MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
41 
very uncertain and ineffectual, though they were 
held in high esteem by all ranks. Convulsions 
being sometimes experienced, were considered to 
result from the direct power of the god. Sudden 
death was also attributed to the same cause —and 
an attack so terminating, was called rima atua, 
“ hand of god.” Those who died suddenly were 
also said to be haruhia e te atua , or uumehia e 
te atua : “ seized by the god, or strangled by the 
god.” Indeed, the gods were supposed to send 
all the diseases with which they were afflicted. 
Whatever mystery they might attach to the pre¬ 
paration and use of medicine, their practice of 
surgery, and application of external remedies, 
were more simple and straightforward. They did 
not apply friction in the same manner as the 
Sandwich Islanders sometimes do, viz. by placing 
the patient flat on the ground, and rolling a twelve 
or fourteen pound shot backwards and forwards 
along the back ; but in a far more gentle manner, 
by rubbing with the hands the muscles of the 
limbs, and pressing them in the same way as the 
Indians practise shampooing. 
The natives had no method of using the warm- 
bath, but often seated their patients on a pile of 
heated stones strewed over with green herbs or 
leaves, and kept them covered with a thick cloth 
till the most profuse perspiration was induced ; 
something like that produced by the fashionable 
vapour bath. In this state, to our great astonish¬ 
ment, at the most critical seasons of illness, the 
patient would leave the heap of stones, and plunge 
into the sea, near which the oven was generally 
heated. Though the shock must have been very 
great, they appeared to sustain no injury from this 
transition. 
