102 Transactions* — Miscellaneous . 



civilised countries. This rule holds good for the Maoris, with 

 whom labour is soon over, and the mother almost immediately 

 returns to her usual duties. According to one authority, labour 



seldo xceeds two hours ; generally it is much shorter. After 



delivery, the woman proceeds to a stream and washes herself 

 and her infant, and then returns home. A Maori woman, the 

 bearer of a burden, with a party of travellers, was confined on 

 the road ; after the birth of the child she walked four miles. 

 and next dav fifteen. They rise almost immediately after the 

 expulsion of the placenta. Sickness after parturition is rare. 

 Manv missionaries and medical men who have lived long among 

 the natives have never heard of a Maori woman dying in child- 

 bed. A native chief, aged about fifty, told Dr. Thomson that 

 out of a tribe numbering four thousand souls he could only 

 recollect ten instances of women dying in childbed. This is. 

 about one death in three years out of two thousand women. 

 The circumstances which caused death, the chief said, were 

 haemorrhage and cross-births. 



In some Maori tribes, as soon as the woman finds her labour 

 has commenced, she takes her rug and goes into the open air. 

 into a quiet, retired place. If it is her first child a woman attends 

 her ; after the first child she goes alone, no one interfering unless 

 assistance is solicited. In New Zealand, as also in many parts 

 of Polynesia, the woman is often confined in some special house, 

 often enough a very primitive and specially built structure, apart 

 from the village or other houses. This whare the Maoris called 

 the fcetus-house, or whare kahu, and it was held so very sacred 

 that slaves and persons low in rank dare not come near it. The 

 day after the child was born the mother and child were removed 

 to the whare kohantja. or nest-house. Such a ceremony was. of 

 course, restricted to the chiefs' wives. (Tuhoe.) 



When, after parturition, the woman was removed to the 

 whare kohaia/a, her relatives and friends might visit her. so soon 

 as the ta/ia was removed from mother and child. This whan 

 kohanga, or nest-house, was not a rude shed, such as the fcetus- 

 house. but a better-built and comfortable place." (Tuhoe.) 



A woman would probably be in the foetus-house but a night 

 or two before parturition, and would then be removed to the 

 nest-house, together with her child. She would proceed to the 

 whare kahu when she knew her time to be near — perhaps when 

 the labour-pains began, or before. She might be one nighl in 

 the foetus-house, or longer, especially in cases of protracted 



parturition [whahatina)" (Tul .) 



' The caretaker appointed to look after the woman and take 

 food to her while in the foetus-house is also tapu. She must 

 remain with her charge during the time she is tapu, and may not 



