TOHUNGAISM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 14

TOHUNGAISM.

STRANGE CEREMONIES. THE TAIPO AND BURIED COIN. A strange story of a tohunga ceremony, which took place a few days ago' on tho Nornianby-Okaiawa road district, witbin a few miles of Hawera, is told by a correspondent of tho "Hawera Star." There were a largo number of Maoris present at tho beginning of tho pantomime, but later a number of sceptics drifted away, leaving about 80 enthusiastic disciples to finish the business. ' Tho cavalcade arrived on horseback and in buggies, and the ceremony was conducted by a prophet and a prophetess from R.lhotu. It was given out that they had come along to fight Taipo (the desil), to remove tho tapu from tho ground, and also to ascertain the burial place of a quantity of gold and silver and copper, said to have boon brought to the place years ago from tho wreck of a ship on the Opunako coast. After tho company had grouped themselves _ together (says the correspondent) a wahine opened the proceedings with an harangue and incantations developing something approaching a frenzy of emotion. Then the party, manifestly under organised . leadership, moved off to the terraced hill on the south side of, tho road, the said terraces really being the remains of trenches dug and used by the Maoris'at -the time when the Waikatos waged an exterminating war upon the Natives of South Taranaki. This hill, it is said, was a food pa. On the other side of. the -road is now a turnip paddock, being Native lease' held', by Mr. Lysaghl, and over this area the day's operations wero conducted. Here and there small holes '. were ' dug, and the prophet oi' prophetess would put down a pipe or a cigarette, and over the spot read a portion of Scripture ' and make an incantation. This was pea ted at various'points until kai time. Then thn company crossed'the road and' finally seated themselves on tho slope facing the Waingongoro River. After somo korero, a Maori, of ordinary appearance, clad like an ordinary Native, moved down to the stream, and, exending a towel in an attitude of blessing, he uttered some words of' alleged potency. Then a littlo girl was led to the stream, and the man, with staring eyes-strained upwards, and features contorting, washed her head and face with water. '.The child cried wildly after tho baptism. Then boys and youths, and grown men, .l'n turn submitted themselves to tho man if mystery. As each ceremony was performed, the prophetess;,with both hands estended an open volume to. heaven, her ~head swaying from side to'side, backwards and. forwards, in a' seeming agony of supplication. Ten strapping young men were thus "baptised" in one group. One was noticed to have an injured leg,, and he received special .treatment.. As the service was ended, a devout disciple, carrying the volume. before referred to, ' came along.. It was a Bible. His face' was set in sober earnestness, the services of the day having left him" in a state of mental and physical excitement. "All over?" he w&s asked. "Ay, ves," he, answered. . "All right now?" "All n now," was the reply. Then he explained that where the priest had dug the hole and prayed, he had taken the tapu oft' so that Maoris would' no longer bo prohibited from going to tho place and working ovor it. A big boulder in the river was pointed out . as in instrument upon -which the taipo himself in olden days dashed out the brains-of men. Hero at the spot, whereon we stood the ' Maoris, fought and killed .arid ate each other, but tho prayers of this man and woman' had purged tho place. Natives might work on tho_ ground, now, and would not fall sick. ' They might catch eels from that. very boulder and not bo poisoned. And about the digging? Ah, years ago a ship was wrecked along the Opunake coast, and a great sum of money in gold and silver and copper was got and--brbught".to"thiS' : place,"'where is was buried. Of, course tho sight-seer would-find it. He had promised. When tho Natives secured the money first, not knowing its value, they sat on the ground and played draughts with. those gold pieces. Besides - money there was a valuable greenstone mere, which had cleft the skulls of chieftains, and this also j would;bo found. "To-day?" wo asked. "Oh, no. Some day, but he find -it," added- .tho disciplo with firm conviction. Watching the operations was another, and his face plainly spoko his disapproval. This man and this woman, he said, have come amongst the people. "They tell us that our children; sicken and dio because of the taipo, and they claim the power to cast but the evil spirit. The. owner of that .sore leg, for instance, was told that his limb would now be whole, and he would be able to play football again. Tou want to know what this really is? 'Well, a short timo ago the Government expressed its determination to suppress - it. ( It is tolmngaisni." '