200 Transaction*. 



clothing and immerse their bodies in the water, after which 

 he recites a karakia (charm, incantation, spell, invocation) in 

 order to lift or dispel the tapu, and gives the parties a cooked 

 potato to eat. The persons are then noa, or free from tapu, and 

 may partake of food and mix with their fellows. Cooked food, 

 it may be observed, is a most polluting thing, the direct anti- 

 thesis of tapu, hence it is used in these rites to destroy or over- 

 come the tapu (uncleanness or sacredness). To smoke a pipe of 

 tobacco has the same effect, tobacco being termed food (kai) by 

 the Maori, hence it is sometimes used in that way, generally 

 perhaps in rites of minor importance. This rite of ivhakanoa, 

 however, was performed with more ceremony in former times. 



A portion of the food cooked for the ceremonial funeral 

 feasts — i.e., at the burial of the dead, and at the exhumation of 

 the bones — was specially sacred. It was for the chief officiating 

 priest, and perhaps the first-born son of the chief (ariki) line of 

 descent of the tribe, such a person being termed a " matamua '' 

 (first-born) ; also, perhaps, the food reserved for those who 

 handled the dead body or bones was called by the same name — 

 viz., " popoa" 



The whakanoa, or making-common rite, performed over those 

 who handled a corpse, or bones of the dead, was termed " pure." 

 It dispelled the tapu and purified the operators. 



A portion of the popoa or sacred food was offered (whangaia) 

 to the dead body by the priest (tohunga), who placed it to the 

 mouth of the corpse and withdrew it. The dead person was 

 supposed to absorb the ahua (semblance) or aria (likeness, re- 

 semblance, imaginary presence, form of incarnation, &c.) of the 

 food. One authority states that the priest merely waved the 

 food in the direction of the mouth of the corpse (" Ka poia te 

 kai ki te waha o te tupapaku "), repeating as he did so, — 



Tuputuputu atua 

 Ka eke inai i te rangi 

 E roa e 



Whangainga iho 

 Ki te mata o te tau 

 E roa e. 



Now, this is a singular thing : The above is a portion of an 

 invocation to the stars, which was repeated at the " first fruits " 

 ceremonv in former times. Tuputuputu is, I believe, one of the 

 Magellan clouds. All the principal stars are mentioned in a 

 similar manner in the full version of the above. As it was an 

 invocation to cause the stars to provide a plentiful supply of 

 foods, I fail to see its connection with burial rites. My informant 

 may have been in error in giving it in the above connection, 

 yet he is the most learned of the Tuhoe Tribe in their ancient 



