Goldie. — Maori Medical Lore. 97 



severed at birth with much ceremony and priestly incantation, 

 and afterwards carefully deposited in some special spot or com- 

 mon tribal repository. The iho was apparently supposed to retain 

 part of the vital essence of the child from which it was taken, 

 and this would influence the growth of a tree planted over it, or 

 endue the object or place of its lodgment with mystic powers 

 (mana). The tree Te Iho-o-kataka clearly gained its super- 

 natural power from the iho of Kataka, the daughter of Taneatua, 

 but it is not clear how the iho was regarded in this case. Pos- 

 sibly the umbilical cord attracted child-spirits desirous of becom- 

 ing embodied in the fruit of the root or stem (iho) on which 

 children grow. If so, naturally trees in which the iho of all the- 

 children of the tribe were hung would swarm with the unborn 

 souls of children waiting for a suitable opportunity to render a 

 woman pregnant, and thus pass from a spirit to a material 

 sphere of existence.* 



There seems to be no ground for regarding these conception 

 trees as phallic symbols. For we have already pointed out that 

 the Maori did not generally attribute conception to sexual inter- 

 course,^) but to supernatural influences. Te Iho-o-kataka 

 gained mana from the iho of a female child, and it is owing 

 to some obscure supernatural attributes of the iho, and not of 

 the ure or tawhito, that this tree can make barren women 

 conceive.(?) 



" Another method of rendering barren women fruitful is by 

 means of the magic rite called irhakato tamariki (ivhaka, a causa- 

 tive prefix ; to, pregnant). f The efficacy of this strange sorcery 

 i-, still believed in by many of the natives still living. The 

 sterility is overcome by the supernatural power of the all-powerful 

 priest-physician, who would give his patient directions how to 

 act. First she must obtain a handful of the fragrant grass 

 termed karetu (H ierochloe redolens), and insert therein a portion 

 of paraheka or tatea (semen and preputial secretion). This she 

 hands to the tohunga, who takes it to the wai karakia or sacred 

 pool of the village. There he performs his peculiar rite, singing 

 over the bunch of grass the following karakia to cause the woman's* 

 sterility to leave her and to make her conceive : — 



Ka whakato au i a koe ki a papa-tuanuku 



Kia puta mai a papa-tuarangi 



Kia niwha i roto i a koe 



Kia puta mai i roto i a koe 



Ko wairua whai ao 



Ko wairua tangata 



Ko Tu-kaniwha, ko Tu-ka-riri 



Ko Tu whai ao 



* This is not the native idea. — E. B. 



t This item is from the Tuhoe Tribe.— E. B. 



7 — Trans. 



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