.88 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Again, the Maori dreads visiting the white medicine-man for 

 fear that some surgical operation or amputation be suggested. 

 For instance, once a native had his arm badly crushed. He 

 was taken to the nearest hospital, but would not hear of having 

 the limb amputated without his father's consent, and the old 

 fellow flew into a fearful rage when he was consulted, saying his 

 son would want his arm in the next world, and it was better fol- 

 ium to die with it and keep it, as it could not be sent after him. 

 The Fijians also believe that in the future state they retain the 

 precise physical attributes pertaining to them at their death. 

 1 1 they die minus a leg or arm, then in the next world they remain 

 for ever deformed. This belief has led to some curious incidents. 

 For instance, a young Fijian who was sick and unable to eat was 

 buried alive, because, as he himself said, if he could not eat he 

 should get thin and weak, and the girls would call him a skeleton 

 and laugh at him. while in the other world he would for ever be 

 subject to the jeers and taunts of his comrades. He was buried 

 by his own father ; and when he asked to be strangled first he 

 was reprimanded and told to be quiet and be buried like other 

 people. It was the same pride of physical appearance which 

 mule Maoris dread anything of the nature of surgical mutilation, 

 however necessary such interference was for their well-being, 

 -or even lor the preservation of life. 



Menstruation. 



The Maori terms for menstruation are paheke and mate 

 marama. The former term is used also as a verb (cf. heke, to 

 drip); tin 1 latter literally means "monthly sickness" (mamma. 

 the moon, the lunar month). The term atua is also sometimes 

 applied to the menses. This word, which generally signifies 

 "god." or more correctly "ancestral spirit." is also given to 

 v.irious obscure phenomena, as, for instance, menstruation. 



Regarding lunar influences on women, native authorities 

 informed Mr. Best that " the reason of this sickness being known 

 as mate marama is because it affects women when the moon 

 appeals. It never affects them when the moon is lost to view— 

 that is. during the dark nights (hinapouri) of the moon. Some 

 women are affected when the moon is first seen, and others at 

 various stages of its growth : some when the Turu moon appeals 

 (i.e., the seventeenth aighl of the moon). A woman is always 

 affected at the same stage of each moon ; the time of her paheh 

 does not vary." Another native, an old woman, said. " Women 

 do not paheke during the dark nights of the moon, nor vet while 

 suckling a child, although the child may suckle its mother for 

 a long time." When the moon appears, the skin of women who 

 have chronic dysmenorrhoea becomes rough, like what we term 



