From cutting and maiming this man. O thou god of the wizard, When thou descendest to the world below, To thy many, to thy thousands, And they ask who required thee there, Say Whiro the thief; come back then And we shall find thee, we shall see thee. When thou goest inland, Or to the ocean, or above, And the thousands there ask thee, Tell them the same. Go thou even at day-dawn, Where the night s last is, Hide thyse f in it, and go. Go thou, but the skull of the wizard shall be mine To cut and to tear it, To destroy its power and its sacredness Cut off the head of the god. Then patient and priest return to the village. The invalid being very tapu, he is ihowaka, and must not eat ordinary food for three days: at the end of that time the cure is supposed to be complete. That class of priests termed tohunga matatuhi or matakite (mata, a medium of communication with a spirit) usually performed the hirihiri rite, inasmuch as they were supposed to be masters of divination and second sight. It is, of course, the god (atua) or familiar spirit of the tohunga who enables him to ascertain the person or object which is the cause of illness. Sometimes the priest would perform the hirihiri at his sacred place, where he kept the symbol of his atua, and addressed his karakia to it. And the god would explain the cause of the illness through his human medium (waka, kauwaka, or kaupapa)—that is, through the tohunga. When the priest had performed these rites over a sick person, it was customary to present to him the cloak or garment which had been used to cover the patient when being taken to the sacred pool. Many of the sacred rites of the Maori were performed in or on the banks of some sacred pool or stream. A pool or pond was preferred, inasmuch as the permanent tapu placed over it did not interfere with the domestic requirements of the tribe. The water of a tapu stream would not be available for household purposes. The sacred pool was called wai tapu, or wai whakaika, and people were not allowed to approach near it unless conducted thither by a tohunga, in order to go through some religious rite or ceremony. The reason why a sick person is taken to the wai tapu is thus explained by the Ngatiawa Maoris: “He is taken to his ancestress Wainui, who makes all such things clear in regard to the troubles which afflict the Maori people. The cause of his sickness will there be disclosed, whether it be