60 Tr ansae tions. — Miscellaneous . 



Taka was useful even in death. He filled a long-felt want, 

 doubtless. This anecdote is inserted not only as an item of 

 ethnography, but also as a hint to any ill-used wives, and as a 

 warning to those who assault their devoted wives. 



Divorce. 



That there was a ritual of divorce which obtained among 

 the old-time Maori is certain, but it is not clear that when a 

 couple wished to separate they had recourse to the same. 

 Some natives state that it was so used, but there is evidence 

 in favour of the statement that it was more often utilised as a 

 means of separating husband and wife by one who wished to 

 marry the husband or wife, as the case might be. 



Tikitu, of Ngati-Awa, states, " Suppose that you have two 

 wives, and that one becomes jealous of the other. She comes 

 to me, the tohunga (wise man, priest, shaman), and asks me 

 to separate her rival and their husband, to cause her to leave 

 him, that she, the applicant, may then be the only wife. To 

 effect this separation I have recourse to the toko rite. The 

 karakia toko (divorce invocation) separates a couple by 

 causing their love for each other to cease. The same invoca- 

 tion is used in all cases, whether the parties to be separated 

 are willing or not. Suppose that my daughter marries you ; 

 although you love each other, yet if I take my daughter to the 

 priest and he recites the toko invocation over her then she 

 will no longer feel any affection for you. And should a man 

 wish to be rid of his wife and to marry some other woman, if 

 his wife is willing then he goes himself to the priest." 



Another authority, and a more learned man than Tikitu, 

 says, " The toko is a karakia (invocation, charm, incantation, 

 ritual) to divorce a married couple who have no desire to 

 separate, but whose elders wish to part them. The priest 

 takes the couple to the water (where rites are performed) and 

 sprinkles them with water, then repeating over them the 

 karakia toko : — 



" Ka tokona atu nei korua 

 Tu ke Eangi, tau ke Papa, &c. 



The couple are thus divorced." 



My own particular sage, he who has long endeavoured to 

 guide me through the mystic gloom of the wharc takiura, 

 explains thusly : " A married woman comes to the priest in 

 order that he may cause her love for her husband to cease 

 (kia miria tona aroha). The priest takes the ahua (semblance 

 or personality) of her affection at the sacred waters, whitlier 

 he conducts lier, and there he ' separates ' her affection from 

 her and abolishes (destroys) it — that is to say, he washes the 

 aria, or ahua, of her love away. Then the priest recites the 

 toko invocation : — 



