7 1 , Tin n saction s. — M iscellaneous . 



held aloft in the left hand of the tohunga, while in his right hand 

 he held a common stone, which was also raised aloft, while the 

 following karakia was being repeated by him : — 



Tu, divide; Tu, split; 



This is the Waitapu Hint, 



Now about to cry aloud 



To the: moon of ill omen. 



Then the priest breathed on the flint, and smashed it with the 

 stone in his right hand. After this he selected a shoot of the 

 toetoe plant, and pulled it up, and to it fastened the two locks of 

 hair. Then, diving into the water, he let go the toetoe and locks 

 of hair, and when they floated on the surface he commenced 

 his great incantation, thus : — 



This is the Tui ot Tu-i-rawea, 



This is the Tui ot Uenuku. 



Where lies your siu ? 



Was eating kulu [lice] your fault '! 



Was sitting on tapu ground your fault ? 



Explain the mystery, 



Explain, divulge. 



Take away the fault from the head 



Of the atua who afflicts this man. 



Take away the disease, 



And the power of the sorcerer. 



Turn your supernatural power against your tohunga, 



And your whaiwh'iia [charm]. 



Give me the charm 



To make as cooked food. 



Your demon desecrated, 



Your sacredness, your incantation, 



Your sacred- place-dwelling atua, 



Your house-dwelling atua, 



(live me to cook for food. 



Your sacredness is desecrated by me. 



The rays of the sun, 



The brave of the world, 



The supernatural power, give me. 



hit your atua and your tapu 



Be food for me to eat. 



I. it the bead of the magician 



Be baked in the oven, 



Served up for food for me, 



Dead, and gone to Hades. 



The latter part of this karakia consists of a series of the most 

 powerful insults and curses that a Maori could invent to direct 

 against an enemy. All things most holy to the New-Zealander — 

 his ancestral spirits (atua) : the most sacred part of the body, 

 the head ; his most cherished virtues, his mana (prestige) : his 

 tn/m — are all foully cursed and desecrated, and this is done to 

 nullify the force of his black mairic (ivhaiwhaia), which is supposed 

 to have rendered the patient mad. From the early part of this 

 interesting incantation we learn that insanity was supposed to 



