46 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
For this purpose, also, another strange plan was long observed by the 
Maoris of the interior. A portion of an ancient relation I received from 
them runs thus :—‘ Tia* and his party ” (who, it is said, had come to New 
Zealand from “ Hawaiki” in the canoe Arawa), “did not return from 
Taupo (inland), whither they had gone, to Maketu (on the coast); they all 
died inland at Titiraupenga, where their bones and skulls long were, and 
were, indeed, also seen by the Maoris of this generation just past. Those 
skulls were annually brought out, with much ceremony, and placed in the 
kumara plantations, by the margins of the plots, that the plants might 
become fertile and bear many tubers.” 
Captain Cook also relates, that in the plantations of kumara at Tolaga 
Bay, which he and his companions visited (on his first voyage to New 
Zealand),—* they saw there, a small area of a square figure, surrounded 
with stones, in the middle of which one of the sharpened stakes which they 
use as a spade [hoo] was set up, and upon it was hung a basket of fern- 
roots: upon enquiry the natives told us, that it was an offering to the 
gods, [?] by which the owner hoped to render them propitious and obtain a 
plentiful crop.”{+ This is in the main correct, as I have myself proved,— 
omitting the words ‘an offering to the gods.” 
It is just possible, that the kernel of this charm or invocation to Pani, 
may be among the very oldest known ! 
And here, to make it still more plain, I will just briefly give a simple 
analysis of the contents of this Invocation, with a few explanatory notes ; 
through which, I think, its suitability, beauty, and regularity, will be the 
more clearly perceived. 
ANALYSIS. 
I. A statement of the celestial signs of Spring being fortunate, or favourable, for 
their work, according to tokens discerned by the tohunga from over both 
land and ocean: lines, 1-2. 
Il. Of their work being begun according to old descended custom ; mentioning the 
names of four of Tinirau’s eight sisters,—who were sent over the sea in 
their canoe to carry off Ngae (or Kae) for his theft of Tinirau’s pet whale.{ 
Possibly they were here mentioned, on account of that memorable night of 
high glee and jollity spent in all manner of games by those women and their 
assistants, through which plan they also succeeded in detecting and carrying 
off Ngae ;—the bare mention of this always caused pleasing mirthful ideas 
to the Maoris and was just as politically useful to the working-class among 
them at the beginning of their heavy annual working-season, as the festival 
* Tia’s name is mentioned in connection with the Arawa, p. 146, Grey’s “ Polynesian 
Mythology.” 
+ First Voyage, Vol. III., p. 472. 
; See Grey’s “ Polynesian Mythology,” p. 90, 
ESET Sarat nO ese eee ae eR ae eee 
