Goldie. —Maori Medical Lore. 9 



selves common, or free from tapu, that they might be able 

 to accept the new religion. For the tapu was of the Maori 

 gods, and must be got rid of, or reduced, so to speak, before 

 the new god was accepted. This was done, it) most cases, 

 bv washing the head with water heated in a vessel in which 

 food had been cooked. Shade of Toi ! It was enough to 

 cause the whole horde of gods in the Maori pantheon to turn 

 on the race and destroy it at a blow — the most sacred part of 

 sacred man to be brought into contact with cooked food ! 



" As old Pio remarked to me, ' The mauri of the Maori 

 has become polluted ; that is what is destroying the Maori 

 people. It may be that this generation, born among the 

 white men, may survive, and be as healthy and virile and 

 industrious. But I fear that the Maori has forsaken his 

 own well - being [ora and maua] in pursuing that of the 

 white man. And I ask, How may we survive? [Me aha 

 ra tatou e ora ai.] Let us return to the beliefs of the Maori, 

 and the rites of old. I am resolved to follow the practices of 

 my forefathers, which have been followed for many genera- 

 tions. I say to you that the Maori is in fault ; he has de- 

 serted his ancestral rites, customs, and beliefs, and now they 

 have turned upon him and are destroying him. ' 



The Tuhoe Maoris have a tradition that it was Irakewa, 

 father of the chief Toroa of the Matatua canoe, who intro- 

 duced disease into New Zealand from Hawaiki. He seems 

 to have visited this country in some mysterious manner just 

 before the coming of the Matatua canoe. Before the arrival 

 of these voyagers it is said that disease was unknown here. 



Violation of Tapu. 



" The violation of tapu includes any interference with tapu 

 objects, persons, or places. For instance, when a house has 

 become tapu for some reason, and is deserted, it must not 

 afterwards be entered, or burned, or interfered with in any 

 way. Only a priest, or those under tapu for conveying a body 

 or exhumed bones, may trespass on a burial-place or cave 

 where bones of the dead are placed. Should any one else 

 so trespass, then those bones of the dead will turn upon the 

 intruder and slay him, or afflict him grievously. That is 

 to say, the gods will punish that person. 



" The bed and pillow of a tapu person are likewise en- 

 dowed with that dread quality, and should any careless or 

 imprudent person presume to seat himself on such, or eat 

 food there, he will be seriously afflicted ere long. These 

 things cannot be done with impunity. The gods will mark 

 him down. This does not, of course, apply to the sleeping- 

 places of ordinary persons who are not highly charged with 

 tapu. 



