Goldie —Maori Medical Lore. 67 



He wera rahi te wera 



He wera kaupapa 



Mahu akuanei, mahu apo]>o 



Mahu a takiritanga o te ata. 



In addition to these karakia and charms the natives made 

 applications of cold substances, such as pebbles, shells, &c, 

 or placed the burnt part in cool water. They also used the 

 ashes of burnt " tussac " grass, and a lotion prepared by boil- 

 ing the leaves of the plant kopakopa (Plantago major), or from 

 the bruised leaves of the kopata (Pelargonium australe). As an 

 emollient they used the white gum called manna by the colonists, 

 gathered from the manuka, or tea-tree (Leptospermum scoparium). 

 The inner bark of the rimu (Dacrydium cupressimum), bruised 

 into a pulp, was applied to burns. The viscous gum or mucilage 

 of the flax-plant (harakeke) afforded an excellent protective, 

 and, from its alkaline properties, sedative application for wounds 

 and burns. 



Skin-diseases. 



Boils (whewhe) were of common occurrence in former times, 

 but are not so frequent now owing to improved sanitary con- 

 ditions. The Maoris attributed this complaint to eating de- 

 composed and fermented corn, of which they were extremely 

 fond. Other etiological factors were the custom of washing 

 in small, filthy, common bathing-pools, the crowding together of 

 nude or scantily clothed people, with their boils often discharging 

 and polluting the floors and mats of the huts. It is not sur- 

 prising that epidemics of boils sometimes occurred. The disease 

 runs the same course as in the casa of white men, except when 

 the native is physically weak from starvation, &c, when death 

 sometimes occurs from fever and exhaustion. This was an 

 especially common termination in weakly children. 



As an external application they sometimes used poultices 

 of scraped roots, such as those of harakeke (Phormium tenax), 

 also hot leaves. A decoction made from the rauriki (Sonchus). 

 and the expressed juice of the "pig's -ear" (Mesembryanthe- 

 mum sp.) were used locally, while as a " tonic " they took in- 

 ternally an infusion of the leaves of the kawakawa shrub (Piper 

 excelsum). When mature, or sometimes long before, they in- 

 cised the boil with a sharp edge of a shell, an obsidian splint, 

 a sharp-pointed stick, or a thorn, and applied firm presssure so 

 as to force out the core (whatu). Finally human milk was used 

 as a wash to complete the cure. 



Ulcers (mate poka), simple, venereal, and tuberculous (tipu), 

 were caused in some cases by atua — as, for instance, tara-kumu- 

 kumu, an ulcer caused by a demon of the same name, and occur- 

 ring on the thighs. The cure was to wash with warm water. 



