630 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Tena te utnu 



Te umu ka eke, te umu kai a koe 



Na te umu o enei korero 



Ka inA nga koromatua 



Ka ma lioki tenei tauira. 



Ka kainga te puwha e te tangata, ara e te tauira. Katahi ka poua 

 ki te karakia : — 



He Pou 

 Pou hihiri, pou rarama 

 Tiahp i roto, marama i roto 

 Wananga i roto, marama i roto 

 Tena te pou, te pou ka eke 

 Te pou kai a koe na 

 Ko te pou o enei korero. 



Then, striking the side of the house, the tohunga repeats : — 



Ka pa ki tua, ka pa ki wabo 



Ka pa ki te whare 



He wahanga nuka, he wahanga rangi. 



Heoti ano, kua noa, kua puta te tauira kai waho. 



After the pupil has woven the aho tapu she will probably 

 weave in more woof-threads beneath, and thus make a band 

 of some few inches in depth, copying the work of the garment 

 spread before her ; but this is never worn, nor even completed 

 in the form of any garment ; it is her "pattern piece " (inea 

 tauira). When the ceremony of the hurihanga takapau is 

 over the taini is lifted from the participants, and the pupil may 

 now leave the whare pora and partake of food. 



The custom described above, of repeating invocations in 

 order to make a person receptive and clear-headed, was one 

 that called for action at a remarkably early period of life. 

 When the iJio, or umbilical cord, of a child is severed, and the 

 end thrust back, a priest recites certain karakia to cause the 

 marama (clearness) to enter and abide in the child ; to culti- 

 vate the perceptive faculties, that it may be possessed of a 

 quick understanding; and also to cause all poitritanga (dark- 

 ness, sluggishness of intellect) to be cast out with the severed 

 pito. These karakia ivhakamarama, together with the pou 

 invocation, had a strong and satisfactory effect on Maori 

 students of old, for, whether they were passing through the 

 whare pora, tvliare takiura, or achate mata, they were thus, by 

 Divine aid, enabled to assimilate and retain all matter, through 

 hearing or observation, in one lesson — that is to say, no repeti- 

 tion of a lesson was ever necessar3^ Genealogies and karakia 

 of a truly alarming length were repeated but once in the tohare 

 maire. Those who have passed through the ichare p)ora will, 

 if shown a new pattern of w^eaving, faithfully reproduce that 

 pattern on the first trial. Should the weaver but obey the 

 rules of the whare j)07'a she can make no error. The gods 

 are behind her. I obtained a short while since a rather in- 



