Best. — Maori Eschatology. 217 



Kai atu tatau ki nga atua tapu 



Kai atu tatau ki nga mana i te rangi 



Mate rouroua tiritiria, makamaka 



Kia kai mai te ati tipua 



Kia kai mai te ati tawhito 



E kai ! E kai ! 



E horo, e horo o tatau kaki 



Kia kai nuku tatau 



Kia kai rangi tatau 



Kia kai matamua tatau 



Kia kai wahi tapu tatau. 



Thus is tlie tapu taken off foods and persons, and the assembled 

 peoples may then eat. Should they eat of the food before the 

 tapu is lifted from it, then such food would turn upon and 

 destroy them — which means that the gods would destroy or 

 afflict them sorely for having been guilty of a hara, or infringe- 

 ment of tapu. The whakau also lifts the excess of tapu from 

 sacred persons, such as priests and arihi. Understand, the 

 whakau is the highest order of such invocations, but it is only 

 repeated over the most highly tapu food, as the above-described, 

 or food which has been carried on the sacred back of a matamua 

 (first-born of a high chief's family). The taumaha is another 

 variety of such karakia, but it is recited over ordinary foods 

 much less tapu than the above. This taumaha also removes 

 the tapu from foods. The whangai is a kind of whakau. It is 

 applied to food " fed " (whangaia) or offered to a god (atua), 

 and over which a charm is repeated by the priest. If persons 

 are going on a journey to places where they fancy they may be 

 bewitched, they cook some food, over which the priest recites 

 his charm. A portion of this food the travellers eat, and a por- 

 tion of it they thrust into their belts and so carry with them. 

 It will have the effect of warding off the shafts of black magic. 

 When they return from their journey, and before they enter the 

 village, the priest will take the tapu from them, or it might en- 

 danger their welfare, or even theii lives. They are then free to 

 go to their own homes. The whakau is nowadays often termed 

 a " whakaivhetai," a very misleading expression. 



A good authority informs me that, should a person in former 

 days so forget himself as to eat of the umu whangai (No. 3), 

 he would at once be slain. 



In ancient times the flesh of the breed of native dogs known 

 as ruarangi was much esteemed for these funeral feasts of the 

 Maori. 



A good deal of the above ritual is still retained at t lese func- 

 tions among the Tuhoe Tribe. 



Among the Ngati-Awa Tribe the following appears to be a 

 list of the ovens used at the hahunga : (1.) Umu kaha : For the 

 priest. f(2.) Umu potaka, or umu kirihau, or imu tamaahu : 



