Cotenso.—On a better Knowledge of the Maori Race. 45 
. Let them be carefully carried about. 
- Be (you) diligently occupied in planting carefully. 
. Planted, verily planted (are the seed of) my baskets. 
- Spread open, empty, verily scattered around, (are) my (empty) used seed-baskets ! 
. Above (there) in the sky (thou art) far away out of sight, hidden ;— 
. Give, therefore, here in this place, as a rew: 
. Of the believing this,—or our making it (to be) real and truthful,— 
. And let it be alike truthful and real (to us) ; 
. Yes; just so, indeed. 
(The figures beginning each verse, are added merely for the sake of 
reference :—See Anatysis, infra.) 
Few subjects among the many of this class known to me have afforded 
half the satisfaction I have obtained from this one; but I have only gained 
it through a long, patient, and tedious amount of heavy labour! The 
translation of this semi-poetical charm, or invocation, being exceedingly 
difficult, owing to so many archaisms, allusions and ellipses. Desirous, 
however, of laying it before you in its original beauty—of meaning and 
arrangement—lI have studied to translate it as literally as possible, consistent 
with perspicuity and the dissonant idioms of the two languages. 
Of the various spells, etc., anciently used in planting the kumara, that I 
have acquired from several tohungas during many years, there are no less 
than three which contain this direct invocation to Pani; and while the 
introductory words of those three forms vary a little, the kernel—the 
" invocation itself—is almost literally the same in them all! This circum- 
stance, together with its evident antiquity (as shown from their genealogical 
tables), the fact of its being one of the very few known forms of 
invocation to any being or personification ever used by the ancient Maoris,* 
its poetical structure, and its regular fitting and progressive disposition,— 
make it a subject of extreme interest if not of importance. 
Those charms, when used, were always muttered in an under-tone by 
the tohunga, who performed this duty while walking about the plantation, 
solus. This one, used in the spring, at the first planting season, serves to 
remind us of the vernal sacrifices and prayers of the ancient Egyptians and 
Romans,t and other ancient Northern nations; and like those by them, it 
was used to precure fertility ; and when simple, (as in this instance), they 
may be regarded as among the most beautiful and becoming of the rites of 
natural religion. 
* I should, however, also state, that besides those three charms, or invocations, 
already mentioned, containing direct invocations to Pani, I possess, among several charms, 
etc., from the North, another charm used for the restoring of a sick person to health, in 
which Pani is also invoked together with her husband Tiki, and both simply and separately 
called on to grant health to the patient. 
+ Virgil, Ec. V., 74, 75: Georg. I., 335-350. 
SS oo or Or oe mM 
SSHASALSS 
