Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. 3 



(4) accidental, and by suicide. Class 3 is sometimes termed 

 mate aitu, hemo o aim, or mate koeo. The last expression is 

 applied to any sickness in which a person wastes away, out 

 is' sometimes used in a general sense, as given above. Hau 

 koeoeo is a slight indisposition, as sometimes felt by a person 

 on rising in the morning. Natural death originated with Hine- 

 nui-te-po, death not entering into the original scheme of the 

 universe, according to Maori mythology. 



Mate atua includes death due to atua, sent either by the 

 gods or deified ancestors, or by sorcerers. " The word atua," 

 ■according to Mr. Elsdon Best. " means ' demon,' and never 

 had the meaning of beneficent spirit or Supreme God." Speak- 

 ing of the terrible epidemic known as the rewharewha, an old 

 native said, " It was that atua [i.e., the rewharewha] that 

 destroyed the Maori people and so reduced their numbers." 

 Likewise, the terms kaiuaua, puhi-kai-naonao, papaka, and a 

 number of others are applied both to the atua producing the 

 disease and to the disease itself. It would appear that these 

 atua are really the personified forms of the disease. In the 

 case of illness caused by sorcery it is really the atua of the 

 wizard which gives power to the karakia or magic spell. And 

 in disease due to infringement of the tapu it is the atua or 

 malignant spirit sent by the tribal deified ancestors that is 

 the actual cause of the malady. Thus, in former times, the 

 vast majority of diseases were of the class mate atua. 



The diagnosis of serious illnesses was made by means of the 

 hirihiri ceremonies, to be described hereafter. It was thus 

 found out whether the patient was the victim of the tribal atua 

 or of makutu (sorcery). 



General Treatment of the Sick. 



When a native is taken ill away from his home it is the 

 usual custom to carry him back to his own place, there to 

 recover or die, as the case may be. Sick persons and bodies 

 of the dead are so carried on litters (amo, or kauhoa), some- 

 times very long distances. The kauhoa consisted of two poles, 

 between which the patient rested on a flax net with broad 

 meshes, and wrapped in flax mats, the litter being carried on 

 the shoulders of two bearers, one before and one behind. 



Removal from one part of the country to another was, as 

 Thomson points out, a favourite remedy for certain diseases, 

 the object being to remove the patient from the sphere of 

 action of the afflicting demon. This treatment was based on 

 the belief that the power of the malicious atua was confined 

 to a definite place —for instance, that of a deceased relative to 

 the neighbourhood of his last dwelling-place, or the confines 

 of the village. Another reason for carrying sick persons from 

 one house to another, or to a neighbouring village, was to 



