Goldie.- — Maori Medical Lore. 11 



thunder represented by Tupai is accompanied by little or no 

 rain. 



The infringement of tapu as a cause of illness and death 

 is still implicitly believed in by the Maori, and quite re- 

 cently, at Gisborne, a tohunga named Paneri Tawera diag- 

 nosed the disease of his patient, Kapu, to be due to such a 

 cause. He treated him accordingly ; but, unfortunately, the 

 patient died, and the medicine-man was charged with murder. 

 Paneri stated the cause of Kapu's sickness in these terms : 

 "The root of the sickness of Kapu is at Mangatu, at the 

 site of the old whare. There is a pit there ; Kapu has gone 

 on to that place, and that is the reason of his sickness." He 

 said that that was a sacred (tapu) place, and Kapu's sickness 

 had resulted from trespassing on it. The tohunga conducted 

 the relatives of the sick man to the scene of the trespass, 

 and at the root of a poplar-tree found a stone, which, with 

 some grass that was growing near, he carefully wrapped up 

 in his handkerchief. He said, " This is the cause of Kapu's 

 illness. A man in former times, coming from Ti Kete, on 

 the sea-coast, arrived at this place, and they did not offer 

 him any food. On that account he put a tapu on that par- 

 ticular place." The stone appears to have been the symbol 

 of the tapu. After the tohunga had done talking the party 

 returned to Koutara, where Paneri took the grass that was 

 in the handkerchief and gave it to the people professing the 

 same religion as himself, and told them to repeat certain in- 

 cantations or charms. When they had finished their karakia 

 he gave a bundle of grass to them. He directed that it should 

 be placed secretly under the sleeping-mat where Kapu was 

 lying. The only other treatment received by the patient in 

 this case was an occasional drenching with cold water, the 

 common remedy for fevers among primitive peoples. Poor 

 Kapu died in great agony, and the viana of Paneri was 

 shattered. 



The karakia used by the Ngatiawa tohungas to cure those 

 afflicted by disease as a punishment for trespass on a sacred 

 place (tuahu), or a place where a sacred fire has at some time 

 been kindled, or a cave containing the bones of the dead, is 

 as follows. After the usual sprinkling process by the sacred 

 pool or stream, the priest recites this incantation: — 



Heuea ki runga, heuea ki raro 



Heuea ki te po uriuri 



Heuea ki te po tangotango 



Tuhia mai te tuhi e atua nui 



Ana ra e patu nei 



Haere, whakataha ra Tutara kauika 



Ana ra e patu nei 



Haere i te po uriuri 



Haere i te po tangotango 



