The Tohunga Again.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7720, 24 January 1905, Page 3

The Tohunga Again.

REMARKABLE OCCVIIHENCE. YOUNG WOMAN BECOMES INSANE. Te Kuiii, has sent the New Zealand Herald the following, which speaks for itself :—• That Dr. Ponvare's strictures on tohungaism are unerringly! correct, all who saw what I did lost week will heartily confirm. From casual inquiries 1 find that a young* woman living some twenty miles inland from Te Kuiti, believing that a makutu spell had -been laid upon her, came in to consult a noted female tohunga to have the malison removed, but, recrimination ensuing, the hocus poctis ended in the afflicted fiercely attacking the diviner, and becoming insane ; which then spread to the remainder of the family of four, including the father and a son-in-law. The young woman was arrested by the local constable un:l deported to 'the asylum ; but the scene at the native village among Jkt own people ■ was beyond -description —a horrible exhibition of degraded superstition, accentuated by iusanity, or its make-believe. Clothes were burnt, planted in the earth, and otherwise destroyed, they then strutted about naked, howled incantations, and ran amok, attacking both friend and imaginary foe ; beclothed themselves in women's garments, quoted Scripture, and, until some neighbouring pacified them, behaved as what they were—-makutu-besotted maniacs. Verily, tohungacraft requires stamping out with a merciless heel. It seems heartless to apply the ancient saying s t hat whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad ; but if we callously repudiate our responsibilities the sequence will be cruelly complete. I am making further investigation, and I will send you the result. Preliminarily, I have warned them that the white man also is skilled in magic spells, but that his magic spelleth gaol !