< 16 Transactions . — Miscellaneous. 



eves afar off, and approaches in that manner. She is very care- 

 ful as to the manner in which she draws near to the talismanic 

 h- ,,<ni. ' Kia kaua e haere Maori noa iho.' She embraces the 

 tree for a considerable time, and then, with her eyes still closed, 

 she turns her back to the tree, that she may not see the part she 

 has embraced. But it is not unknown to the priest who is 

 watching her as to which side she has clasped. If she embraces 

 the living side of the tree, then will she surely bear a child ; but 

 if the dry or dead side, no child will come to gladden her. There 

 is a person living at Galatea who was bom through the power 

 [iii'iii'i) of this tree, and his name is Te Ai-ra-te-hinau." 



Te Puta-tieke, a pukatea-tTee near Opotiki. is also endowed 

 with the same virtue. 



The Maoris compare the placenta (ewe, whenua, puwhenua) to 

 the earth, " the land of one's birth," " exhausted land," from 

 which springs uho or iho, the umbilical cord, which appears to 

 have been compared to the trunk of a tree (?) (cf. uho, the heart- 

 wood of a tree, the stem or kernel of fruit ; tara-uho, the heart 

 of a tree ; iho, t he heart of a tree, that wherein the strength of 

 a thing consists), or to the long, fibrous root of a tree or shrub 

 (cf. taii'/aengae, the navel-string; the middle part of the fibrous 

 root aha). Tangaengae (myth) is a spirit standing at almost the 

 lowest point of creation and helping to sustain the universe, 

 the child being the fruit of the tree. At birth the placenta is 

 carefully destroyed by burning, burial, or being thrown into the 

 river or sea. This is done to prevent hostile sorcerers securing 

 it and using it as a " bait " with which to kill or make sick the 

 mother or child by sympathetic magic. The iho was also some- 

 times buried in a sacred place, and over it was planted a young 

 sapling, either a ngaio (Myoporum latum), karaka (Gorynocarpus 

 laevigata), or kahikn/ra Tee (Podocarjnis ilacn/iliuirffs), which, as 

 it grew, was he tohu oranga (a sign of life) for the child.* The 

 umbilical cord of a chief's son was often placed under a stone or 

 on a tree at the boundary of the tribal lands to maintain and 

 strengthen the tribal influence over such a boundary. The iho 



of children of many succ lin,L r generations might be placed in 



the same spot. The iho was sometimes placed in a tree, and that 

 place would ever after lie known as " the iho of So-and-so." At 

 Te Ariki is a tree in which the iho of a priest's child was placed, 

 and the hole closed with a piece of precious greenstone. The 

 latter addition enhanced the mana of the iho.^ 



Thus it is clear that the iho, of umbilical cord, was regarded 

 by tie' Maori as being a structure of very greal importance, being 



* "Te [ka a Maui," Taylor, \k 71. 



'Notes mi some Customs ami Superstitions of the Maori," Best, 



I I .hi-, \ihlr ^ssoc. \<l\ . Sci., IS IS. 



