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.
Whakahokitu
Is the name given to forms of makutu employed to counteract the curse of some other tohunga, or wise-man; for whoever practises makutu, even though he be skilled in the art, may have to yield to the mana of some other wise-man who can command the assistance of a more powerful Atua. The following is a specimen of this kind of makutu—
Great curse, long curse,
Great curse, binding curse,
Binding your sacredness
To the tide of destruction.
Come hither, sacred spell,
To be looked on by me.
Cause the curser to lie low
In gloomy Night, in dark Night,
In the Night of ill-omen.
Great wind, lasting wind,
Changing wind of Rangi above.
He falls. He perishes.
Cause to waste away the curser tohunga.
Let him bite the oven-stones.
Be food for me,
The tapu and the mana,
Of your Atua,
Of your karakia,
Of your tohunga.