John Rutherford, the White Chief: A Story of Adventure in New Zealand

hing like a shadow of the Christian Trinity. What is still more extraordinary is their tradition respecting the formation of the first woman, who, they say, was made of one of

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was attributed by the natives on board to the anger of the god of Shoupah,[BM] the Areekee who resided in the neighbourhood. Kórro-korro, who was among them said t

too, are often called atuas, or gods, even while they are alive. The aged chief, Tarra,[BO] maintained to one of the missionarie

uered," writes Kendal, "the atua above, it is supposed, is planting sweet potatoes. At the season when these are planted in the gr

ity for each of the eyes of the dead person; the left, as before-mentioned, ascending to heaven and becoming a star, and the other, in the shape of a spirit, taking flight for the Reinga. Reinga signifies, properly, the place of flight; and is said, in some of the accounts, to be a rock or a mountain at the North Cape from which, according to others, the spirits descend in

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which he had been endeavouring to instruct in the doctrines of Christianity, one of the Wesleyan missionaries says: "On telling them about the two eternal states, as described in the Scriptures, an old chief began to protest against these thing

nt him from coming again to destroy them; but we find that on the occasion of a child having been drowned

olas that the ejaculations the old woman uttered as she approached were prayers to the divinity. When Korro-korro urged Marsden to take his son with him to Port Jackson, and was told by that gentleman that he was afraid to do so lest the boy s

ot, on the voyage home from his first visit to New Zealand, Tupee, who was with him, used to sit by his side, and, laying his hands on

of great importance and authority in New Zealand, being es

s every part of the treatment of the patient. When the body of a chief who has been killed in battle is to be eaten, it is the priest who first gives the command for its being roasted. The first mout

] the people of that place sent to Cowa-Cowa[BS] for a great priest to avert the heavy judgment; and that he came and remained with t

s manner, for not having sold to sufficient advantage an article which he had given him to dispose of. "I endeavoured," says Marsden, "to convince him of the absurdity of such a threat; but to no purpose; he still persisted that he should die, and that the priest possessed that power; and began to draw the lines of incantation on the ship'

this, one of them had terrified him not a little by telling him that he had seen his ghost during the night, and had been informed, by the atua, that if he went to a certain place to which he was then about to proceed, he would die in a few days. He soon, however, got so far the bett

y "tabooed" and prayed the people to death. Others, as well as the pr

hree human bodies, which lay close together by the water's edge among some rushes; and upon inquiry they were informed that they were the bodies of thre

of a yell or song, so that the process is literally a species of incantation. Bishop Newton, in his commentary on the scriptural account of Balaam being sent for to curse the Israelites, says, "It was a super

rom that observed by the ministers of religion in civilized countries that it is not

but in the usual way, with his own hands, both a woman who had gone on bo

,[BV] or Holy Towee, a short time after attempted to break Mr. Williams's door to pieces with a long pole; and when he could not accomplish that object, effected his entrance by leaping over the fence as before. What he now wanted, he said, was hootoo,[BW] or payment, for a hurt which he had given h

winds and waves. Marsden met with this dignitary on his second visit to New Zealand; and found that, in addition to being a priest, he was in the habit of acting as a pilot,

entrance of the river; Tamanhena assuring him, though it blew ver

l the gods, the winds, and the waves. He spake in an angry and commanding tone. However, I did not perceive

e would let Marsden hear his god speak to him; but when they got to the place where the conference was to be held, he discovered that the god was not there. Marsden, however, found

had seen him, which grievously detract from his character for sanctity. He made the voyage with them in the "Dromedary" fro

s; and, unfortunately, on the morning fixed for his departure, a soldier having missed his jacket, there was so great a suspicion of the pilot's honesty,

could, he was dismissed without those presents which were given to the others. We were glad to see that his countrymen seemed to notice his conduct in the strongest terms of disapprobation; and the next day, when they were about to l

to the tohunga, or priest, who sprinkles it on the face with water, from a leaf which he holds in his hand. It

avoured of heaven often receive in this way the communications of the gods. We need hardl

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in the second book of the Iliad, Jupiter sends down to Agamemnon,

he importunities of his New Zealand friends, in any case in which it was inconvenient to gratify them, as assuring them he had dreamed that the favour they requested would turn out a misfortune to them. When some o

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