Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore 89 



*' goose-skin." When the moon appears, then women say, " The 

 husband of all women in the world has appeared." Another 

 native, an old man, said, " The moon is the permanent husband 

 of all women, because women paheke when the moon appears. 

 According to the knowledge of our ancestors and elders, the 

 marriage of man and wife is a matter of no moment : the moon 

 is the real husband." 



There was, and still is, a certain amount of tapu placed on 

 a menstruating woman. The discharge is viewed as a sort of 

 human embryo,* an immature or undeveloped human being : 

 hence the tapu. An aged native said, " The paheke is a kind of 

 human being, because if the discharge ceases, then it grows into 

 a person : that is, when the paheke ceases to come away, then it 

 assumes human form, and grows into a man." 



A chief or man of rank avoids the sleeping-places of women, 

 because contact with clothing or places polluted by the paheke 

 would render him kahupotia, or devoid of the clairvoyant power. 

 In this state he would no longer be able to observe the numerous 

 signs by which ancestral ghosts warn their living descendants of 

 impending troubles and dangers. " Son," said an old Ngatiawa 

 tohunga to Mr. Best, " never recline on the resting-places of 

 women. Such places are unclean. The blood [i.e., paheke] of 

 woman is there. They are the undoing of man. But should 

 you happen to do so, then be sure that you conciliate your an- 

 cestors, that they may restore your sight, and continue to guard 

 and preserve you from evil." A man would perform the whakaepa 

 rite in order to free himself from the polluting effects of the 

 moenga toto, or unclean sleeping-place. 



Australian blacks have a similar dread of pollution from con- 

 tact with menstruating women. Those of the Leichhardt River, 

 for instance, would immediately kill a woman who thus con- 

 taminated them. In their gesture language they had a special 

 sign or signal for menstruation, so as to enable women to warn 

 men of their condition, from a distance. It is stated that a 

 blackfellow (N.S.W.) once slept in a blanket that had been used 

 by his gin (wife). When he came to know that it was defiled, 

 he thrust his wife through with a spear, and shortly afterwards 

 he himself died from fear of the consequences of the pollution. 



" If a menstruating Maori woman goes on to a sea-beach 

 where pipi shellfish are found, all those shellfish will desert that 

 beach and migrate to pastures new. Or if such a woman essays 

 to cook the kernels of toira-berries in a boiling spring, they will 

 never be cooked, but remain quite hard, although those of other 

 women, not in that condition, will be quite cooked. They believe 

 also that if a menstruating woman goes to an ahi titi (a fire made 



* See Kahukahu. 



