MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1939, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

MAKUTU AND MOEMGEA. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.") Makutu (to bewitch) was an effective means of checking injustice or obtaining redress when all else failed. The implicit belief in it both by those who used it and by their victims constituted its success among these childlike people. Even the Tohunga (priests) who were employed to counteract its baleful effect, sincerely believed in the Karakia (incantations) employed for that purpose. Both the Makutu and the Karakia are absolute proofs of the effect of mind over matter. Less than forty years ago I saw an instance of this in a Maori football match at Akaiawa near Hawcra. A Maori player accidentally kicked another on the ankle bone, the victim in extreme pain uttering a Kanga (curse) upon his Upoko (head) and a Makutu upon his Tinana (body). Within three days the Kanga and Makutu were singularly effective, for he died in an agony of raving < madness. Moemoea (dreams) played a prominent part in the health and happiness of the Maori who had many such omens of good and evil. To dream of the soil (Moepapa) was always a warning. Included in such sinister dreams are climbing a cliff or a tree, entering a house, or roaming a forest. These were warnings of death. We ridicule these things as childish, yet there are thousands of nervy Pakeha people who still believe in dreams and other omens of evil. Still more, there are ten times as many whose health and happiness depend upon good thoughts. A modern poet points to this — “Say you fire well, or all is well with you, And God will give you health and make your words come true.”