A FAMOUS MAORI WIZARD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2355, 24 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

A FAMOUS MAORI WIZARD.

The New Zealand Herald gives an interesting account of Tuhoto, the Maori priest who was dug out alive at Wairoa after being \buried for 104 hours, but who subsequently died in the Rotorua Hospital. From the fact that I'uhoto survived an imprisonment of this of time, without food or water, bßueafch a mass of cold mud, his case is a remarkable one enough, bub he has other claims to celebrity and fame. Ho was said to be over 100,'yuars of age, and certainly he could' not 1 be much younger because Natives who are old say that he whs an old man while they were young. But Tuhoto's greatest claim to renown has not yet buen put forward, although there has been a good deal said about him since he was dug out. He was the last of the ancient Maori priests or tohungas, who, before the advent of Christian missionaries, had charge of all the religious concerns of the Maori race. Those" men have passed away, and have left no successors. Since the death 1 of Te Ao Katoa, in VVaikato, about 1 a year ago, Tuhoto has been, alone. In iincieut times, the Tohunga was the most important man amongst the Muori people. These priests were specially educated from an early age, Several young men of .the tribes would be selected, of good birth and of intelli: gence, and they attended a kind of college, under care of some venerable priest, who acted as professor. Those young men who displayed ability, and wlib took-a deep interest in their studies, were carried on from the lower to the higher grades, while others who did not give so much promise were dropped out, and were never entrusted with the profoundest secret or the most awful incantations,. What might be called, to adopt Maßonio phraseology, regular " lodges of instruction" were held. The tohunga had euormous power and held life and death in his hand. He it was who cast the omens when a war party went out, and read whether the warriors would be successful or not, He it was who imposed the mysterious power of tapu, and'he alone could remove it, He performed the ceremonies when a new house was opened; ho pronounced the necessary incantations when the.kumaraortaro wer

planted. -The Maories, while stil'i heathens, had- haptisimal ceremonies ] when a child was a few days or weeks old,', and these were directed by tho tohunga; The .introduction of Christianity made a considerable in .the -power and influence of the tohunga, But still, after tlie lapse of tiftyyears the; Muories.have not got over their old ideas. • The tohunga was a man having " uncanny" powers, and he alone could do certain : things. The natives believed in tapu and wienonly a. year or two ago, the > Ohinemutii Natives decided to give a piece of land at Rotoroa on which to build:St Faith's Church, they sent for Tuhoto to the ' Wairoa, and he, by. certain ceremonials removed the tapu, It might have heen interesting to have got from Tuhoto his earliest- recollections. He has lived through mighty changes. He knew the days hefore Christiunity pro vailed, he could repeat the incantations tothe-.gods.atKlhad much knowledge which in a philological point of view, I would h'avo been greatly valued by European savants, He remembered the old Maori wars, and the time when Tuhonrangi, their land then unvisited i>y. 'ourißts, was a great and powerful tribe. And he lived to see the event of a million years—the great explosion nf Tarawera and Rotomahana, an event suohas those of which geologists tell us. One wonders what Tuhoto thought of it all I That the bel'el" in tapu and the dread of its [rawer are still strong among the natives was shown when Tul oto was dug out. The natives would not touch him or give any assistance, not through hatred towards hira, but because they dreaded they mi»ht do something which) would bring upon them the anger of ths unseen powers. So Tuhoto had to be brought in to the hospital at Rotorua entirely by Europeans, the Natives even would not feed him while there, He appeared to be wonderfully hale and- healthy when in the hospital at Rotorua, and good for some years to . come. Possibly his prolonged burial had a greater eflect than appeared, Possibly that and the entire change oi surroundings, were too much for the old man, The Natives will say that when he got amo.igst the pakebae, and ate the fed prepared by them, and administered hy them, all his powers of tapu and ma»ic passed away, and so he died.