White. — On the Ceremony of Eahui. 359 



I notice on the map of this district two other places named 

 Te Eahui. 



In this same pamphlet, at page 46, mention is made of the 

 other word rahui, "a flock or herd" (in the fight at Pohatu- 

 nui Pa). " Te iVriki escaped, but was captured after a long 

 chase and slain. Tirawhi was enslaved." " Te rahui kawatt 

 hi rota o Wairau" is an expression applied to the refugees of 

 Nga-whakarara by Tuhoe on account of the manner they flew 

 from place to place — (" The flock of shags (cormorants) within 

 Wairau "'). 



There seems reason to suppose that at the launching of 

 some, or perhaps all, of the historical canoes leaving Hawaiki 

 for New Zealand the success of the voyage was insured by 

 the sacrifice of blood. This fact, becoming obscured by the 

 lapse of time, has varied to the silly story of some of the 

 would-be emigrants kiUing a boy, as, for example, " When 

 the canoe was being finished a boy, seeing the dinner pre- 

 pared for the workmen placed near by, came stealthily and 

 ate the choice morsels. For this act Eata killed him at the 

 launching of the canoe, and hid his body under the chips 

 therefrom." Do not our own people act on tlie relique of a 

 similar custom, but at the present time we make wine a sub- 

 stitute for blood. Man, from his inherent wickedness, will 

 commit the same particular barbarity, and that without any 

 knowledge of or communication with others of his kind, be 

 they white, brown, yellow, or black in complexion, at long 

 distances apart. 



In Nature of the 22nd April, 1897, is this paragraph : 

 " There is no reason to doubt that this custom (human 

 sacrifice) prevailed among the early Aryans of India. The 

 Trautras enjoin human sacrifice to Chandika. The folk-tales 

 of India abound in tales of human sacrifice, and in the time 

 of Sir John Malcolm there was a tribe of Brahmans called 

 Karhada, which had a custom of annually sacrificing a young 

 Brahman to their deities. All over India there is a very 

 strong tradition that new buildings, bridges, tanks, and wells 

 should be secured against evil by the blood of some victim." 



The Maoris have several different versions of the story of 

 the bringing of the kumara (sweet potato) to New Zealand. 

 In one Pani is the man or woman ; another gives the credit to 

 Kahu-kura (he of the beautiful raiment, or the rainbow.) 



Judge Gudgeon, of the Native Land Court, tells us of 

 another story in the "Journal of the Polynesian Society" 

 (vol. ii., p. 100) : " Hoake and Taukata arrived in New 

 Zealand by floating thither on blocks of pumice. They 

 brought a supply of kao (dried kumara). When Toi, of New 

 Zealand, tasted this new food he was delighted with the 

 fragrance thereof. . . . Taukata explained where this 



