788 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mother, he was the result of two great people coming together, 

 while his father was only one great person. 



The games of the Maoris included kite-flying, tops, cat's cradle, 

 skipping rope, ducking one another, swing (peculiar in character), 

 dart-throwing, wrestling, diving, ball, twirling a disk, various 

 games played with the fingers and hands, a kind of hunt the slip- 

 per, slinging, stilts, draughts, proverbs, hide and seek, a game 

 played by boys standing on their heads and marking time with 

 their feet, and dancing. A certain legend is of great interest be- 

 cause it mentions a variety of other amusements, but more so on 

 account of its antiquity. It is known both in Samoa and New 

 Zealand, although so many centuries have elapsed since the sepa- 

 ration of the tribes that Samoan is incomprehensible to a Maori. 



Omens were drawn from convulsive startings in sleep, and the 

 twitching of the arms and legs outward and inward. Tripping 

 the foot on starting and getting the feet between the toes filled 

 with fern were evil. An itching chin denoted that something oily 

 would be eaten. An ember popping out of fire or the singing of 

 gas from burning wood were ominous. Aerolites, meteors, and the 

 approach of the moon to a large star were unlucky. The unpre- 

 meditated stretching out or stepping out with the right hand or 

 foot was accepted as an omen. Omens were drawn from the flight 

 of birds and from dreams, when the soul was supposed to have left 

 the body and wandered in Te Reinga. In illness the soul jour- 

 neyed away and was on the brink of crossing to hades, but re- 

 turned if the man lived. Messages were sent by the dying to 

 friends gone before. The souls passed from south to north till 

 they came to the extreme northwest point of New Zealand, to Te 

 Reinga, the spirit's leap. Here the soul leaped into the sea or slid 

 down the trunk of a tree, the pohutukawa. Hence the saying for 

 one dead, " He has slid down the pohutukawa " — and passes to Po 

 (hades). It was only the soul of an off ering, as of food, which was 

 accepted by the gods. When the fairies accepted certain jewels, 

 they only took the souls of the ornaments, while the material 

 jewels were returned to the votor. Weapons have not souls ex- 

 actly, but the weapons which have been used in war have a won- 

 derful mana or prestige, power, or influence. Some weapons have 

 come down from the gods, and have their genealogies of owners 

 up to chaos. Such weapons sometimes prophesy, sometimes shift 

 about. They would kill with their subtle power the inferior per- 

 son who dared to touch them. The souls of the departed were not 

 exactly worshiped, for Maoris hardly had the idea of worship, or 

 were not humbly minded enough to worship. They offered death 

 sacrifices, but it was rather with the idea of pacifying the evil 

 deities and paying honor to a chief than of adoration.- — From the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 



