264 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



servances considered necessary in such cases. But there are 

 other and very peculiar methods of fixing in the memory the 

 lessons taught, and which were considered very efficacious in 

 certain circumstances. If from any cause the son of a tohunga 

 had not been fully educated, or, possibly, in cases where the 

 father's knowledge had not been completely communicated 

 until just before his death, it was the custom for the tauira, 

 or pupil, after being taught all the father or teacher had to 

 communicate, to bite the teacher's great toe. In other cases 

 he would be directed to bite off the tip of the teacher's ear. 

 In both cases the teaching was thereby supposed to become 

 fixed for ever in the pupil's mind. 



To those who have heard the stories of the wondrous 

 powers of the tohungas of old, told with all the circumstan- 

 tiality of name and place, there comes a questioning doubt as 

 to whether, after all, there is not something in them that lies 

 beyond our ken — whether this old old race has not preserved 

 a knowledge of forces that we have yet to acquire. However 

 this may be, it is obvious that the belief of the multitude in 

 the enormous powers of the tohunga would in many cases act 

 as if those powers were real. It is a matter of common know- 

 ledge that if a Maori fully believes he is bewitched unto death 

 he will die. They are peculiarly susceptible in this direction. 

 They have extraordinary powers of belief. They are people in 

 whom faith is a reality. 



This brings us to another branch of our subject. No one 

 who has studied the matter deeply will find a difficulty in 

 accrediting the old tohunga with some knowledge of hypnot- 

 ism, telepathy, and other " isms " pertaining to that class of 

 mental phenomena. Here their great powers of faith come 

 directly into play, for, as is well known, these mental sciences 

 are based on faith or belief. Many of the powers of the tohu- 

 nga can doubtless be explained by hypnotism due to conscious 

 or unconscious "suggestion."''- Makutu, or sorcery, as prac- 

 tised by the Maoris, is largely the effect of hypnotism and 

 suggestion conveyed by telepathy. Let a Maori once be told 

 that some one has bewitched him — has exercised the dread 

 power of mahttu over him — -and the suggestion, falling on 

 ground prepared by faith, will rapidly effect its object. If 

 there be a tohunga makutu, or tvhaiwhaid, near, the sufferer 

 will apply to him to use his powers to counteract the effect, 

 and should the counter-suggestion be sufficiently powerful (or, 

 as the Maori would put it, if the karakias are potent enough) 

 the object of the makutu will recover. Is not this hypnotism, 

 or some form of it ? 



I do not propose to touch on makutu any further, but it is 



* I use the word " suggestion " in its technical sense. 



