10 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



" To trespass on a tuahu, or sacred place where rites are 

 performed, or any place where a sacred fire has been kindled, 

 even though it were long years ago, will also bring down the 

 anger of the gods. At no great distance from camp Heipipi, 

 at Rua-tahuna. is an old settlement named Kiha, which has 

 been deserted for nearly forty years. A few weeks ago, two 

 native women in camp were discussing the probability of 

 obtaining some flax from that place. An old woman said, 

 ' Be careful how you approach that place. Do not go straight 

 up through the clearing, but keep round the edge of the bush 

 until you get opposite the flax, and then strike straight 

 across.' 'And why should we not go straight up?' in- 

 quired one. ' He ahi kai kona ' (There is a fire there), 

 replied the aged one. No more was said; the women under- 

 stood at once that, in past generations, a fire had been 

 kindled at that spot in order to perform some religious rite. 

 They would carefully avoid the place. 



" Another frequent cause of illness is the kai ra mua, a 

 term applied to the act of eating food which has been set 

 aside for the gods, or food prepared for a tapu person. It is- 

 also applied to the infringement of a rahui (a private tapu- 

 mark set up to prohibit persons from robbing" or trespassing). 

 There are many other acts of a similar nature the perform- 

 ance of which will cause a person to be seriously afflicted by 

 the gods. 



■• Tapohe is a term applied to the polluting of persons, &c.,. 

 by placing tapu objects in common places. The placing of. 

 the food, or remains of food, of a tapu person in a common, 

 place — i.e., a place not tapu — would be a tapohe. If it hap- 

 pens to be the maanga (remains of a meal) of a sick person, 

 the invalid will have a relapse, and the person who committed 

 the dread act of tapohe will also be taken ill. If a sacred 

 oven is tapoheria it spells death for the offender, unless he 

 takes time by the forelock and hies him to the priest or a 

 matnmua, who may shrive him of his sin." 



Affections of the throat were thought to be caused by the 

 eating of sacred food, such as that prepared for the tapu 

 persons who were engaged in burying the dead, or in exhuming 

 the bones thereof. The disease inflicted by the gods for com- 

 mitting these breaches of the tapu are always considered vers 

 serious ; by some they are believed to be incurable — the 

 patient must die. And when death comes the body is 

 nurned, in order to protect other persons affected by the same 

 disease. 



Another method of slaying persons who have been guilty 

 < i />../ rii mua, adopted by the gods, is to destroy them by 

 means of a lightning - stroke. This is brought about by 

 Tupai, one of the personifications of thunder. The form of 



