52 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



(5.) Whakanoa, or Whakahorohoro (the Rite of Purification). 



When a priest-physician had been attending a sick person and 

 the latter recovered, there was yet another rite to be performed. 

 This was done either in some sacred place near the village, or 

 at the sacred pool (ivai tapu or wax karakia) of the village. Here 

 the whakanoa rite was performed, and the priest concluded 

 the ceremonies by causing the thunders of heaven to sound. 

 This last is termed the oho rangi. 



A person or place was whakanoa by means of karakia and 

 cooked food. A lumara or piece of fern-root was roasted by the 

 priest, which was eaten by the tapu person, or placed to his lips, 

 or simply his body touched with it. A woman was often em- 

 ployed to lift the tapu, because women are noa from and before 

 birth. In some cases the horohoro (casting-off) rite consisted 

 in the tohunga offering a small quantity of sacred food to his 

 atua, some of which he himself ate, and the remainder was con- 

 signed to the earth. After the priest had sprinkled the place 

 with water the ceremony terminated. 



Various Rites by means of which Diseases were warded 



off or cured. 



The Ngau Paepae Kite* 



The singular performance known by the above name is one 

 of the most extraordinary customs of a strange people — extra- 

 ordinary even for a Maori. It consists of causing a sick person 

 to bite (ngau) the beam of a latrine, with which native villages 

 were provided in former times. By " sick person " is meant any 

 one suffering from the effects of hara (transgression of the laws 

 of tapu) or of witchcraft — i.e., any person afflicted by the gods ; 

 and the vast majority of ills, pains, and diseases were so caused, 

 according to Maori ideas. The one idea which seems to pervade 

 this ancient rite seems to he that the paepae hamuti, or latrine, 

 which is very tapu and possesses great mana (power, prestige) 

 holds the power of being able to prevent or avert the effect of the 

 anger of the gods, and the shafts of magic, which latter, although 

 directed by man. arc really carried out by the gods. 



These rites performed at the latrine are described as a whiti 

 i te mate (averting of evil or death or sickness), or as a parepare, 

 which means the same thing, or as a ripa, which signifies " to de- 

 prive the gods of power, to put bounds to their power for evil.'" 

 But the genera] term for the rite is ngau paepae. An old man 

 said to me, ll The paepae is the languid matua ,'| it is the /mm <>ra 

 of mau. It is the destroyer of man : it is the saviour of man." 



* This description ia from tin- Tuhoe Tribe alone. I-.. B. 

 •(• A singular expression, which applies t<> a very ancient cult, perhaps 

 • if phallic origin. — E. B. 



