A Famous Tree

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Famous Tree

On the banks of the Horomanga-a-Po ■stream, about six miles from Fort Galatea, near Rotorua, there grew a hinau, a tree sacred to the Maori aud famously known as Hunahun-a-Po. Though tradition .is not exactly sure how it was brought there, it .is definite about the means to which it used to be put. This tree was divided at the base, close to the roots, into two stems, one of which was termed the dead limb or “peka maroki,” and the other the stem of life. If a woman wished to test the virtue of the tree, she came to it in the presence of her husband and a tohunga of the tribe which owned the tree. When the three were within a short distance of the sacred place the woman was blindfolded and ordered to advance on her own. Her movements were closely watched by the two men until she embraced one or other of the two stems. If she were so unlucky as to embrace the dead limb all hope of offspring had to be abandoned.

This was not the only hinau tree, however, invested with supernatural powers, for most of them were sacred to the Maori. Other hinau were treated similarly, but were used to find out if the coming offspring were to be a boy or a girl. If the woman embraced that side of the tree which faced toward the rising gun the child would be a boy; if the side toward the setting sun, a girl.— J.M. (Wellington).