Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. 17 



demons " born without father and mother, who are neither 

 male nor female, who have not wife, nor to whom child is 

 born," probably do not exist in Polynesian, Melanesian, or 

 Australasian mythology or philosophy. The disease demons 

 of the older civilisations are in the lower replaced by malig- 

 nant human spirits. 



Lizard Atua. 



Certain species of lizards are greatly dreaded by the super- 

 stitious Maori, owing to the belief that these reptiles are the 

 chosen abode, the aria or incarnation, of all kinds of evil and 

 disease-inflicting atua. The ghosts of the dead, old and 

 young, which had not been admitted to the underworld 

 often became incarnate in lizards, and appeared before their 

 living relatives as omens of impending disaster or death, or 

 by crawling down their throats while asleep set up all manner 

 of disease. The kakariki {Naultinus elegans), a beautiful 

 bright-green lizard, about Sin. long, is the variety generally 

 chosen by the kehua (wandering ghost of the dead) for its 

 earthly habitation. It has the power of contracting and dilat- 

 ing its pupil, and makes a curious noise which the Maori 

 regards as malicious laughter, and the unfortunate person 

 who hears the sound knows that he will soon die. The Tuhoe 

 tribes regard the tara-kumukumu lizard as a malignant atua 

 or demon, which, by entering the body, causes swelling or 

 ulceration in the region of the thighs. This disease demon 

 was exorcised by means of the hirihiri rite, in which would 

 probably be some special reference to this reptile. 



In addition to the lizards animated by kahukahu (minia- 

 ture infant spirits), kehua (wandering ghosts of the dead) and 

 tribal ancestral atua, who inflicted painful and wasting dis- 

 eases on their relatives and enemies, either from pure malice, 

 or as punishment for infringement of the ritenga or ordi- 

 nances of the established superstitions, there were the lizard 

 gods proper, descendants of the great primeval pair, Eangi 

 and Papa. Thus Tangaroa, son of Heaven and Earth, and 

 god of the ocean, had a son Punga, whose children Ikatere 

 and Tu-tewehiwehi, or Tu-tewanawana, were respectively the 

 male progenitors of all fish and reptiles. Tu-tewanawana, by 

 his second wife, Tupari, begat Mokohikuwaru, the tutelary 

 deity of lizards, and a god of evil whose dwelling-place is with 

 Miru in Hades. Lower down the line of descent came the 

 reptile deity Mokotiti, the god of pulmonary consumption and 

 chest-diseases generally, and Ngarara, the disease-producer. 

 Then, again, there were the mythical monsters called 

 Mokoroa, serpents or lizards of immense size, which came 

 across the sea from Hawaiki. In the following lament of 

 a dying chieftainess her incurable illness is attributed to a 

 demon of this latter class : — 

 2 -Trans. 



