POSSESSED OF DEVILS

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5881, 8 April 1920, Page 3

POSSESSED OF DEVILS

TOHUNGAS AMONG MAORIS

CONDITIONS IN THE FAR-NORTH.

MISSIONERi'S DISCOVERIES

A remarkable account 01 superstitious practices and lack, of' scientific medical attention among the Maoris of the Far ; North has been given by Canon Artiliur | Williams and the Rev. H. P. Munrb in I (their They 'found fthat "the tohunga and the magician flourish, alad ! crudest superstition is rampant." ' The report, which is published in tflie , CU inch Gazette, states:— j There is much sickness and disease — especially among the children, even where the parents themselves seem sti'on;.;, and healthy—amd they are dyimgi off in great numbers every year. We have never il.i all our experience seen

so much sickness and disease as came

i under our notice in the four weeks We j were among them. In cas? after case families are in danger of becoming cx- , ti.uet. Out of nine and tern children I several families have only three or four i left alive, and of these generally two 1 are diseased or ill. Out of seven and fifteen children in some families only one is still living; while i'n yet another twenty have died out of a family of tw(oiity-tw\>. And the parents say they cannot get medical attention. The Govt: nment does supply the services of a dif.'tikt nurse, who does splendid work, but there seems to be no doctor available for the Maoris.

The tohungas teach the .people that Cod has in Hfis mercy, under theso ! very trying circumstances, permitted I the spirits of their a,neestors to return to teach 'them what to do for the sick, and that the tohungas can cure all ills. ! Further, they say that the cause of the • illness is an 'PvSI spir;it, and that this is the reason why European doctors ' cannot cure the patient. ( We found a good many who' had' already become convinced that the spirits j were not good spirits, because flip results wero always ultimately ev'il, and generally 'ended in death, and often in lunacy. Some had already returned to the tohunga charm, or embodiment of the spirit pbwer, which he had left in their home; others had thrown them away into the scrub; while others still had them i;n their homes and did not know what to do witli them, and handed them, over to us. They said they felt they had opened a door for the approach Oi 7 spirits, which thoy had found to be evil spirits, and could ' not shut it again. No matter what they did they could not got free aga.hi from what they firmly bol'icved to be evil spirits, or demons, who seemed to be bent on destroying them and their children. In 'the case of one boy the principal tohuliga. eon/corned has since died, apparently raving mad, and we are told that every one of her children have died im the same way—two of tihem ■within a week of each either. We believe nothing will convince these people, and those conviected with them, that these were not cases of demonpossession, or the work of evil spirits of some form. We wore solemnly told by one whb has suffered that some oi : the possessed behaved like pigs, others liko dogs, cats, rats, etc.; aind we met with two young children who did behavo in every way like little pigs and who became quite normal immediately when the evil spirits were exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ. MANY RENOUNCE TOUTING A ISM. As soon as the Maoris realised that the mi.sxlioncrs were there lo *i.e:!p them, the days were not l'ong enough to ses all who came to us, or wished us to go to their homos. Naturally those who wer,c practising as tohT.j.ig:t«, or acting as agents for tohungas living elsewhere, and were thereby making money 'out of it, also some who were )afraid of the magic of the 'tohungas, or of the wrath oi' the spirits, kept aloof from us.

It lias been roughly computed that 4a the three centres visited perhaps 350 to 450 people, including the children, attended the services. .Of these at least 120 renounced their adherance to to.huugaism ajad all it moans, and were formally reinstated, in a most solemn and impressive service.