thunder represented by Tupai is accompanied by little or no rain. The infringement of tapu as a cause of illness and death is still implicitly believed in by the Maori, and quite recently, at Gisborne, a tohunga named Paneri Tawera diagnosed the disease of his patient, Kapu, to be due to such a cause. He treated him accordingly; but, unfortunately, the patient died, and the medicine-man was charged with murder. Paneri stated the cause of Kapu's sickness in these terms: “The root of the sickness of Kapu is at Mangatu, at the site of the old whare. There is a pit there; Kapu has gone on to that place, and that is the reason of his sickness.” He said that that was a sacred (tapu) place, and Kapu's sickness had resulted from trespassing on it. The tohunga conducted the relatives of the sick man to the scene of the trespass, and at the root of a poplar-tree found a stone, which, with some grass that was growing near, he carefully wrapped up in his handkerchief. He said, “This is the cause of Kapu's illness. A man in former times, coming from Ti Kete, on the sea-coast, arrived at this place, and they did not offer him any food. On that account he put a tapu on that particular place.” The stone appears to have been the symbol of the tapu. After the tohunga had done talking the party returned to Koutara, where Paneri took the grass that was in the handkerchief and gave it to the people professing the same religion as himself, and told them to repeat certain incantations or charms. When they had finished their karakia he gave a bundle of grass to them. He directed that it should be placed secretly under the sleeping-mat where Kapu was lying. The only other treatment received by the patient in this case was an occasional drenching with cold water, the common remedy for fevers among primitive peoples. Poor Kapu died in great agony, and the mana of Paneri was shattered. The karakia used by the Ngatiawa tohungas to cure those afflicted by disease as a punishment for trespass on a sacred place (tuahu), or a place where a sacred fire has at some time been kindled, or a cave containing the bones of the dead, is as follows. After the usual sprinkling process by the sacred pool or stream, the priest recites this incantation:— Heuea ki runga, heuea ki raro Heuea ki te po uriuri Heuea ki te po tangotango Tuhia mai te tuhi e atua nui Ana ra e patu nei Haere, whakataha ra Tutara kauika Ana ra e patu nei Haere i te po uriuri Haere i te po tangotango