The Karakia of Hineteiwaiwa.
Said to have been used at the birth of her son Tuhuruhuru. It is of great antiquity, dating from a time long anterior to the migration to New Zealand.
Weave, weave the mat,
Couch for my unborn child,
Qui lectus aquâ inundabitur:
Rupe, et Manumea inundabuntur:
Lectus meus, et mei fetûs inundabitur:
[pg 29]
Inundabor aquâ, inundabor;
Maritus meus inundabitur.[18]
Now I step upon (the mat).
The Matitikura[19] to Rupe above,
* * * Toroa *
* * * Takapu *
* * * to cause to be born,
My child now one with myself.
Stand firm turuturu[20] of Hine-rauwharangi,
* * * * Hine-teiwaiwa,
Stand by your tia,[21] Ihuwareware,
Stand by your kona,[21] Ihuatamai,
Chide me not in my trouble,
Me Hine-teiwaiwa, O Rupe.[22]
Release from above your hair,[23]
Your head, your shoulders,
Your breast, your liver,
Your knees, your feet,
Let them come forth.
The old lady[24] with night-dark visage,
She will make you stretch,
She will make you rise up.
[pg 30] This karakia is still in use with the Arawa tribe in cases of difficult parturition. When such cases occur, it is concluded that the woman has committed some fault—some breach of the tapu, which is to be discovered by the matakite (=seer). The father of the child then plunges in the river, while the karakia is being repeated, and the child will generally be born ere ever he returns.
The following form of karakia is also used by members of the same tribe in similar cases:—
O! Hine-teiwaiwa, release Tuhuruhuru,
O! Rupe, release your nephew.
The ancestors of the father of the child are then invoked by name. First the elder male line of ancestors, commencing with an ancestor who lived in Hawaiki and terminating with the living representative of that line. Then follows a repetition of the ancestral line next in succession, and the third in succession, if the child be not born.[26] After which the tohunga addressing the unborn child says, “Come forth. The fault rests with me. Come forth.” The tohunga continues thus—
If the child be not now born, Tiki is invoked thus—
Tiki of the heap of earth,
Tiki scraped together,
When hands and feet were formed,
First produced at Hawaiki.
[pg 31]
If the child be a male, it will be born—if a female, the mother’s line of ancestors must be invoked.
Intimately connected with the superstition respecting things tapu is the belief as to the cause of disease, namely, that a spirit has taken possession of the body of the sufferer. The belief is that any neglect of the law of tapu, either wilful, or accidental, or even brought about by the act of another person, causes the anger of the Atua of the family who punishes the offender by sending some infant spirit to feed on a part of his body—infant spirits being generally selected for this office on account of their love of mischief, and because not having lived long enough on earth to form attachments to their living relatives, they are less likely to show them mercy. When, therefore, a person falls sick, and cannot remember that he has himself broken any law of the tapu, he has to consult a matakite (seer) and a tohunga to discover the crime, and use the proper ceremonies to appease the Atua; for there is in practice a method of making a person offend against the laws of tapu without his being aware of it. This method is a secret one called makutu. It is sufficient for a person who knows this art, if he can obtain a portion of the spittle of his enemy, or some leavings from his food, in order that he may treat it in a manner sure to bring down the resentment of his family Atua. For this reason a person would not dare to spit when in the presence of anyone he feared might be disposed to injure him, if he had a reputation for skill in this evil art.
With such a belief as to the cause of all disease it will not be wondered at that the treatment of it was [pg 32] confined to the karakia of a tohunga or wise man. One or two examples of such cases will be sufficient to explain this as well as to show the in-rooted superstition of the Maori.
When anyone becomes porangi or insane, as not unfrequently happens, he is taken to a tohunga, who first makes an examination as to the cause of the disease. He and the sick man then go to the water-side, and the tohunga, stripping off his own clothes, takes in his hand an obsidian flint. First he cuts a lock of hair from the left side of the sick man’s head, and afterwards a lock of hair from the top of his head. The obsidian flint is then placed on the ground, and upon it the lock of hair which had been cut from the left side of the head. The lock of hair cut from the top of the head is held aloft in the left hand of the tohunga, while in his right hand he holds a common stone, which is also raised aloft, while the following karakia is being repeated by him.
Tu, divide, Tu, split,
This is the waiapu flint,
Now about to cry aloud
To the Moon of ill-omen.
Then the tohunga breathes on the flint, and smashes it with the stone held in his right hand. After this he selects a shoot of the plant toetoe, and pulls it up, and then fastens to it both the locks of hair. Then diving in the river, he lets go the toetoe and locks of hair, and when they float on the surface of the water, he commences his great karakia thus—
This is the [Tiri] of Tu-i-rawea,
This is the [Tiri] of Uenuku.
[pg 33]
Where lies your fault?
Was eating a kutu your fault?
Was sitting on tapu ground your fault?
Unravel the tangle,
Unravel, untie.
Take away the fault from the head
Of the Atua who afflicts this man.
Take away the disease,
And the mana of the curser.
Turn your mana against your tohunga,
And your whaiwhaia.[27]
Give me the curse
To make as cooked food.
Your Atua desecrated,
Your tapu, your curse,
Your sacred-place-dwelling Atua,
Your house-dwelling Atua,
Give me to cook for food.
Your tapu is desecrated by me.
The rays of the sun,
The brave of the world,
The mana, give me.
Let your Atua, and your tapu
Be food for me to eat.
Let the head of the curser
Be baked in the oven,
Served up for food for me
Dead, and gone to Night.
The latter part of this karakia is a curse directed against some tohunga supposed to have caused the disease by his art of makutu.
Makutu was the weapon of the weak, who had no other mode of obtaining redress. There is no doubt but that it exercised a restraining influence, in a [pg 34] society where no law but that of force generally prevailed, as a check to theft and unjust dealing generally; for there is among the Maori a firm belief in and dread of its power. This is very evident from the following account given by one of themselves of the mode employed to detect and punish a petty theft.
A woman is much vexed when any of the flax scraped by her is stolen, and she consults a tohunga, in order to discover the thief. Whether the flax has been stolen from her house or from the water, the woman’s house must be tapu. No one must be allowed to enter it. This is necessary, that the makutu may take effect, and the person who stole the flax be discovered. So when the woman comes to the tohunga he first asks her “Has any one entered your house?” She replies “No.” Then the tohunga bids her return home, saying “I will come to you at night.” The woman returns home, and at night the tohunga comes to her. He bids her point out her house, and then goes with her to the water side. Having taken off his clothes, he strikes the water with a stick or wand, brought with him for that purpose, and immediately the form of the thief stands before them. The tohunga thus curses it—
May your eyes look at the moon—
Eyes of flax be yours,
Hands of flax be yours,
Feet of flax be yours.
Let your hands snatch
At the rays of the Sun.
Let your hands snatch at Whiro,
Whiro in vast heaven,
[pg 35]
Whiro born of Papa.
Snatch, snatch at your own head,
Perishing in the Night of Darkness,
In the Night of Death—Death.