CHAP. IV.] DANCES AND SONGS. 57. 



Another game is with one ball (poi) suspended from 

 a string. Some songs are erotic or lyric, and are 

 sung to a low, plaintive, uniform, but not at all 

 disagreeable tune. A great many of their songs are 

 licentious. In paddling, they stimulate each other 

 to exertion by a song ; one man, standing at the head 

 or in the hull of the canoe, sings a strophe, and the 

 rest join in chorus. E' Waiata is a song of a joyful 

 nature ; E' Haka, one accompanied by gestures or 

 mimics ; E' Karakia is a prayer or an incantation, 

 used on certain occasions, and in saying this there 

 is generally no modulation of the voice, but sylla- 

 bles are lengthened and shortened, and it produces 

 the same effect as the reading of the Talmud in syna- 

 gogues. Most of these songs live in the memory of 

 all, but with numerous variations ; certain karakia, 

 or invocations, however, are less generally known, 

 and a stranger obtains them with difficulty, as they 

 are only handed down amongst the tohunga, or 

 priests, from father to son. To adapt words to a 

 certain tune, and thus to commemorate a passing 

 event, is common in New Zealand, and has been the 

 beginning of all national poetry. Many of these 

 children of the moment have a long existence, and 

 are transmitted through several generations ; but 

 then their allusions become unintelligible, and fo- 

 reign names, having undergone a thorough change, 

 cannot be recognised. 



The only musical instrument possessed by the 

 natives is a flute (E' Win, or Poretu) with four 



