almost boundless field is thus opened up to the practice of human
unscrupulousness and the weakness of human incredulity.
Let a Maori chief lose some valued article, or suffer from an attack of illness,
and he immediately concludes that he has been bewitched. Who has bewitched
him? He fixes, as a matter of course, on the individual whom he conceives to be
his enemy, and orders him to be put to death. Or he resorts to some potent witch,
and bribes her to exercise her influence to remove the maleficent spell under
which he is labouring.
According to Dr. Dieffenbach, the particular haunt of the witches is—or rather
was, for Christianity has rapidly extended its blessed power over the population
of New Zealand—a place called Urewera, in the North Island, between Hawkes
Bay and Taupo. The natives of this wild and deserted district are reported to be
the greatest witches in the country; are much feared and studiously avoided by
the neighbouring tribes. When they come down to the coast, the natives there are
almost afraid to oppose their most extravagant demands, lest they should incur
their displeasure. It is said that they use the saliva of the people they design to
bewitch, and, therefore, visitors carefully conceal it, so as to deprive them of the
opportunity of working mischief. Yet, like the witches and sorcerers of
mediæval England, they appear to be more sinned against than sinning, and by
no means to deserve the ill reputation which attaches to them.
It is a curious fact, says Dr. Dieffenbach, which has been noticed in Tahiti,
Hawaii, and the Polynesian islands generally, that the first intercourse of their
inhabitants with Europeans produces civil war and social degradation, but that a
change of ideas is rapidly effected, and the most ancient and apparently
inveterate prejudices soon become a subject of ridicule, and are swept away. The
grey priest, or tohunga, skilled in all the mysteries of witchcraft and native
medical treatment, readily yields in his attendance on the sick to every European
who possesses, or affects to possess, a knowledge of the science of surgery or
medicine, and laughs at the former credulity of his patient. It is evident that,
while deceiving others, he never deceived himself, and was well aware of the
futility of his pretended remedies.
When a New Zealand chief or his wife fell sick, the most influential tohunga, or
some woman enjoying a special odour of sanctity, was instantly called in, and
waited night and day upon the patient, sometimes repeating incantations over
him, and sometimes sitting in front of the house, and praying. The following is
the incantation which the priests profess to be a cure for headache. The officiant