1 00 INFERENCES OF A [PART I. 



superstitions after their immigration into the new 

 country. But still there remain traces of the more 

 ancient maternal creed, which had come to some 

 sort of perfection in the Sandwich Islands. There 

 the traditions and religious observances were in the 

 hands of a priest caste, and the same is the case in 

 New Zealand, although it is difficult to define what 

 is a New Zealand " tohunga ;" for here the word 

 means merely " a wise man ;" it is not signifi- 

 cative of a class separated from the rest by cer- 

 tain distinctions of rank, nor are its prerogatives 

 merely confined to the men : a tohunga is sometimes 

 the ariki, or hereditary chief, sometimes a rangatira, 

 or even a slave, or an old woman, who possesses a 

 knowledge of the popular traditions, and has the 

 power to consecrate or to bewitch, to drive out evil 

 spirits by karakia, or prayers, to heal sick people by 

 these means, and to pronounce the " tapu" a well- 

 known custom, which in its sacred and rigorous 

 character has the double meaning in New Zealand 

 of religious worship and civil law. Ridiculous as 

 this custom of the " tapu" has appeared to some, and 

 as many of its applications really are, it was, not- 

 withstanding, a wholesome restraint, and, in many 

 cases, almost the only one that could have been im- 

 posed; the heavy penalties attached to the viola- 

 tion of its laws serving in one tribe, or in several 

 not in actual hostility with each other, as moral and 

 legal commandments. It was undoubtedly the ordi- 

 nance of a wise legislator. The kumara-field, pro- 



