Best. — Maori Eschatology. 225 



still weeping." As usual I made inquiries, for you must be keen 

 to catch and follow up such remarks if you wish to acquire the 

 old-time lore and study the mentality of primitive man. Te 

 Whatu-pe, of Tuhoe, was slain by a party of Te Whaka-tohea 

 about five generations ago. His body they cooked in a hangi 

 (steam-oven) and ate. It is said that the stones used to heat 

 the oven are still weeping — that is to say, the fat from the 

 cooked body is still exuding from those stones, but only when 

 the descendants of Te Whatu-pe visit the place. 



" Peka titoki " : An expression often heard when persons are 

 speaking of death. The branch of a titoki tree (or, presumably, 

 of any other tree) dies, decays, and is seen no more, but the 

 peka tangata (human branch) decays and is seen again in his 

 offspring. So-and-so is dead, but his children survive — apa he 

 peka titoki (if he were a peka titoki, then indeed he would leave 

 no trace behind). The rendering given by Sir George Grey in 

 his " Maori Proverbs " is different. The term " peka titoki,'" he 

 says, is applied to anything difficult to break, or to a people 

 difficult to conquer. The titoki has a very tough, strong timber, 

 resembling hickory. 



The Maori was a believer in metempsychosis. When Hine- 

 ruarangi, daughter of Toi the Wood-eater, of immortal fame, 

 died, her spirit entered upon another earthly life in the form of 

 a cormorant, which bird has since been the tribal banshee of 

 the Ngati-Whare Tribe, of Te Whaiti. Whenever a chief of that 

 people is about to die, or prior to a defeat of the tribe in battle, 

 the bird appears flying above the village of Ngati-Whare at Te 

 Whaiti. Another of their omens of a like nature is the playing 

 of lightning on the mountain-peak of Tuwatawata. Each tribe 

 of this district has its rua koha — principally high ranges or peaks, 

 to see lightning playing on which is believed to foretell the death 

 of a tribal chief. Landslips are also looked upon in a similar 

 manner. 



Te Tahi and Te Putaanga, two ancestors of the Ngati-Awa 

 Tribe, are said to have both reappeared as sea-demons (mara- 

 kihau) after their death. They are represented among the 

 carved ancestral figures in the Native meeting-house at Rua- 

 tahuna. 



Spirits of the dead are said to sometimes return here in the 

 form of butterflies or moths.* The spirit of a stillborn child 

 may enter a bird, or fish, or animal, or insect, when it works 

 havoc as a caco-demon. 



Nga-rangihangu, an ancestor of the Ngati-Manawa Tribe, 

 became a taniwha (water-demon) after death, and abode in the 

 Rangi-taiki River at Raepohatu, near Te Houhi. 



* Of. beliefs of the Samoans and Niassans. 

 8— Trans. 



