Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

1886. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' `New Zealand Country journal,' vol. x. p. 262:

"His wife became seriously affected, declaring that Taipo had entered into her. Reasoning was wholly useless. She declared that Taipo was in the smoke of the wood, which smoke she had inhaled; soon she became prostrated by illness and was expected to die."

1887. J. C. Crawford, `Travels in New Zealand and Australia,' p. 107:

"After dinner Watkins requested the loan of a tomahawk to defend himself on going up to the Pa on the hill above. He said he knew that there was a taipo (devil) about; he felt it in his head."

1888. P. W. Barlow, `Kaipara,' p. 48:

"They were making the noises I heard to drive away the `Taipo,' a sort of devil who devotes his attention exclusively to Maoris, over whom, however, he only possesses power at night."

1891. W. H. Roberts, `Southland in 1856,' p. 72:

"They believed it was the principal rendez-vous of the fallen angel (Taipo) himself."

1896. Modern. Private Letter (May):

"Taipo, for instance, of course one knows its meaning, though it has been adopted chiefly as a name as common as `Dash' or `Nero' for New Zealand dogs; all the same the writers upon Maori superstitions seem to have no knowledge of it. Polach, Dieffenbach, Nicholas, Yates, call their evil spirits whiros or atuas. Tepo, the place of darkness, is the nearest they have come to it. I think myself it is South Island Maori, often differing a little in spelling and use; and so very much the larger proportion of New Zealand literature is the literature of the North."