22 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



their attentions to the tribe to which they belonged, inflicting 

 or curing disease in their living relatives, or in other ways ex- 

 erting their powers for good or evil among them. The kehua 

 of a dead person is known by the name of such a person. 

 The most malignant of the kehua were the souls of still-born 

 children and the paheke spirits, which form a special class of 

 evil beings called kahukahu. Ancestral ghosts are the tribal 

 and family atua, or gods, as distinguished from the national 

 gods, such as Rangi, Tu, Tangaroa, etc. The question then 

 arises, why do the tribal atua or ancestral ghosts inflict disease 

 on their living relatives? And the answer briefly is, because 

 of neglect on the part of the living to pay proper respect ta 

 their dead. In other words, the atua inflict disease because 

 the living relative has broken a religious commandment, or 

 tapu, and thus insulted some ancestral spirit. Then, again, 

 Maori sorcerers often had certain kehua or atua at their com- 

 mand, and by suitable incantations, such as the mata-tawhito t 

 they could collect these good genii round them to keep 

 off evil spirits; but, on the other hand, they were able, by 

 means of other karakia, to send these ghosts on disease-inflict- 

 ing errands among other members of the tribe. Evilly dis- 

 posed persons would sometimes invoke an ancestral ghost 

 {kehua, or atua) to slay people of the world of life without just 

 cause. In one case of this kind the ghost was armed with a 

 taiaha by the invoker and instigator, and was seen bearing 

 the taiaha (weapon of war) and searching for some one to slay. 

 One valiant person challenged it, axe in hand ; the ghost fled to- 

 the burial-ground and disappeared into a grave. 



In some cases the wairua of the dead were invoked by 

 means of karakia, in order that they might avenge a murdered 

 person. For this purpose the body of the murdered person is 

 laid on the sacred place (tuahu) of the tribe, and the priests 

 invoke the aid of the kehua of the deceased, who, having given 

 some sign of his presence, receives instructions as to whose 

 death is desired. Then the body is buried, and ere long his 

 murderers take sick and die. 



Should a person desecrate a sacred place of the tribe, such 

 as the tuahu or ahi taitai, he will certainly be afflicted by the 

 ancestral ghosts {atua) in a most grievous manner. Of if he 

 desecrate a tree which has been tapueel by the tohunga, and 

 thus set apart for some special purpose, such as bird-snaring, 

 he will be assailed by the familiar spirits of the priest, and, 

 although he may not die at once, yet he will gradually suc- 

 cumb. It is not an uncommon practice to make a person 

 offend against some law of tapu without his being aware of it, 

 with the express object of causing the anger of the atua to fall 

 on him. This practice is a class of witchcraft {makutu). If 

 the body of a relative, or any person of the same tribe, is. 



