A Powerful Tohunga
Simultaneously with the eruption of Mount Tarawera an outbreak occurred in the supposedly extinct Ruapheu. A large lake of boiling water was formed in the crater at the summit. A striking figure emerges from the scene of this great catastrophe. It is that of Tuhoto, a priest or tohunga of the Maori. He had believed that guilt for the great eruption rested on him for his exorcisms, and he remained during the outbreak in his hut near Mount Tarawera. He was naturally buried, and only dug out after five days, still alive. Later, when his vermin-covered hair was shorn, and the greatest possible insult thereby done him which could possibly befall a priest, he died through auto-suggestion.-bj.S. (Wellington).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19370508.2.167.2
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)
Word Count
121A Powerful Tohunga Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)
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