50 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



in time of war, as a species of divination to see what fate has 

 in store for the tribe. The guests were challenged in the 

 orthodox manner as they marched on to the plaza, while the 

 village people would be divided into several columns, all kneel- 

 ing and waiting for the signal of the fugleman to spring 

 to their feet and, with brandished weapons, to roar out the 

 resounding ngeri. In late times a pahtwha party is often 

 welcomed with a volley from the guns of their hosts. 



Neither the tiimahaiui, nor the jjoiigaihu, nor yet tuhaka- 

 reka pertained to the ojje pakuicha, but only to the kaihau- 

 kai.* 



We will here give a few words of explanation in regard to 

 the careful supervision and arrangement of marriages among 

 the natives. To a great extent it was caused by tribal anxiety 

 to avoid a mesalliance, to prevent a person of good birth from 

 marrying into a family of ivare, or low-born people, to keep 

 unmixed the blood of the rangatira class, to uphold the rank, 

 fame, and dignity of first-born lines of descent, and hence to 

 prevent all tijmhcke, or degeneration, of blue-blooded lines. 



For the Maori were ever true aristocrats, ever looked down 

 upon the low-born, and exalted rank and birth. They treated 

 with respect and deference even those members of the aristo- 

 cratic class who were not endowed with the qualities necessary 

 for the leading of men and the supervision of tribal affairs. 

 And their method of preserving such rank and prestige was by 

 a strict observance and retention of the aho viatamua — i.e., of 

 primogeniture. For the rangatira. or high-born class wei'e 

 descendants of some noted, and probably remote, ancestor 

 through the eldest-born of each succeeding generation, while 

 the lower classes were the descendants of younger sons of 

 by-gone centuries. The first-born lines retained the mana 

 (power, prestige) of the tribe, hence they were careful not to 

 allow any of their members to marry into the ware, or lower 

 classes — i.e, into younger branches — but always within their 

 own class. Formerly, as we have seen, marriages of the 

 " upper class " were arranged by the elders of the young 

 people and by the tribe, in order to avoid such mesalliances. 

 But most of these old customs have been deserted by Tuhoe 

 since the advent of Europeans. Young people now please 

 themselves as to whom they marry, hence tipuheke abound 

 [i.e., degeneration). 



The Maori custom of building a special house in order to 

 signalise, as it were, any important event was a very peculiar 

 one. We have seen that such a house was built in order to 

 emphasize a marriage. A similar custom obtained when 



* For an explanation of these terms ate article on " Food-supplies of 

 Tuhoeland," Volume xxxv. of the Transactions. 



