16 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



ing monsters such as Myndie, an enormous snake many miles 

 long, who travelled over the tree-tops, and set up epidemics of 

 small-pox and dysentery in the tribes, and caused ulcers and 

 blindness. 



Maori demons were for the most part aquatic monsters, 

 like the Australian man-eating Bunyip and Wangul, which fre- 

 quented water-holes. Thus we have the taniivha, a demon of 

 huge proportions and terrible mien, inhabiting the lakes and 

 rivers, devouring any human being whom he could capture. 

 Of the sea demons, most dreaded was Mokoroa, the immense 

 sea-serpent, many fathoms long. This mythical creature is 

 one of the very few demons to which the Maori attributed 

 diseases. Another was Euamano, also an ocean monster, 

 which, according to the Urewera tribes, caused the mate 

 pokapoka, or diseases which eat into the flesh, such as various 

 kinds of ulceration, ringworm, and a terrible disease of the 

 face called hura, or hore. 



In the good old days, before the advent of the pakeha, 

 two verv celebrated taniwhas resided near the bar of the 

 Hokianga River. Their names were Tauneri and Arai-te- 

 uru ; and their very names were sufficient to strike terror into 

 the hearts of the Maoris in that district. Tauneri was lord of 

 all ; Arai-te-uru was his subject, but by no means an obedient 

 one, for he often on his own account entered the river, upset 

 the canoes, and ate the eyes out of those whom he chose to 

 drown — for this, be it known, was the taniwha's mark. Tau- 

 neri, being a rangatira, was not malicious : he only killed 

 those who infringed his tapu or disregarded his mana. The 

 tohungas alone had power to avert the evil consequences 

 attending a visit to the home of these monsters, for they alone 

 could repeat the karakias which must precede the visit. On 

 one occasion four young men went fishing near the Hokianga 

 Heads, against the wish of a powerful tohunga, whom they 

 insulted, and jeeringly suggested that he might report them to 

 his taniwhas. The deeply offended tohunga invoked Tauneri, 

 and begged him to take revenge on those who scorned his 

 power. Tauneri and his comrade capsized the canoe and 

 devoured the wretched fishermen, and thus punished them 

 for their temerity. 



The lizards, spiders, birds, dogs, &c, which were credited 

 with being harbingers of disease should not be classed with 

 the demons, for almost without exception these creatures 

 were regarded as the incarnations of ancestral souls, or of 

 i he lesser g< ids. 



Throughout! Polynesia one may say that disease was not 

 frequently attributed to demoniac possession, but to ghostly 

 possession and magic, Disease demons, such as those 

 described in Assyrian. Accadian, and Hebrew mythology, 



