, so it was emptied into the lake, and the stains caref ully removed by washing. The position was a very awkward one for the relatives o f the dead chief, for they could not well leave his blood in the canoe, and if t hey cleansed it in the lake then everything therein would become dangerously tap u, and it could not be allowed, for one moment, that the Ngati-Wahiao should be allowed to eat the fish of the lake after the blood had mingled with the water, for in such case that tribe might fairly claim that they had eaten Te Rangi-tohe -riri. Then it was that Tuhoto-ariki proved his capacity as a tohunga, and by th e - 77 power of his karakia killed all of the Koura, Kakahi, Inanga, and Toitoi (crayfi sh, mussels, and two varieties of small fish) in the lake. The Arawa, moreover, assert that this water remained barren, and without fish of any sort until about the year 1860, when Tuhoto was called upon to remove the tapu, and reinstate th e fish. This also he performed in a manner altogether miraculous, being moved th ereto by a generous sum of money paid in advance. It was this same Tuhoto, who, in his extreme old age, was buried for five days i n the mud ejected during the Tarawera eruption, and who, when dug out by a rescu e party of Europeans, was an object of sympathy to all, from the fact that his o wn people (Ngati-Whakaaue) refused to give him shelter. This refusal caused grea t scandal among many worthy but sentimental Europeans, who were, however, quite unfit to form any opinion whatsoever on Maori subjects. The fact is that Tuhoto was a victim of his own sacredness, the tribe knew that he was tapu an inch deep , and, therefore, dangerous to anyone who came near him, by reason of this very tapu; was it then likely that any reasonable man would take such a person into h is house, and thereby render it unfit for any other man to enter? Tuhoto was at

least 80 years old at this time, but a very tough old gentleman; indeed his comp atriots are of opinion that he might easily have survived Maori neglect, but tha t European ignorance was too much for him. It would seem that the old man was ta ken to the Government Sanatorium at Rotorua, and there suffered many indignities , first his long hair was cut off, the same being long by reason of the sacred c haracter of the man; no one caring to operate on such a dangerously sacred head. Having committed this sacrilege, the doctor then had the old tohunga washed in warm water. Now I am not prepared to say that this water was not from the neares t hot spring; but seeing that Tuhoto died shortly after the operation, I feel bo und to adopt the Maori theory that the water must have been warmed in a pot, and , if the theory is correct, then the doctor undoubtedly did kill Tuhoto; not fro m malice aforethought, but from astonishing ignorance of the first principles of the law of tapu. The whole situation may be summed up in a few words. Tuhoto wa s tapu, and cooked food unclean, therefore pots being used to cook food, they ar e unclean, and these things being beyond argument, if follows that water boiled in a pot is as deadly to a tohunga as strychnine to any ordinary man. Nothing will ever persuade the Arawa nation that Tuhoto did not cause the Tarawe ra eruption, in order to avenge an offensive remark made to him by certain of th e Tuhourangi tribe. Their argument is sound, for they say he had the power to ave nge the insult, and, therefore, he would be certain to use that power. As an instance of the importance of a really good and efficient tohunga to a Mao ri tribe, I may quote the following tradition:During - 78 one of the numerous battles between the Taranaki tribe, and the Atiawa of Waitar a, the principal chief of the former people, one Tamakaha, and most of his compa nions were slain. The dead chief had, however, two sons, Kahukura-makuru and Tuwhakairi-kawa, 5 both of whom were already famous warriors whose duty it was to avenge their father. In strict accord with Native custom these two men lost no t ime in collecting their immediate followers, and marched towards the Ati-awa cou ntry. On arrival at Kaitaki, a place well within their own boundaries, they were stopped by Te Rangipaheru, a very famous tohunga, who, while reclining in his w hare, had heard and carefully noted the sound made by the feet of the war-party as they passed over the strip of gravel near the pa, and from the grinding noise so made had drawn his conclusion, that if the expedition was perservered in, th e result would be disastrous to his tribe. For this reason he ordered the two ch iefs to return, saying, that for reasons known only to himself, they would requi re so many men that the earth should tremble as they rushed to the attack. As a rule the Maoris have no great respect for a large and unwieldly war-party, and have a proverb to the effect that a rau-hokowhitu (340 men) will win the day. This proverb they explain by saying that the above mentioned number would repres ent the immediate followers and relatives of a cheif, all of whom would naturall y be actuated by the one impulse, and be ready to die in defence of their leader . The chances of victory would therefore be greatly in favour of a war-party so composed. On the other hand, a large army must of necessity be of many hapus (fa milies), or worse still, many tribes, who might not be equally interested in the result, and who, experience has shown, could not always be depended upon. For d id not the 300 of Ngati-Hau defeat the united strength of Ngati-Ruanui at Te Pui a, on the Patea river, simply because each hapu of the last named tribe had deci ded to fight a little apart from the others, with the result that they were beat en in detail, the rout of one hapu involving another. Another fertile source of weakness in a large war-party, was the proneness of one chief to take umbrage at something said or done by another. I need only quote the case of the famous Pae ko, who on the morn of the fight sat, with his men hungry, watching the other se ctions of the war-party eating their scanty meal, and who, when the common foe w ere rushing upon them, remembered the fact that he had not been invited to share that meal, and therefore lifting his spear high above his head, he called to hi s people.My sons the sign of blood and so stepped on one side, leaving those who ha

d feasted to do the fighting. Is it not also related that his friends, being sor ely pressed, called on Paeko to aid, them and - 79 received this reply. Karanga riri, karanga Paeko; Karanga kai t karangatia a Paeko .When there is fighting to be done you call Paeko, but when there is food to be ea ten you neglect to call him; and so saying stood by, and allowed his friends to be utterly routed before he joined in and destroyed the common enemy. The decision of a tohunga may not be gainsaid by any prudent leader, so Tu-whaka iri-kawa returned home to collect more men, and when he had done this he marched northwards, halting for the night at Pungaereere where Ueroa, the widow of Tama kaha, resided. Here they met with a very cold reception, for the widow, acting s trictly in accordance with Maori custom, refused to supply the war-party with fo od from her late husband's stores, until his death had been avenged. When the second war-party had reached Kaitaki, Te Rangipaheru again refused to a pprove their further advance, saying, I have not heard the footsteps of Tama-ahur oa, thereby alluding to a kindred tribe of noted warriors. This reply was accepte d as an omen of disaster in the event of their making any further advance, the c hief accepted the position, and returning once more succeeded in inducing the Ng ati-Tama-ahuroa to join in the raid. On this occasion the tohunga, or rather his gods, approved the composition of the war-party, and assured them of success th rough the medium of an inspired song chanted by a young man, who for this occasi on had been chosen by the gods as their mouthpiece. Very joyfully did the warrio rs move on to the northern bank of the Waitara river, where they camped in five divisions under as many leaders. That same night Tu-whakairi-kawa, who had been chosen as war-chief of the assembled tribe, dreamed a very strange dream. It see med to him that he alone kept watch over the assembled tribes, and while looking in the direction of the forest, he saw a flock of Kakariki (Paroquets) flying t owards him as if in menace, and while preparing to defend himself from these ene mies he suddenly became aware that he was threatened from the rear, and turning towards the sea saw an immense shoal of Kahawai (a fish) swimming towards the sh ore. So vivid was the impression left by this dream that the chief awoke, and kn owing that he had received a warning from his ancestral gods, he roused up his b rother, who was a tohunga, and demanded an immediate interpretation of the dream . I may here explain that the dream of a war-chief or priest on the eve of battl e is of the utmost importance, and must never be neglected. When Kahukura had he ard all the incidents of the dream related, he called the leaders of the army to gethor, and explained that the dream was clearly a message from the spirit world , and he warned them that shortly before dawn they would be attacked from the di rection of the forest, and while so engaged would be assailed in the rear by the main body of Ati-Awa, who by this disposition of their forces hoped to gain an easy victory. He further warned all of his men that the enemy were in great numb ers and evidently prepared - 80 for them, hence it was necessary that they should use great caution. Above all h e warned them that they should not scatter in pursuit of the first party when th ey had defeated them, but should wait for the second and more serious attack. Shortly before dawn a furious onslaught was made on the Taranaki warriors, from the direction indicated by the dream; but the numbers and the prowess of the Tar anaki men were too much for the Ati-Awa, who after a gallant stand were driven b ack and fled southwards, pursued by a small body of men who had been previously selected for the purpose, and who slew many of their foes in the Waitara river. The main body ever mindful of their cheifs' warning stood fast, and awaited the real event of the day. Not for long were they left in doubt, for the main force of the Ati-Awa, feeling certain of victory and anticipating only a feeble resist ance from a disorganised and scattered force, precipitated themselves on their f oes. Of the truly Homeric combat that ensued, I can only say that it ended in th e defeat of the Ati-Awa, who were driven northwards in headlong confusion and pu

rsued for many hours, the last man being slain at Pukearuhe, 20 miles from the f ield of battle. Here Tu-whakairi-kawa thrust his spear into the earth as a sign that he would go no further, and calling his men together, said, We have accompli shed the work of vengeance that brought us here, let there be no further bloodsh ed. These two battles, fought on one and the same day, are the pride and boast of Ta ranaki, and are known to tradition by the following names: Kakariki-horo-noa and Te Upoko-tutuki-pari, and there are many men of the tribes, who took part in th ese fights, who believe to this day that the mana thereof caused Mount Egmont to swell with pride, and grow quite visably in height. There is at all times a wel l understood, but I think undefined, connection in the Maori mind between the ma na of a mountain and that of the tribe that owns it. For instance, there are mou ntains that are regarded as so sacred, that the tribe would lose mana by permitt ing a party of strangers to tread its slopes. We find, also, the same feeling cr opping up in the tribal pepeha (boast); it is a saying of the Taupo people that T ongariro is the mountain, Taupo the lake, and Te Heuheu the man (the chief), and my readers may now understand how it came to pass that the Taranaki mountain too k an interest in the success of its tribe. 6 I have already said that a reputable and honest tohunga would scorn to take adva ntage of his great powers in order to avenge himself on any thoughtless member o f his tribe, who, in a fit of temporary unbelief, might deride his attainment, o r otherwise behave impertinently to him. There were, however, occasions on which the offence could - 81 not lightly be condoned, since, in such cases, the gods themselves would have go od grounds of offence. I know of one such instance which was expiated in the goo d old days before the advent of the Pakeha Missionary, and the confusion which n aturally attended the arrival of these well meaning men, who succeeded in upsett ing the authority of the Maori gods and priests, without giving the Maoris anyth ing adequate in return. At or before the time mentioned, two very famous taniwhas kept watch and ward ov er the bar of the Hokianga river. Their names were Tauneri and Arai-te-uru; name s that I need hardly say were sufficient to strike terror into the hearts of tat ooed warriors, who were otherwise insensible to any emotion so childish as that of fear. Tauneri was regarded as lord of all, Arai-te-uru was his subject, but b y no means an obedient member of the great taniwha clan, for at times he was apt to take his own course, and not infrequently entered the river, and there upset all of the canoes in his course, and ate out the eyes of all those selected for destruction; for that be it known was the mark of the taniwha. Tauneri, as befi tted a rangatira, was not malicious, he merely showed his royal displeasure to t hose who infringed his tapu or disputed his mana. That displeasure was, however, serious, for he would in such case upset the canoe and cause his followers to d rown the whole crew as a warning to scoffers. The tohungas alone had power to av ert the evil consequences which might attend an unauthorised visit to the home o f these monsters, who, it would seem, lived in a cave under the bar of the river , for they alone could repeat the karakia, which must precede any visit made in that direction, that is if such visit were to be made with the prospect of safe return. That there was danger in neglecting these precautions will be seen from the following tradition: On the occasion in question, four young men started from the fishing village of Wai-mamaku to cross the bar, and did so in direct opposition to the advice of a very sacred tohunga. Not only did they ignore the advice tendered to them, but t hey further taunted him with being bald-headed, and jeeringly requested him to r eport their words to his taniwha. This last remark could by no means be passed o ver, the insult to the priest was a mere personal matter that might be forgiven, but the reference to the taniwha conveyed a sneering doubt as to his powers, an

d must be avenged, or farewell to the mana of Tauneri. To this end the tohunga o ffered up karakia, calling on the immortal gods to sacrifice the offenders, who had meanwhile crossed the bar and were in the open sea, but never again to be se en by mortal eyes. About a month after the disappearance of these men, the gods revealed their fate to the tohunga by means of a matakite. It would seem that when they arrived on the usual fishing ground they - 82 anchored and began to fish, and soon had the canoe deep in the water, from the w eight of hapuku they had caught; meanwhile they made merry over the caution of t he tohunga. So great, indeed, was their irreverence, that they neglected the usu al karakia of thanks-giving to Tangaroa, the sea-god, over the first fish taken; and worse still had broken the tapu by taking cooked food with them in the cano e. Meanwhile the taniwha had been playing with them, though they knew it not. It was only when they hoisted in their anchor, with the intention of returning hom ewards, that they realised that they were doomed men; for at that moment Tauneri rose to the surface and seized the stem of the canoe, while his comrade seized the stern, and both raised a storm, by means of the following incantation: Hau nui, hau roa, hau pukerikeri Keria te tipua i raro u ai Titi parerarera kokoia homai he hau. Which may be interpretedStrong and continuous winds and whirlwinds search out the demon below. Oh! flying scuds and clouds gather and give us wind. During the te rrific storm, which was the natural result of this karakia, the four fishermen w ere washed into a cave, beneath the sea, and perished miserably. As the tohunga concluded his recital of this revelation from the spirit world, he pointed to th e cliff on the south head of Hokianga, and there one hundred and fifty feet abov e the sandy beach, and almost as far below the top of the cliff were seen four s mall white objects, which, to the astonishment of the tribe, were now noticed fo r the first time. Those, said the tohunga, are the skulls of the four men, which the taniwha has placed in a conspicuous position as a warning to all unbeliever s. This narrative was listened to with respect, there was not a man in the tribe who doubted; each one of his audience was convinced that the tale was true, for if the skulls were not placed on the ledge by supernatural agency, how did they get there? The smooth steep face of the cliff offered no foothold, and yet they were there, and may be seen to this day. So far I have related the wonderful doings of the tohunga Maori, but respect for the truth compels me to admit that they were occasionally very wrong in their p redictions, and that such mistakes did in fact destroy whole tribes. I have perh aps mentioned that the Maori gods were somewhat enigmatical, and as a natural co nsequence were sometimes misunderstood, and a wrong interpretation given to thei r utterances. As a rule, however, these mistakes arose from the ignorance of the tohungas, who were either not equal to their work, or had a tricky god (koroke hangareka) to deal with, who would mislead his friend from pure malice aforethou ght. In either instance the tohunga was to blame, for if he could not keep his g od in order, who could? Retribution followed the footsteps of such a man, for th ough - 83 he might not suffer in person, by reason of the eccentricities of his familiar, he certainly would fall into disrepute, and very properly so. Something of this sort occurred about the year 1830, when a strong war-party of the Waikato tribes raided down on the people of Hawke's Bay and Te Wairoa, in or der to avenge the death of Te Arawai and his friends, who had fallen in a previo us affair. The combined tribes first carried the Pakake pa, and there slew many of the common people, and captured the great chiefs Te Hapuku, Moananui, and Tak amoana. They then marched against the people of Te Wairoa, who, being ill-provid

ed with guns, fell back on the Kaiuku pa at the Mahia peninsula, where they must ered to the number of two thousand fighting men, and had, moreover, the assistan ce of Te Wera's well-armed Nga-Puhi, who had been left by that chief at Nukutaur ua. It would have been well had the whole tribe followed this example; but one o f the principal chiefs, Nga-rangi-mateao, having implicit faith in a certain toh unga named Mohaka, he caused that man to consult his gods, and received the foll owing reply:The taua of Waikato will be food for the dogs. In this case the oracle gave forth no uncertain sound, and so it came to pass that the deluded chief and his followers remained in their pa, with the result that it was soon after take n with ridiculous ease by the people who should have been food for dogs. The chi ef and a few of his most active warriors did succeed in escaping to Kaiuku, but most of the men were slain and the women and children carried into captivity, th e victims of a lying god and incapable tohunga, for they might easily have been safe in Kaiuku, where the garrison suffered terrible privations, but none the le ss succeeded in keeping the enemy out of their pa. During the war of 1865, in Poverty Bay, one of the many prophets, who then infes ted the country, was dealt with in a very summary manner. He was one of the bele agured garrison of Waerenga-a-hika, and had induced his people to sally out of t heir pa and attack our trenches on the Sabbath day, on the plea that it was the custom of the Pakeha to muster for divine service every sunday morning, and ther efore they would be unprepared for the Hauhau attack. This prophet reasoned from insufficient data, he evidently knew nothing of the composition of the Forest R angers; but as an old member of that fraternity I can safely say, that nothing s hort of compulsion, would cause any member thereof to attend any form of service . The result of the sortie was disastrous, the enemy were allowed to approach cl ose to our rifle pits, and then a terrible fire was opened upon them; among othe rs the prophet was wounded, and one of his followers, exasperated almost to madn ess by the loss his tribe had suffered, sprang forward and tomahawked his spirit ual adviser, as he lay wounded and helpless. Even when actuated by the best possible motives, tohungas were a source of dange r and anxiety to their friends, and to illustrate this - 84 statement I will, as usual, draw upon Maori tradition. When Te Kato-hau, a chief of the Ngati-Tama-te-ra, was taken ill and seemed likely to die, the tidings sp read to all of the tribes of the district, and among others to the Ngati-mahanga who were exceedingly friendly with the afflicted chief, and they sent a message to his tribe saying, that they had a very learned tohunga who could, and would cure Te Katohau, provided that the old man was brought to him. Ngati-Tama-te-ra eagerly adopted the suggestion, and the old man was carried in a litter to the h ouse of the tohunga, who no doubt did his best; but that best did not prevent th e death of the patient. To the unbelieving Pakeha this was a very natural result , forasmuch as Te Katohau was a very old man, and the worst that could be said a gainst the tohunga was, that he had assisted nature to dispose of the aged chief in a manner not altogether unknown among Pakeha tohungas. This, however, was no t the view adopted by Ngati-Tama-te-ra; they argued that the tohunga was either ignorant of the first principles of his profession, in which case he ought not t o have undertaken so serious a duty; or he had deliberately deceived them all in order to get Te Katohau into his power and destroy him. In either case compensa tion must be had, so they declared war, killed the offending tohunga, and perman ently occupied the best land of his tribe. Nothwithstanding these little eccentricities, the tohunga was a most useful inst itution among Maoris. He was generally a man of the highest intelligence, and su bject to certain deductions exerted his powers and intellect in the interest and well being of his tribe. Occasionally the aid of the tohunga would be implored in a matter of great impor tance to a family, but which would be a subject of laughter to others. We are to

ld that the great chieftainess Rongo-kauae being childless went to Rongomai-kain oa, a very celebrated tohunga, and besought him to intercede with the tribal dei ties to the end that she might have issue. The tohunga consulted his gods, who w ere favourable, and informed the woman that she would hereafter bear many sons, provided each of them received the name of the tohunga in commemoration of the e vent. There were numerous occasions when the aid of the tohunga was indespensible. As for instance when two great tribes had for generations been at deadly enmity, un til at last mutual exhaustion had supervened, and each had realised that peace h ad become an actual necessity. In such a case a peace made between man and man w ould have been a useless absurdity, since it could in no way bind the tribal god s. Therefore, the first steps to be taken was to ensure a peace between the oppo sing gods, who had led their respective tribes to war during so many generations . It was thus that the Whanganui and Mania-poto tribes made their great peace kn own as Te Horonga-pai, and on that occasion it was deemed necessary that the sac red preliminary - 85 known as the Rongo taketake should first be performed in order to bind the gods Ma ru and Uenuku. Only men of the highest rank of the priesthood could officiate in this solemn ceremony. The main body of the warriors of each tribe stood therefo re apart on either bank of the Ongarue river, while Whakaneke, of Whanganui, act ing for the god Maru, and Tawhaki on behalf of Uenuku, approached one another, e ach one invoking the aid and concurrence of his god and each twisting a piece of the native flax into a cord, on the end of which was a loop, to be placed on th e great toe of the opposing tohunga, and in this way, and with much ceremony and many invocations to the powers of the outer world, the two gods were bound in b onds of friendship of a permanent character not to be broken by mere human agenc y. Tohungas, being after all merely human, did occasionally prostitute their powers in a manner that cannot be defended. when solicited so to do by relatives, who conceived that they had been slighted or injured. The Ngati-Paoa chief Tipa had two wives, Kahu-ngeri and Te Uru-mutu, whom he wisely kept apart. The first-name d, being the chief wife, lived on the low fertile land near the river, while the later lived on and cultivated the poorer land on the hill side. Each year the c rops of Kahu-ngeri were superior to those of her rival, and this added bitternes s to the fact that after the pure ceremony of each season the first fruits of th e land were taken to Kahu-ngeri, as lady paramount. This act of homage annoyed T e Urumutu, who avenged her fancied injuries by inducing a learned tohunga to bri ng about heavy rains just before the crops were ripe, and thereby flooded the lo w lands to the destruction of the plantations, whereas the kumaras of Te Urumutu , on the high lands, benefitted by the rains and produced abundantly. Very strange are the tales that are told of the powers exercised by tohungas eve n in comparatively modern times, when the mana of the Maori had all but passed a way. Perhaps one of the most singular and unaccountable of these affairs was rel ated to me by Mr. John Hetit, of Otorohanga, and vouched for by any number of th e Ngati-Maniapoto, as an absolutely true and unvarnished account of that which d id take place. During the years from 1863 to 1883, the tribes of Waikato, who ha d been driven from their homes by General Cameron and his forces, resided with t heir relatives of Ngati-Maniapoto, in the so called King-country, and of those w ho lived in the neighbourhood of Otorohanga was a man named Tawhia and his wife Rato. On a certain day these two went into the Mangawhero forest to gather the f ruit called ta-whara (flower of the Freycinetia), and took with them their two c hildren, a boy named Ngawaka, and his sister who was a few years older. As the b oy was too young to travel through the dense forest, he was left outside in char ge of his sister, who received strict orders not to move from the place at which they had been left. Now it so happened that the parents were some time absent, and the boy being impatient wanted

- 86 to follow them; unfortunately the girl was too young to have any command over he r brother, who entered the forest, and not only did not find his parents, but wa s himself lost. On his return Tawhia found that his son was missing, and at once commenced his search, he and his wife wandering about in the forest all of that day. On the two following days at least one hundred men took part in the search , but could find no trace of the lost child, and on the day following all of the pigs in the village were killed as a matter of precaution. Tawhia, who had not given up all hope, now bethought himself of the famous tohunga Te Wiwini Huatare , an older brother of Wahanui, of Ngati-Mania-poto. To him he went as a last res ource, and after a ride of 30 miles over rough country, arrived at the village a nd was greeted with the following speech:You have come to me about your lost child . He is alive but not in the bush where you have been looking for him. He will n ot be found until the seventh day of his wanderings, and then only by the smalle st man in your village, whose name I do not know, but whom I have seen in my mat akite. The boy will be found in a direct line between the two groves of acacia, known as Karika and Katukunui. The father did not neglect the directions he had r eceived, but at the same time neither he nor his friends ceased their search ove r the whole country side. On the seventh day Tawhia, having little hope that he would ever see his child alive, went to the place indicated by the tohu-nga acco mpanied by his friend Tahua and others, and there sure enough Tahua found the bo y huddled up in a clump of bracken, and almost unconscious. Singularly enough bo th the father and his friend Toto-rewa had passed close to the child without see ing him, and Tahua, the smallest man in that district, had only discovered the o bject of his search by casually looking back over the ground they had passed. No twithstanding his seven days' fast, the boy was well enough in body, but as usua l in such cases his mind was affected for the time being, and to this day he bel ieves he was carried off by the Patupaiarehe (fairies). Te Wiwini had in a very marked degree the power of localising the position of lo st articles. It is said that he never in his life failed to indicate their exact position, though he would occasionally refuse to deal with the cases brought be fore him, where his matakite failed him. The case in which Mr. John Hetit was co ncerned, will illustrate the powers I have referred to. He had been selected by the Mania-poto tribe to take a large herd of cattle to Taranaki for sale, and on his return journey he had lost his haversack, in which he had placed the whole of the money derived from the sale, about 700. This was a very serious matter, be cause, apart from the loss of money, was the question of reputation, since no Ma ori could be expected to believe that Mr. Hetit and his companions had not conve rted it to their own use. Fortunately they were able to locate the place where t he haversack had been lost to - 87 within seven or eight miles, but search as they would, they could find no trace of the missing property. In this dilemna Hetit bethought him of Te Wiwini, and a fter a long ride, placed the matter before him, fearing greatly that some strang er had been on that little travelled road and had found the bag. Te Wiwini took no time to consider, but saidI can see the bag lying where it fell when torn from your shoulder by a dead manuka bough. You turned off the road as you came from M okau to head back the horses you were driving, and went round a small lake, it i s there that your bag is lying untouched. Now a great tohunga may not be questioned, and therefore, Mr. Hetit rode away ap parently satisfied, but, nevertheless, firmly convinced that he had not been rou nd that same lake. It is possible that this conviction may have prevented them m aking a very thorough search for they did not find the bag. Once again they visi ted Te Wiwini, who gave them no chance of speaking, but saidYou have not followed my instructions because you do not believe that you have passed the place where I say the bag is lying. Go to that place, the bag is still there. No reply could be made to this speech, for it seemed that Te Wiwini, 30 miles from the scene of action, knew as well what had happened as the actors themselves. Even Mr. Hetit

was at last convinced that the tohunga's instructions must be followed, and sur e enough on this second occasion they found both bag and money intact, just wher e they had been told to look. In each of these cases Te Wiwini exercised the gif t of matakite, or second sight, a power that is by no means unusual or uncanny, I have known at least one European who possessed it in a very marked degree. It is the same power with which Mediums are accredited when hypnotised; but the Mao ri tohunga has this advantage that he is his own medium, and needs no assistance . There is reason to believe that the Maori tohunga may have the power ascribed to Indian jugglers, namely, that they can make their audience believe that they ha ve seen things, that had in fact no existance. It is only in this way that we ca n account for the weird stories told by many reliable men of the Mania-poto trib e, concerning the doings of a very notable witch, one Wikitoria Te Nga. This wom an when called upon to pronounce upon the cause of a certain man's sickness, nam ely, whether he had or had not been bewitched, then and there tested the matter in the presence of a score of her fellow-tribesmen; she went out of her house, a nd after a solemn invocation to her gods, called on the heart of the man who had done the evil to appear in her outstretched hand. Presumably, had the case been one of simple sickness no result would have followed the invocation, but on thi s occasion a heart dripping with blood was seen in the old woman's hand. Many me n now living have testified to the truth of this strange tale, and Mr. Hetit say sMy father saw it, and it cured him of his habit of scoffing at tohungas. - 88 In the foregoing pages I have given a mere sketch of the duties of tohungas of d ays long past, and also in comparatively modern times. Much more might have been said, but the material at my disposal does not permit me to do so, for in this matter I have trusted almost entirely to memory, and have given both in reminisc enses and traditions much as I heard them years ago, when seated in a Native wha re surrounded by men to whom these things were not fanciful efforts of imaginati on, but stern and solemn realities. It may be asked, are these tales accepted without doubt or question by the more civilized Maoris of the present day? To such a question I reply, that no matter how highly a Maori may be educated, he still believes in the power of the old Ma ori gods when under the control of a real tohunga, but they may find it difficul t to swallow the very ancient traditions which are, to say the least, marvellous . One or two specimens will suffice to show that the very ancient tohungas were people to be avoided. It would seem that those Maori priests who first arrived in New Zealand, had by their arts succeeded in rendering many of the mountains and islands off the coas t so sacred as to be dangerous to any common person who might incautiously visit those places. Notably, this was the case with Whanga-o-Kena, an island near the East Cape, whereon the great wizard Weketoro had placed several birds and repti les, and a dog, all of which he had brought with him from Hawaiki; and to preser ve these sacred associates, had made the island dangerously tapu so that tohunga s of the highest rank only could approach it. These restrictions were irksome to those who lived on the main land, since it debarred them from using the island for fishing purposes. After patiently submitting to this tapu for more than one hundred years, they were only too glad to accept the offer of a stranger, one Ka iawa, who proposed to destroy the tapu of the island by incantations of even gre ater potency than those that imposed it, and as he was undoubtedly a very great tohunga, his mode of procedure is worthy of record. Kaiawa launched his canoe, a nd took with him his daughter Ponui-a-hine, whose duty it was to secure the sacr ed kaunoti (sticks used in obtaining fire by friction) by holding them under her feet. As the adventurous pair neared the island, they saw standing near the str eam called Taumata-o-Tuhaka, the Mohorangi (dog), who fixed its basilisk eyes on Ponui-a-hine, whose face her father had forgotten to veil. On landing, Kaiawa t

ore up from its roots a sacred rimu sapling and handed it to the bird Tuhaka to hold; this he did as a sign of his power and mana. He then produced fire by the friction of his kaunoti, while his daughter firmly held the stick acted on, and when he had produced sparks, he called them Rino-i-a-Nuku. He then placed the spar ks in dried grass and waved it over his head until flame burst forth, and this h e called Rino-i-a-Rangi. Then Kaiawa, having - 89 first placed his daughter in a deep sleep, proceeded to remove the tapu by means of this woman's fire, which has a virtue peculiar to itself, and is exceedingly sacred. He lighted fires at Hororoa, Takuahi, and Muri-wai, and thereby deprive d the ancient incantations of Weketoro of all mana. He then partially smothered his fires, and by so doing produced a great smoke, which had the effect of tamin g the birds Tuhaka and Tango-whiti, but the other two, Wehiwehi and Hine-ki-tore a, flew away to some rocks so that he failed to tame them, and they remain wild even to the present day. Having accomplished these things, Kaiawa returned to where he had left his daugh ter in her magic sleep, expecting to find her in the same condition as when he h ad left her; but she had disappeared, and never again was she seen in human or r ecognisable form. In vain did Kaiawa call her by name, only the echoes from the cliffs replied to his call. Then the distracted father turned seaward and saw a rock standing in the sea, and this by virtue of his knowledge as a tohunga, he k new to be his daughter, who had been turned into stone by the weird gaze of the Mohorangi. From that date the island has been free of tapu, but the women avoid it, fearing lest they be overtaken by the sad fate of Ponui-a-hine. Strangers wh o have occasion to land thereon will do well to veil their eyes lest they also s hould see the Mohorangi. Equally marvellous is the fire ceremony as practised in New Zealand, but it is n ot peculiar to that country, for it is practised at Raiatea, and in one small is land in the Fiji group, at both of which places people may occasionally be seen walking across the hot stones, of an oven twelve feet in diameter, bare footed a nd without injury. I have myself walked bare footed across an oven, at Muri in t he island of Raro-tonga, in which quantities of the root of the Ti were subseque ntly cooked. It does not, however, appear that the Polynesians had any particula r object in their fire walking; but the New Zealand Maori, being more practical than his tropical cousin, used it in their quasi religious ceremonies, in order to give mana to their karakias. Many generations ago, a certain man whose name h as been handed down as Te Rangikaku, left Te Awa-o-te-Atua on a fishing expediti on, during which his canoe capsized and he was drowned, his body being washed on shore at Wairakei ten miles East of Tauranga. Now, the manners and customs of t he Maori at that periodif judged by modern standardswere not nice, and when the pe ople of Wairakei saw the body they regarded it in the light of a stranded fish, and not only cooked it, but ate it. In due time a report of this affair reached a chief known as Te Haehae, who enquired further, and learned that the dead man had a pattern tattooed on his arm which is known to the Maoris as a Puhore, and that his hair had the red tint called Urukehu. By these marks Te Haehae discover ed that it was his grandson, Te Rangikaku, who had been eaten by the people of W airakei. Here then was an - 90 offence that must be avenged, and the grander the scale of vengeance the more cr editable to the relatives of the deceased. The matter, in all its bearings, rece ived the most careful consideration from Te Haehae, who sent his daughter to Puk etapu, to Tikitu, Te Rehu, and to Uenuku directing those leaders of the tribe to plant taro, and catch and dry eels in large quantities. When these things had b een done, and the food was ready for use, Te Haehae invited the Tauranga chiefs and people to a great feast, and when it was known that the doomed men were actu ally on their way to the feast, Te Haehae sent the Nga-Maihi tribe to collect wo od and stones for the great oven, saying, that as it was intended that the oven should be absolutely sacred, he would himself perform all the work connected the

rewith. Therefore, it was Te Haehae who dug out the bed of the oven, lighted the firewood with the sacred kaunoti fire, and placed the stones above the firewood , and finally placed the taro on the red hot stones with his own tapu hands. At each and all of these necessary acts Te Haehae uttered the appropriate karakia, and finally, as a crowning act of mana, before the taro were placed on the hot s tones, he himself entered the oven, and standing there dressed only in a girdle of kokomuka leaves, offered up his last karakia to the Maori gods, and finally s tepped out of the oven uninjured by the fire. When the food was served, the Ngati-Pukenga and Ngai-Te-Rangi partook of it, and were so pleased that they bethought them of an immediate return, and finally re solved to visit their fine hapuku grounds, and present all the fish they could t ake to Nga-Maihi. When the two tribes had left on this errand, Te Haehae succeed ed in inducing the Nga-Maihi to leave for their homes, for they were so nearly r elated to their late guests, that he could not trust them in any scheme of venge ance which included Ngai-Te-Rangi; but when they had departed he rushed into the sea, and having obtained the favour of the gods by means of the fire ceremony, he called on them to send the wind that is called an Uru-karaerae. The invocation had mana, for the wind came with thunder and lightning, and overtook those fishe rmen who had eaten Te Rangikaku and destroyed them utterly. The marvellous enters largely into the doings of the very ancient tohungas, for who is the man bold enough to deny that Tapukai, by the power of his karakia, re moved the island of Ruamano from Patea right across the Straits, where it may no w be seen a very monument of the mana-tohunga. Numerous indeed were the duties of a tohunga. He it was who pronounced the toko or divorce over such married people who became tired of one another's society, a nd, by another potent charm, brought together errant wives or husbands. By the magic spell of the Tatai-whetu, he could and frequently - 91 did drive away or dissipate the frost that threatened the existence of the taro and kumara plantations of the tribe. He would, moreover, by means of those karakias which had been handed down to him from his ancestors, recall the vital spark to the inanimate body, and in this w ay arrest the flight of the spirit to Hades, by way of the gates of night (tatau o te po). Many things did those tohungas achieve, that I have not recounted, for this is b ut a sketch not a history of the learned fraternity.