MARRIAGE. 
335 
son is not coming back. If you dream of friends, that they 
turn to you, and you see them in good health, it is a bad sign. 
If you dream of a friend on a journey, but do not see his 
face, which he turns away from you, as persons do who dance 
the maimai , or nga ngahu, it is a good sign of your friend 
being near his home. If you dream of your kumara shoot- 
ing vigorously, it is a sign of a good crop. If you dream 
yon hear the name of your absent friend mentioned, and 
that you go to look for him, but do not see his face, it is a 
sure sign of soon meeting him. If you dream of swimming, 
it prognosticates a rainy day. If you are ill, and dream 
of some absent friend, who turns and salutes you, it is a 
good sign that you will recover, and again see your friend. 
Kawana Paipai, when at a distance from home, laid up 
with sickness, dreamed that he saw his minister's wife, who 
turned to him and shook his hand ; this good omen so 
cheered him up, that he speedily got well, and on his re- 
turn, the first thing he did was to go and shake hands with 
her. If a tohunga, who accompanies a taua, or war party, 
dreams that his atua is killed by the atua of the place they 
are going to attack, it is such a bad omen that the taua 
immediately returns. If a person dreams that he sees another 
coming to kill him, it is a good sign ; the person seen will be 
killed himself. One way of obtaining answers from the 
gods, was by dreams. When the priest was in any doubt, 
he waited for his god to reveal his will to him by dreams, 
and he generally had one which conveyed the required in- 
formation.* 
Marriage. 
The Maori seem to differ from almost every known tribe or 
nation in having no regular Marriage Ceremony ; they had 
neither karakia nor any rite to mark an event, which in nearly 
every other part of the world, is accounted the most joyous 
in life.t 
* See i Sam. xxix. 15. 
f In Burmah also there are no religious ceremonies at marriage. — See Mal- 
colm's Travels in Burmah. 
