MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 December 1939, Page 5

MAORI MEMORIES

TOHUNGA. When we seek to harmonise the intellect of the Maori people with their inherent belief and fear of Makutu (witchcraft), and to explain how they can submit to the pretences of their wily Tohunga (priest or wizard) we are bewildered. We must remember the gross superstition of 100 years ago, and some illusory beliefs of today. The motive of the Maori priest in practising and preaching what we can only think of as “fraud.” lacks any satisfactory explanation. It was not for the purpose of material gain, because everything belonged to the community. Beyond the actual necessities of food and clothing, they knew no such thing as wealth or personal property. Mana (influence) was possibly the guiding principle, and the only motive. “Without money and without price” is certainly an ideal; but the methods were generally so absurd that we doubted their sincerity. Ancestral practice in this “art of healing” may have had its origin in deceit; then, like the fate of the liar who is punished by learning to believe his own lies, and by becoming incapable of realising the difference between truth and fiction, the deceiver met his fate. This view, however, is discounted by the well-known faith of the Maori in dreams, omens, or suggestions. 1 have known one instance where a young Maori man predicted his own death "when the sun touched the sea,” and it came at that moment. With Maori patients, our faith healers would gain a name and fame, gratitude and wealth.