30 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



To destroy the evil spirit of a human foetus, some of 

 the leaves in which food has been placed for cooking may 

 he used as a covering for such foetus when buried. This will 

 have the desired effect. There is nothing so inimical to tapu, 

 or supernatural powers, as cooked food, or anything which 

 has come into contact with it. 



But in some instances these atua kahu were not destroyed, 

 but were cultivated, conciliated with offerings, and developed 

 into war gods, in order that their power might be directed 

 agaiust tribal enemies. Such was the origin of the atua 

 known as Te Awa-nui. Parehouhou, Peketahi, and Te Rehu- 

 o-Tainui, of the Tuhoe Tribe. 



Another kind of demon which caused disease was the 

 rikoriko or ngingongingo, which haunted deserted houses and 

 ruins of villages. They would creep into the bodies of un- 

 wary mortals and devour their vital organs. The Tahitian 

 word riorio means " the ghost of an infant," and perhaps 

 these rikoriko were atua noho-whare. 



Makutu (Magic). 

 Maori mythology contains several accounts of the origin of 

 sorcery. In one of the cosmogonic myths it is related that the 

 visible heavens combined with the great abyss of eternity to 

 produce the numberless sorceries, the gods Taokaimaiki, Taoitia- 

 paekohu the enduring, and other numberless forms of witch- 

 craft, and the " cold of space." The sorceries and the " cold 

 of space" combined are the destroyers of mankind. "From 

 the heavens originated all calamities." Another myth relates 

 how t he great hero Maui enraged Rohe his wife, who " was beauti- 

 ful as he was ugly, and on his wishing to exchange faces with 

 her she refused him his request. He, however, by menus of an 

 incantation, managed to gain his point; in anger she left him, 

 and refused to live any longer in the world of light, but proceeded 

 to the underworld and became a goddess of Hades" (Tregear). 

 A variant of this myth is that Rohe was killed by Maui, and her 

 spirit, returning from the shades, in revenge killed him: "hence 

 death, witchcraft, and all the evils men are subject to came 

 into the world." Other charms and spells, witchcraft, religious 

 snugs, and dances, were obtained from Mini, the goddess guard- 

 ing the Gates of Death, who dwelt in Hades, and who was 

 visited by Rongomai, a celebrated demi-god ancestor of some 

 of the Maori tribes, to whom she imparted, amongst others, the 

 kaiwhatu, a " guardian charm " by which witchcraft was averted. 

 One of Rongomai's men was caught, and was claimed by Mini 

 in sacrifice as utu (payment) for having taught the sacred know- 

 ledge, but Rongomai and the others returned safely to the world 

 again. 



