-56 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



Kai te rangi tuarima, kai te rangi tuaono 



Kai te rangi tuawhitu 



Tukua atu tama kia puta ki te ao 



He ohorere te tokomauri 



Tihe mauri ora ki te ao marama. 



Another custom in former times was to utilise a piece of 

 aute bark as a waka atua, an abiding-place for an ancestral spirit. 

 This fetish would be brought and placed upon a sick person, and 

 an invocation, commencing as follows, repeated, in order to exor- 

 cise the malignant atua : — 



Koia nga haku 



Koia ki te rangi 



Koia ki te kapua 



Kia tu mai taku kai roro 



Ko mangungu, ko manono, &e. 



Treatment of Wounds. 



Both herbs and priestly incantations or prayers to the gods 

 were resorted to in cases of serious wounds. If in war a warrior 

 is compelled to strike down a friend or relative whom he does 

 not desire shall die, he rubs some spittle on the body of the fallen 

 one, at the same time repeating this charm : — 



.Man ka hoki mai 



Hoki mai ki te ao nei (Return to life). 



For, being tapu, the saliva of the warrior is also tapu and possessed 

 of healing and destructive power. If an important personage 

 is seriously wounded he is led by the medicine-man to the tuahu, 

 or altar where offerings are made to the gods, and certain karakia 

 muttered to propitiate the gods, while the atua are fed with blood, 

 and blood-clots from the wound are lifted up on a staff before 

 the altar of the god Mua.* Then is repeated this healing in- 

 cantation : — f 



Provoking irascible sinew, strong to kill. 



Hither is come the one they sought to murder. 



Verily, thy own skilful doctors are here — 



Thou and 1 together, indeed, as one. 



Thy wound is sacred (tiijiu). 



The celebrated first-born priestess 



Shall cause the lips of the wounds 



To incline inwardly toward each other; 



By the evening, lo ! thy wound shall become as nothing. 



The stone axe which caused it 



Was verily as the strong tide rushing on 



'I'o the shores and tearing up the bed of shell-lish. 



Striving, provoking sinew, eager after- food for baking : 



The wounding indeed of the man 



* " Mua " is not the name of a god, hut the antithesis ot muri, a tapu- 

 less place. — E. B 



f " The Ancient History of the Maori." T. White, vol. iii.. p. 17. 



