Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. 71 



result from the breaking of the tapu laws, or the spells of the 

 hostile wizard. 



In some cases herbs were given to the lunatic (keka), such as 

 the juice of the pith of the tutu-tvee (Coriaria rusci folia). 



Rapidly Fatal Melancholia of the South Sea Islanders. 



Every one who has dipped into the somewhat extensive 

 literature concerning Polynesia and the Polynesians has read 

 strange stories of strong men sitting down and " willing them- 

 selves to death " because they imagined themselves the victims 

 of the sorcerer's art, or that they were under the ban of the gods. 

 This fatalistic tendency which has been so often observed, not 

 only in the Polynesians proper, but also in the Maoris, Australian 

 aborigines, and Melanesians, and which leads to death after a 

 shorter or longer interval of deep depression and lack of desire 

 to live, is due to the effects of superstitious fear acting on a 

 peculiarly susceptible nervous system. 



A Maori who unwittingly desecrates a sacred (tapued) spot 

 is seized with a terrible superstitious fear. He has incurred 

 the anger of the tribal or family gods. He feels that his sin is- 

 unpardonable, and the unhappy wretch rolls himself up in his 

 mat, refuses sustenance, and soon dies. His death is not due to 

 starvation, but to severe mental and consequent physical de- 

 pression. Dr. Batty Tuke knew of a case which proved fatal in 

 less than three days, the subject previously being apparently 

 in rude health, and possessing a Herculean frame. He also 

 mentions a second case where a Maori, to all appearance well, 

 and who certainly was not suffering from any disease of the 

 thoracic viscera, became melancholy, apparently chagrined at 

 life ; he said he was going to die, and die he did within ten days. 

 The above was rather a protracted case ; there being many well- 

 authenticated cases, he adds, where the victim died in three or 

 four days. Taylor relates that the great chief Taonui once lost 

 his tinder-box, which was found by some common men, several 

 of whom lighted their pipes from it, and that these men actually 

 died from this form of melancholia, induced by fear, when they 

 discovered to whom it belonged. Shortland, I believe, relates 

 somewhere that when travelling with a Maori guide they sat by 

 the wayside to rest, and while conversing with his dusky com- 

 panion a green lizard ran over the guide's foot. The lizard 

 was at once captured by the Maori, who examined it carefully 

 for some minutes and then let it run away. He afterwards 

 casually declared that he would die in eight days. The lizard, 

 he explained, was an incarnate ancestral soul, and had come to 

 warn him that he must die. There were eight black spots on 

 the creature's back, and these indicated the dav of his death. 



