Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. 93 



spirit is created by the gods in the seventh heaven, called autoia 

 (" here the spirits of mortals begin to live "), coming to earth. 

 These spirit-children render women pregnant, and thus assume a 

 material body, or become malignant demons (hahuhahu) in the 

 manner described elsewhere. 



Another extraordinary explanation of the physiology of im- 

 pregnation is the following, given to Mr. Best by an aged Tuhoe 

 wahine : " There is," she said, " a certain substance or organ in 

 woman. This is white outside and reddish-yellow inside. It 

 resembles a bird's egg. A row of these extend from the base of 

 the liver (ate) to the womb. When the husband has connection 

 with his wife a portion of the white substance attracts the semen 

 of the male, and these two substances unite, the male's and the 

 female's, and also a portion of the blood of the paheke (menses), 

 and become one and are enfolded in a part of the white substance, 

 and then develop into a child." This is probably a Maori per- 

 version of a European story ; it is altogether unlikely that such 

 a theory should originate in the native mind. 



Phallic Stones. — Sterile Maori women, like Australian abori- 

 ginals, Banks Island and Fijian women, were acquainted with 

 phallic or conception stones. One well-known stone of this kind 

 stands on the bank of the Awaroa River, in the Kawhia district, 

 and married women who have had no children perform cere- 

 monies and chant incantations to the atua of this stone that they 

 may become mothers and have children to nurse. Their tradi- 

 tion is that the god Uenukutuwhatu (Rainbow with hailstones) 

 turned himself into a taniwha (water-demon), and then became 

 the above-mentioned stone. In Fiji there are similar stones 

 which the women worship. These monoliths represent the 

 generative principle and procreation, and in many ways resemble 

 in form, and in the mode they are worshipped, the phallus of the 

 Phoenicians, and the similar gods whose worship assumed such 

 offensive forms in ancient Rome, and found vent in the noblest 

 monuments of the Pharaohs. 



Phallic Trees. — Mr. Elsdon Best" has recorded some ex- 

 tremely interesting facts concerning certain so-called phallic 

 trees existing in various parts of the North Island of New Zea- 

 land. These trees are supposed to have the power of rendering 

 sterile women fruitful. The potency of the conception stone 

 above referred to was apparently attributed to the indwelling 

 god Uenukutuwhatu, but the special functions of these phallic 

 trees were derived from a totally different and unique source. 

 According to Maori cosmogonic myth man and plants are the 

 offspring, by different wives, of the god Tane-nui-a-rangi. The 



* " Te Iho-o-kataka." Auckland Weekly News, 20th Sept., 1899. 



