KURA RED. 
209 
Kei reira to hara 
Harahara aitua, 
Harahara atai 
Ipakia ai koe, 
Irahau ai koe, 
Niniho koi, tara koe 
Kei te tai timu, 
Kei te tai pari, 
Kei a Rangi riri 
Haukumea hautoia 
Nau ka nga atua, 
Anga atu nau 
Ka anga mai, anga mai. 
real cause that none of you will take 
my bait. What have you done that 
they should thus bewitch, and with 
their ill omens and curses, reach you ; 
you have been by witchcraft touched, 
by curses smitten, those teeth of yours, 
so keen and sharply pointed ; at the 
ebb tide, or at the flood, you are 
the best caught ; then you return to 
Rangi riri’s fount. Come, pull away 
at my bait, drag out my line. If 
finished be your nibbling, then be- 
gone ; but if you will bite again, come 
quickly. * — Maori Gazette. 
A chief named Rona, one night being very thirsty, when 
his wife was from home, was compelled to go to the spring 
himself, much to his annoyance, as it was degrading for him 
to do so j as he went, the moon became overcast, and he 
struck his foot against a stone, in his anger he said, Awhea 
te puta ai te marama upoko taona ? — When will the moon 
make its cooked head appear ? which, being a great curse, 
caused it immediately to descend, and take both him and 
his calabash up with it ; this is the way the natives account 
for the spots on its surface. 
Closely connected with religion, was the feeling they 
entertained for the Kura, or Red Paint — which was the 
sacred color ; their idols, Pataka, sacred stages for the dead, 
and for offerings or sacrifices, Urujoa graves, chiefs houses, 
and war canoes, were all thus painted. 
The way of rendering anything tapu was by making it red. 
When a person died, his house was thus colored ; when the 
tapu was laid on anything, the chief erected a post and 
painted it with the kura ; wherever a corpse rested, some 
memorial was set up, oftentimes the nearest stone, rock, or 
tree served as a monument ; but whatever object was selected, 
it was sure to be made red. If the corpse were conveyed 
by water, wherever they landed a similar token was left; 
and when it reached its destination, the canoe was dragged 
on shore, thus distinguished, and abandoned. When the 
* This is a curse upon some unknown enemy of the fisher, who had bewitched the fish 
that they would not come to his bait, thereby causing him ill luck. 
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