26 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



departed to enter unless the friends of the deceased have per- 

 formed the necessary ceremonies and made offerings of food. 

 Taylor relates an instance where a child was buried, and after 

 a time the bones were disinterred, scraped, placed in an orna- 

 mental basket, and suspended from the ridge-pole of the mahau, 

 or verandah, of the father's house. From time to time the 

 tohunga repeated karakia over them, to assist the soul in 

 ascending through the different heavens. Every time an 

 incantation was uttered over the bones it was supposed to aid 

 the soul in its ascent." 



Such, then, are some of the methods by which the Maori 

 sought to prevent the souls of their dead relatives from de- 

 veloping into atua poke, or disease-dealing atua; and doubt- 

 less the weeping, singing, food-offerings, and dances at the 

 tangl preceding the uehunga or burial were also to propitiate 

 the icairua of the dead.f 



When a person believes he is afflicted by an ancestral 

 ghost he hurries to the tohunga, who will, after sunset, take 

 him to the sacred pool (wai tapu) and cause him to stand 

 naked in the water. The hirihiri or diagnostic rite will then 

 be performed, and the tohunga, having decided what caused 

 the sickness, will pull up a fern-stalk (rarauhe) and, dipping it 

 in the water, sprinkle the holy water over his patient's body, 

 at the same time exorcising the demon by means of suitable 

 charms or karakia. 



If the person recovers he will probably become the kau- 

 ivaka or medium of that evil kehua or ghost, and enjoy the 

 power of being able to afflict his enemies by means of the- 

 supernatural powers of the spirit. 



The Kahukahu. 



The kahukahu constitute another group of very malignant 

 disease demons. They are the spirits of still-born and im- 

 maturely born children, and ghosts which spring from mens- 

 trual clots (jjaheke) — the latter are thought to be wasted souls 

 of human beings. These belong to the great class of spirits 

 called poke, the atua poke being unclean, wicked, man-destroy- 

 ing sprites. Their chief delight is to get into human bodies 

 and cause most painful diseases by biting and pinching the 

 sensitive internal organs. 



The Maoris have various beliefs regarding the precise 

 source from which the human soul, or life, takes its origin. 

 Some say "the moon is the real husbjand of all women, and 

 the marriage of man and woman is of no moment " ; while 



* From Taylor's " Te Ika a Maui," a most unreliable work. For the 

 trail of the missionary is over it all. — E. B. 

 t No ; to avenge the death. — E. B. 



