E—No. 7,

MAORI CUSTOMS. The following is to cure any casual disease :—lf the priest has satisfied himself, after looking at the patient, that his sickness is not attributable to the influence of Makutu, he merely repeats this incantation, with certain contortions of his body, clawing the air with his hands over the patient, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting; but no certain rules can be given,for the ceremonies in this case are quite arbitrary on the part of the priest; some of them never come near the patient, merely repeating the incantation while they are standing on the top of their own house, which is as follows :— Breathe thou, breathe thy breath, O Rangi, And thou Tv, give thy living spirit, To create life that the body and soul may live in this world, Beat with life thou heart, The tree falleth, the tree of Atutahi, Here the blow was given, the wind blew there, There is the tree of enchantment. While repeating this he sticks a twig of Karamu in the ground before the sick man, which he had previously held in his hand, and continues :— It is welcome, it is good, The land, the sea, the day, the night, All are good. Be propitious,o! ye gods. The following is to cure a burn or scald :—When the priest is putting on the pulp made as before mentioned he says ;— Return, 0 ye gods of the land, And ye gods of the sea, Come and save, that this man May work for us, oh Tiki! Por you and me. Heal him, oh heal! If it had been fire kindled by me on Hawaiki, It might have been extinguished. 0 thou skin, be not diseased by this evil, Cease thou heat, be cured thou burn, Be thou extinguished, thou fire Of the god of Hawaiki; Ye lakes in the heavens give coolness to his skin, Thou rain, thou hail, come to this skin: Ye shells and cool stones come to this skin, Ye springs of Hawaiki, Rarotonga, and Aotea, Come to this skin and cause it to be damp; Be healed thou skin, be healed. When a limb is broken, as in war, the priestly doctor makes splints, and, while binding them en the broken limb, he says :— O thou Tiki, give me thy girdle, As a bandage for this limb! Come thou, bind it up, Tie around it thy cords and make it right. O thou flesh, be thou straight; And ye sinews, be ye right, And ye bones join ye, join ye. Maori doctors do not exactly profess to be able to raise the dead, but they do profess to restore to life those who may be in the last agony; but then many concurrent omens and propitious circumstances must occur all at the same time ere such a miracle can be wrought; it must take place near dawn; the dying man must have a shivering fit; also, Matariki (the Pleiades) must be high in the Heavens, a power from which stars is supposed to cause the fit; also, the Toutouwai (the New Zealand robin) must sing for the first time, at one and the same time that Tawera (the Morning Star) is seen ; then the priestly doctor will engage to revive him who is in feis last moments by saying ;— Spread thy breath, O Rangi! Stay, thou breath, oh stay, Be full of breath, be full; Ere this my son fall silently away; Dive to the depths of ocean darkness, And dive in the ocean light and rest in tie heav'ns, Let life be given to thee Eat thou of life in the heavens, Let life revive thee, On thy sacred garments is thy sin Thy food was mixed and eaten, The food which is in thee, Light of the heavens rise That Wiro may at a distance stand. That death may flee and life be given to thee, I will not weary you by detailing the incantations used by the priests for the cure of head-ache, stomach-ache, for the relief of choking, and a hundred other evils, for the detection of a thief, and for the blinding of a pursuer after battle: for there were forms appropriate to every accident of life, and the power of the Tohunga was based upon his ready and extensive knowledge of them. I will conclude this portion of my subject with two anecdotes of the self-desecration and voluntary surrender' of their powers by two Maori priests :—A Maori priest (yet living) had made up his mind to abandon his heathen ceremonies, and to embrace the religion of the Europeans ; he summoned therefore three other* t» his settlement, and having had a quantity of kumeras cooked, and put into three baskets, he badi