232 Transactions. 



" Now, when a Maori dies, his wairua (spirit, or soul) leaves 

 and goes to the rerenga - wairua (spirit's leaping - place). On 

 arriving at the resting-place on the last ridge (the taumata i 

 Haumu) the spirit halts and laments, weeping, the world it is 

 leaving. It also lacerates itself, in grief, with obsidian, of which 

 there is much lying there. When the mourning and weeping 

 are over, the wairua descends the cliff by means of the roots which 

 are there, to the beach below. It goes on, and passes out on to 

 the rocks. Gaping there is the hole by which the spirit descends 

 to the reinga. The ocean-waters surge upwards through this 

 chasm, the seaweeds are swirled round by the waters. Then 

 the waters recede and leave exposed the abyss. Down into this 

 the spirit leaps, and finds itself in the spirit-world. There the 

 sun is shining, there is no darkness. It is just like this world. 

 The spirit proceeds onward until it comes to the fence. Should 

 it pass over the fence, that spirit will return to this world. But 

 if it passes under the fence it is gone for all time, it will never- 

 more return to this world. When the spirit reaches those of its 

 relatives and is offered food, should it eat of that food it will 

 never return to this world." 



Here in this narrative we see the spirit-world described as 

 a place where no darkness prevails, a world lightened by the 

 sun. This is the result of persons dreaming of having descended 

 to the underworld, as in the case of the two persons quoted above. 

 A person recovering from a trance would be said by the Maori 

 to have returned from the spirit-world. In the case of Toihau, 

 above quoted, another authority stated that he died, and that 

 the spirit of an ancestor, one Te Nahu, came and led his spirit 

 to the underworld, and also warned him that if he ate of proffered 

 food in the spirit- world his spirit or soul would be lost for ever, 

 and return no more to the world of life. So Toihau refused 

 the food offered by the spirits of Hades, hence he (his spirit) 

 was returned to this world, the ao mamma. It was conducted 

 back by the spirit of Te Nairn, who drove it forth from Hades 

 with scourging. Back to this world came Toihau's spirit, and 

 entered his body ; so that, after being dead for three days, Toihau 

 of the Children of Awa rose from the dead and lived again. 

 This was evidently a case of trance. 



The wife of Te Puke-nui was carried off by spirits, say the 

 local Natives, and she saw the spirits of all the dead-and-gone 

 people ere she returned here. This was evidently a case of 

 dreaming. 



Another case, quoted locally, is that of a woman who died, 

 after which her husband married again. Then the spirit of the 

 dead wife appeared and carried off the living wife, and had nearly 

 succeeded in slaying her when rescued by her husband. But 



