Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. lb 



of their occurrence — idiocy ; senile mania and dementia ; morbid 

 impulse, such as homicidal and suicidal mania ; and general 

 paralysis of the insane. " All the forms of mania, monomania, 

 and melancholia observable," he says, " are purely emotional — 

 a fact which might be anticipated when their peculiarly excitable 

 temperament is taken into account. An orator at one of their 

 tribal meetings, when wound up to the proper pitch, might be 

 readily taken for a maniac by one not conversant with their 

 usages ; and the same person might easily mistake a paroxysm 

 of passion, as evinced by a native on very slight provocation, 

 for the ungovernable rage of the insane." 



Recently I received a communication from Dr. E. G-. Levinge, 

 Medical Superintendent of the Christchurch Asylum, in which 

 he stated that, although there were two or three considerable 

 Maori settlements in the district embraced by his asylum, yet 

 only five or six Maoris had been admitted during a period of 

 fifteen years. He attributes their comparative immunity to 

 their simple mode of life, and comparative freedom from 

 anxiety, worry, and intemperance. 



Dr. Tuke's early observations have been recently confirmed 

 by an authority who declares that the most common form of 

 mental disease observed amongst the Maoris is congenital amentia, 

 in all its varieties, from mere weakness of intellect to the drivelling 

 idiot, and, as elsewhere, it is characterized by the small head and 

 retreating brow ; and next, senile dementia, with occasional fits 

 of maniacal passion. A considerable portion of those natives, 

 he adds, who reach advanced age settle down into a torpid, 

 inanimate state. 



Epilepsy is uncommon in Polynesia, but has been observed 

 at Tahiti, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, and among the 

 Australian blacks. It is said to be unknown among the Maoris. 



Persons who were insane (porangi, porangitangi, porewarewa, 

 haurangi, potete), or demented and foolish (wairangi), or tem- 

 porarily possessed by a demon (apa), were, if not violent or 

 showing any homicidal tendencies, allowed to wander aimlesslv 

 about, without restraint. They were often supposed to have 

 powers of second sight, and in such cases were treated with 

 attention and respect. 



When a man became mad (porangi) he was taken to a 

 tohunga, who first made an examination as to the cause of the 

 disease. He and the sick man then went to the sacred pool, 

 and the medicine-man, stripping off his clothes, took in his hand 

 an obsidian flint. First he cut off hair from the left side of the 

 sick man's head, and then a lock from the top of the head. The 

 flint was then placed on the ground, and upon it the lock of hair 

 which had been cut from the top of the head, the other lock being 



