Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. 25 



tors never taught us that Eangi, our parent, issued a com- 

 mand or law that his descendants [man] should ascend to him 

 at death. The word of Eangi to Papa [the Earth Mother] 

 was this: 'Our grandchildren, foster them; conceal them, 

 let them be hidden in the deep darkness in the bowels of the 

 earth.' ' In other tribes, however, it was held that the souls 

 of chiefs and tohungas, at least, ascended to heaven (Eangi). 

 And at death karakia* were addressed to Tawhaki " so that 

 the spirit of" the deceased might ascend to heaven, Tawhaki's 

 abode."! The officiating priest, while repeating his "ghost- 

 laying" invocations, held a staff, the end of which he placed 

 on the heart of the deceased. 



The prophylactic measures adopted by the Taranaki natives 

 naturally consisted in burial rites and ceremonies for the pur- 

 pose of inducing the spirits of the dead to enter the sacred 

 grove, and, being safely deposited there, to prevent their escape. 

 Thus, when a chief was killed in battle and eaten, his spirit 

 was supposed to enter the stones of the oven, which retained 

 their heat so long as it remained in them. His friends 

 repeated their most potent incantations to draw out his spirit 

 from the stones and induce it to enter the sacred grove (ivahi 

 tapu). So, also, when any were slain in battle, the friends 

 endeavoured to procure some of their blood, or fragments of 

 their garments if the body could not be obtained, over which 

 they uttered karakia, and thus brought the wandering soul 

 within this spiritual fold. These places were looked upon 

 with much fear, as the atua are thought occasionally to 

 wander from them, and cause all the sickness their relatives 

 suffer. In them the tuahu, or native altar, the toko and the 

 pataka, or stage of offerings to the atua, were placed : it was 

 thought to be extremely dangerous for the living to enter 

 them or the tapu houses where the dead were buried. Thus 

 we have here a cult of the grove, or cult of the grave, and a 

 care of the dead as a protective measure against sickness and 

 death. 



Those who believed that the soul went at death to the 

 dark underworld, to Te Po, Te Eeinga, Paerau, or Hades, did 

 not neglect the necessary ceremonies to induce or to enable 

 the wairua of the dead to gain admission to that abode of the 

 dead. These rites and incantations were called iuitupapau, 

 and by observing them the ghost was effectually "laid," but 

 if neglected it became an atua kikokiko and a source of danger 

 to the surviving relatives. The god Tiki, creator of man, 

 guards the portals of Hades ; he sits at the threshold of his 

 long reed house in Te Po, and forbids the ghosts of the 



* See Taylor, " Te Ika a Maui," p. 101. 

 t C. 0. Davis, "Patuone," p. 135. 



