208 
CURSING. 
Mori mori ta kiki, 
Mori mori ta kaka, 
I te waruhanga a te mata, 
Ko i to ko ata 
I taku ipn waka iroiro. 
The hair is gone, 
The hair is shorn, 
By the cutting of the stone 
The head is as bare 
As the calabash. 
In some places, the hair was cut only in the morning ; in 
Taupo in the evening ; tlie hair in other parts was laid upon 
the tuahu, or altar, whilst the karakia was uttered, and left 
there, the tuahu being in the wahi tapu, or sacred grove. 
Tapatapa, or Tukutuku, to curse, was a way of obtaining 
revenge. To call any object by the name of a chief, and then 
strike or insult it, was regarded as a Kanga or curse, to ap- 
ply any word to another which had reference to food, to 
say, you be eaten, or be cooked, would be considered in 
that light, the following is an example : — To bid you go and 
cook your father would be a great curse, but to tell a person 
to go and cook his great grandfather would be far worse, 
because it included every individual who has sprung from 
him. This would have been quite sufficient in former days 
to cause a war ; it could not have been overlooked. Tenei 
ton roro, ko te kowhatu e tu ki te ahi kai, kia reka iho ai 
taku kianga iho — e ; if this stone which stands by the food 
fire, i.e.j the kitchen hearth, were your brain, how very sweet 
would it be for my eating. 
Ajpiti was also a term for cursing ; any one who used a word, 
however unintentionally, which was regarded as a curse, would 
be exposed to extreme danger; a young man, who saw a 
chief running in a great heat, and the perspiration flowing 
down his cheeks, remarked, that the vapour rose from his 
head like the steam of an oven ; the expression was regarded 
as a great curse, and caused a war, which did not terminate 
until the entire tribe of the person who uttered it was des- 
troyed.* Thus the expulsion of the Nga ti waka tere and Te 
Rauparaha from Maunga-tautari was caused. 
* He kai mau te tangata Food for thee, O fish, is the man 
Makutu mai, whom thus I curse, wh o by his witch - 
Mahara mai, craft and wishing me ill luck, is the 
