WIZARDS. 
363 
natives still hold, as altogether imaginative : at the 
same time, the facts that have come to my know¬ 
ledge, during my residence among them, have led 
me to desire the most satisfactory evidence for 
rejecting them. 
Witchcraft and sorcery they considered the pe¬ 
culiar province of an inferior order of supernatural 
beings. The names of the principal oramatuas 
were, Mau-ri, Bua-rai, and Tea-fao. They were 
considered the most malignant of beings, exceed¬ 
ingly irritable and implacable ; they were not con¬ 
fined to the skulls of departed warriors, or the 
images made for them, but were occasionally 
supposed to resort to the shells from the sea-shore, 
especially a beautiful kind of murex, the murex 
ramoces. These shells were kept by the sorcerers, 
and the peculiar singing noise perceived on apply¬ 
ing the valve to the ear, was imagined to proceed 
from the demon it contained. 
These were the kinds of beings invoked by the 
wizards or sorcerers. Different names were ap¬ 
plied to their arts, according to the rites employed, 
or the effects produced. Tahu, or tahutahu, nati- 
natiaha, or pifao, were the general terms employed, 
both for sorcery and the performance of it. Tahu , 
in general, signifies to kindle, and is much the 
same in import as ahikuni , the word for sorcery in 
the Sandwich Islands. The application of fire 
was common to both. Natinati signifies involved, 
entangled, and knotted: aha , is cinet; and the 
persons afflicted with this, were supposed to be 
possessed by a demon, who was twisting and knot¬ 
ting their inside, and thus occasioning most ex¬ 
cruciating pain and death. Pifao signifies a hook 
or barb ; and is also indicative of the condition of 
those, under the visitation of evil spirits, who were 
