page 43

Symptoms.

Though diseases of a serious nature were fortunately few, still the symptoms of these, with those of the many minor ailments, were all interpreted in terms of the supernatural. The head aches and various depressions from the normal were feared as an expression of the invisible powers. A race living on two meals a day, sometimes one, with great feasts on the many ceremonial occasions, could not but be subjected to many digestive ailments pf a minor character. Fern-root, one of the principal foods, was of a very constipating nature and no doubt constipation with abdominal pains was frequent. The two hand posts in connection with every privy were erected to facilitate straining during defaecation, in the same way that a towel is affixed to the lying-in bed to aid bearing down during labour, as much as to prevent falling over the cliff upon the edge of which the privy was built. In the ancient incantations enumerating the more common ailments of man, "kopito" or abdominal pain is mentioned. Flatulence, with distension of the abdomen, is frequently mentioned as "kopurua". But all these symptoms were signs of the "ngau" or bite of an "atua". Each atua had its own particular "ngau" or bite or mode of punishment. The theory advanced by some writers that the Maori divided the body into regions over which he put some presifing "atua" or demon does not accord with my knowledge of Maori thought. The symptoms of pain, heat, swelling, &c., attracted the attention first of all and then the mind worked up to a "punishing atua" as the cause. In like manner the phenomena of nature were observed by primitive man with fear and wonder. The creation of gods as an explanation came after as a distinct advance in thought. So with the symptoms of disease. Tribes, owing to environment and particular modes of living, were subject to different trains of symptoms. The "atua" was then created to account for these symptoms, or these spec-page 44ial mainfestations was added to the attributes of an already existing god. With a race perpetually engaged in war, amongst the first gods to be created, apart from the great nature myths established from time immemorial, were the war gods. The principal war gods such as Tu, Maru, &c, were brought from the birthplace of the race in distant Hawaiki and were recognized by allied tribs descending from the same canoe. But sub-tribes often created their own family war-gods such as Te Makawe who was the war-god of the Ngati Whakane sub-division of the Arawa tribe. Te Makawe was created in New Zealand for the genealogy of the chieftainess from whose abortion he sprung, is known. Te Makawe's aid was sought to give success in battle. This was his primary function. Living in a thermal district where scalding accidents were common, these manifestations of anger were attributed by the Ngati whakane people to Te Makawe, who was punishing some infringment of his tapu. But the Ngatiwhakane did not always live amongst geysers and hot springs. They occupy their present village as the result of comparatively recent conquest. Before this they were living a few miles away where there were no geysers and dangerous springs, but at that time Te Makawe was their war-god. Thus when scalding accidents became fairly common in their new home, it is easy to follow the train of thought which attributed them to the anger of Te Makawe. When war became a thing of the past, Te Makewa's primary function would easily be forgotten but as accidents still happen in the boiling springs, this manifestation of his powers would be magnified, until in the course of time, the mass of the people would regard it as his only function. So with the neighbouring Tuhourangi sub-tribe, amongst whom swelling of the big toe joint and ancle due to gout or rheumatism seems to have been present. Another god, Tatariki, was called in to account for it and his primary function has been completely forgotten. Any rheumatic or gouty swelling is due to the "ngau" or bite of TaTariki. In this way secondary or more recent attributes have over-shadowed page 45and relegated the primary into oblivion. This follows the theory of ¹Sir J. W. Cox, Professor Max Muller and other scholars which accounts for the evolution of secondary myths from primary myths. Other atuas, again, were walled up de novo to account for urgent symptoms and as the vast majority of them belonged to the class "atua kahukahu" originating from still births, miscarriages, abertions and menstrual discharges they were easy to create. New demons sprung into existence and displaced older ones according as one school of priests arose and displaced another. Thus the body was not mapped out into anatomical regions with a presiding genius, but the gods were created as symptoms required. This accounts for these gods being purely local, the different tribes, sub-tribes, and even families, having their own demons of disease.

It is unnecessary for me to deal further at present with the symptoms of disease; suffice it to say that any departure from the normal was looked upon with fear and presaging, the "ngau" or bite of a god. This opens up a useful line of investigation, for by collecting from Maori sources the names of the various gods or demons with their "ngau" or mode of punishment, we are enabled to get some idea of the symptoms of the diseases which afflicted the ancient Maoris, and so perhaps diagnose them. This is a useful and important aid to the ordinary method of collecting directly from the people what they know of actual disease. We may rest assured that there was no important series of symptoms which was not considered as the "ngau" of an atua, and so handed down as a warning to succeeding generations.