74 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



and behave in a stupid manner, giving forth prophecies in a 

 squeaking, hissing, or ventriloquistic voice. Or, if he wished 

 tu attract attention and gain the reputation of being a powerful 

 tokunga, he might, on a suitable opportunity, demonstrate the 

 power of his atua by undergoing a series of violent bodily con- 

 tortions and facial grimaces, accompanied by the emission of 

 prophecies in an unnatural voice 



A magic rite called whaka-tihaha was practised by the sorcerer 

 to induce madness in the enemies of his clients. This species 

 of makutu was generally directed against thieves, and women 

 who repelled the amorous advances of undesirable suitors. 



Of the manifestations of mental disorders among the Maoris 

 in the early years of colonisation we have the observations of 

 two medical men who had at that time an intimate and extensive 

 acquaintance with the natives. Dr. Arthur S. Thomson, writing 

 in 1854. stated that insanity and idiocy were not of frequent 

 occurrence in the aboriginal villages. In the extensive district 

 of Poverty Hay, out of 2.145 persons, there were, in 1849, two 

 idiots and one insane person ; and at Tauranga, in the Bay of 

 Plentv. in 1849, out of 2,411 souls, there was no insane or idiotic 

 person. Temporary fits of insanity, the result of chronic and 

 acute disease, were occasionally observed ; but the above data 

 show that true insanity and idiocy were rare. Dr. Thomson 

 attributed most of the cases of insanity which came under his 

 notice to defective formation of the skull, mechanical injury, 

 old age. or superstition : all of which causes it is not in their 

 [lower to prevent. He mentions the case of an' old Maori, then 

 in the Auckland Asylum, who had been " mad " several times. 

 The condition was caused by excessive drinking. His tribe 

 lived at a distance from Auckland. He periodically escaped 

 from his friends, and. coining to town, drank himself into a state 

 of del i ria in tremens, with suicidal tendencies. A few weeks' 

 detention in the asylum resulted in a cure. Dr. Thomson ob- 

 serves that this was the only instance he had ever heard of a 

 3trong desire for spirits among the aborigines. This contrasts 

 strongly with the state of affairs in Australia, where it is possible 

 to trace the development of insanity in the tribes (N.S.W.) from 

 a time when lunacy was extremely rare among them to one in 

 which it is almost twice as common as among the white inhabit- 

 ants in the same territory. A considerable portion of these 

 <ases were due to drink : lour or five were due to imprisonment, 

 bul the chief factor was doubtless " civilisation."* In L864 Sir 

 John (then Dr.) Tuke also referred to the comparative rarity of 

 mental disease among the Maoris. The varieties of mental 

 alieiiatn.ii most Frequently met with by him were, in the order 



* i'raiis. Austra'. Med. Congress, 1889, p. 857. 



