KURA-RED. 
95 
The Bishop of New Zealand once nearly got himself into a 
serious scrape, by saying to a chief, who asked him for tobacco, 
Oh ! you want me to stop up your ears with tobacco; this was 
viewed as a curse, and caused a temporary misunderstanding. 
Sometimes there are words in common use in one tribe, 
which are regarded as curses by another. Kai, the general 
word for food, is not used at Rotorua, because it was the name 
of a great chief, and the word tcimi has been substituted for 
it. If a person of another tribe were to use it there, it would 
be viewed as a curse. Almost every tribe had some words 
which were in a similar way interdicted, and with which it is 
necessary to be acquainted, to avoid giving offence. 
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, 
a chief, to do so; 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 the moon 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 enter¬ 
tained for the Kura, or Red ; it was the sacred color. Their 
idols, their sacred stages (Pataka) for the dead, and for offer¬ 
ings or sacrifices, their urupa, their chief’s houses, their 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 painted; 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 
Kei a Rangi riri * 
Haukumea hautoia 
Nau ka anga atu, 
Anga atu nau; 
Ka anga mai, anga mai. 
Then you return to Rangi riri’s fount. 
Come, pull away at my bait, drag out 
my line. If finished be your nibbling, 
then begone; but if you will bite again, 
then come quickly,f 
* Rangi riri is a fountain in the sea near Ha,waiki, and is the source whence all fish come, 
t This is a curse upon some unknown enemy of the fisher, who had bewitched the fish so 
that they would not come to his bait, thereby causing him ill luck. 
