blonde type may be met with, having auburn hair. These last are by tradition said to be of superior dash and bravery in battle, and were called by the distinctive name of “erukehu.” The erukehu, or white Maori, would seem to be the result of an occasional outcrop of the blood of a pure light-complexioned people who have at one time been absorbed, though not entirely lost, among the multitude of the two darker races of the Polynesian blend. To which of these original peoples we may look as the introducers of the custom of rahui there is as yet no sufficient evidence; but perhaps by careful research this may be traced or eonnected with the history of a people yet inhabiting one of the large continents.

The Moriori of the Chathams have less of the dark blood outcropping, yet are said to have shown occasional specimens of the erukehu type. To my thinking, they originally left New Zealand on the arrival of the “Arawa,” “Tainui,” and other canoes at this country, bringing the Maori—a fiercer and more turbulent people—a race of cannibals, who subdued or caused the migration of the milder - disposed Moriori. But although the Moriori people had less trace of negrito blood showing in their appearance, yet they give historical evidence of the use of the custom of rahui, as will be presently described in this paper.

Whether the occasional mention by travellers of albino Polynesians being seen refers to cases of true albinism or to the type erukehu we may well desire to obtain evidence upon. Sir Joseph Banks, in his diary, in describing the Tahitians, at page 128, says, “During our stay in these islands I saw some—not more than five or six—who were a total exception to all I have said above. They were whiter than we, but of a dead colour, like that of the nose of a white horse. Their eyes, hair, eyebrows, and beards were also white. They were universally short-sighted, and always looked unwholesome—the skin scurfy and scaly, and the eye often full of rheum. As no two of them had any connection with one another, I conclude that the difference of colour, &c., was totally accidental, and did not at all run in families.” There is certainly no description of an erukehu here, but we may notice the evident mistake in calling the eyes “white” in colour.

Dr. Dieffenbach tells us of meeting an albino native in the Rotorua district, and Mr. John Harding, Mount Vernon, Waipukurau, tells me of one he saw in the early days of European settlement at Wellington. I also remember hearing of an albino native woman coming to Napier with other natives travelling from the north some twenty years ago, and suppose these are something quite distinct from the ruddy-haired erukehu, and of an abnormal type or occurrence.

Certain authorities on Maori tradition maintain that we find no mention of the occurrence of human sacrifice, but this position is not tenable. We are told by the late Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, in “Jottings from the Pacific,” that by the kindred people of Rarotonga human sacrifice was made to the atua (deified ancestor) Rongo. Under the heading “Bible Truths illustrated” (by native teachers) is the account of the manner in which Itieve was enticed by a message from his relative Kekeia (thief) to meet him on the summit of the mountain Maungarua: “Whilst on the way thither Itieve was warned by the cry of the bird kaua (kingfisher)—a bird considered sacred to Tane—that there was a hidden foe in the vicinity, but Itieve replied, ‘Ao, Tane; koe e karanga nei’ (‘Aye, Tane; it is thou who art warning me’). The bird again gave its warning cry of ‘kaua’ (from which it is named), to which Itieve replied as previously, and recklessly went forward to the place of meeting. By this time his concealed foes had crept round through the fern and bush, enclosing him on every side. Kekeia, seeing that his prey was secure, arose and shouted, ‘Taumoa, e Rongo, toou ika’ (‘Rongo, seize thy prey’). At this preconcerted signal the armed men rose as if by magic out of the earth, and clave the skull of Itieve. A long spear was thrust through his body, and he who had despised the three-fold warning of the gods was carried off with shouts of triumph between two men to the gloomy cave of Ivirua, and there cooked and eaten.”

Mr. Gill also tells us that it was customary after a battle, and to secure a lasting peace, for the victors to search about for a particular one of the vanquished party as a sacrifice to Rongo, as, for instance: “To secure peace two special sacrifices were made to the insatiable Rongo, as the supreme ruler of human destinies and the god of war [Tu is the god of war in New Zealand, Rongo of agriculture, especially of the kumara, or sweet potato—T.W.]. Both were young women. The first was Kete-ta-kiri, who was contemptuously designated ‘ei ika aua na Papa’—i.e., ‘fish refuse thrown to Papa,’ the mythical mother of dread Rongo; the second (Taike) was to be ‘ei ika akatangi pau’—i.e., ‘a fish in order that the drum of peace might sound.’”

Usually one sacrifice was deemed sufficient, but Makai-taka decreed two: “The weeping aunt of Taike, seeing she could not save her, with the instinctive love and pride of native women, got her best petticoat and wrapt it round her. The unhappy girl was then dragged by one hand outside the oven-house (cooking-place). Her loud cries and bitter tears at her hard fate did not move Vaere's compassion. The armed men in ambush now left their post and rushed

forward for the honour of spearing the inoffensive girl, as the actual murderer obtained lands and distinction. Great care, however, was requisite in slaying victims not to batter them too much, as Rongo would thereby be insulted.”

A third instance is as follows:—

“Vaitamana's Speech.—At one of our New Year gatherings a venerable man with silver locks named Vaitamana stood up and said, ‘Young people, look at me. Do you know that I was one of those appointed for sacrifice to Rongo? These ears and this nose of mine were to have been cut off and divided out to each chief in token of office. This head was, in the phrase of those days, ‘e kuto roroi’ (‘a feast-provider’). It would not actually be eaten, but until I or some other suitable victim had been offered to the god of war no culture of the soil was lawful and no feasting permitted, blood-shedding alone being the order of the day…. Without a human sacrifice the drum of peace could not be beaten, nor a new paramount chief be appointed.’”

A remarkable saying, “Here are the pigs^* we were in search of,” was used by the delighted Apai to his followers when the young people cried out, “Alas, we too shall be slain.” The cannibals surrounded them, &c. This and the accompanying note will compare with a like saying by a Maori when treacherously betraying the captain and crew of a European ship (see former paper, Transactions, vol. xxviii., p. 54).

An instance of human sacrifice in New Zealand will be given later on.

Mr. W. Wyatt Gill touches on the subject of rahui at page 205 of “Jottings from the Pacific,” but gives the word as raui, omitting the letter h: “A green leaflet (of the cocoanut palm) tied round the upper part of the left arm was, and in some islands still is, a mark of idolatrous tapu. On Niutao (dried cocoanut) I watched the worshipper of a crooked post (the middle post of the three side posts supporting a roof) in which his god was sup-posed to be enshrined offering a sacred leaflet and three cocoanuts morning and evening. The extremity of a cocoanut-leaf consisting often of twelve leaflets, when cut off and bound with yellow sennit by the priest, constituted the fisherman's god on Mangaia. A similar device is used in a formal invitation of a chief to a feast, the sacred sennit being, of course, omitted. These leaflets are inserted in the thatch of the chief's house by the messenger, but no word is uttered. All tapu restrictions are still intimated by pinning to the soil

or hanging on a tree an entire cocoanut-leaf plaited after a fashion supposed to represent the proprietor clutching the soil. All plants attached to that cocoanut-leaf become sacred. This is called a rāui.”

In the “Journal of the Polynesian Society,” vol. iii., p. 159, an account is given of the house of Keawe by Professor W. D. Alexander. This was a cenotaph or mausoleum for the deceased kings of Hawaii: “At the building of this hale (Maori, whare) Mr. Chamberlain writes, ‘At the setting of every post, and the placing of every rafter, and at the thatching of every wa (or intervening space) a human sacrifice had been offered.’ Human sacrifices had also been offered for each chief whose remains were deposited there—at each stage of the consecration—viz., at the removal of the flesh, at the putting-up of the bones, at the putting-on of the tapa (native cloth), at the winding-on of the sennit, &c. Mr. Chamberlain made a list of the names of twenty-three chiefs whose bones were removed in 1829 and deposited in a secret cave at Kaawa-loa, where they remained for nearly thirty years.”

Here we have a small army of unfortunates who were killed—First, those whose deaths should insure the stability and tapu of posts and rafters, &c.; secondly, one to accompany each of the twenty-three chiefs or rulers; and a further multitude for each bone-scraping and other ceremonies enforced by this hideous custom as each of the twenty-three bodies were from time to time prepared for their long rest.

In vol. iv., p. 37, of the same journal Mr. Alexander Shand tells us that in the time of Rongo-papa, of the Chatham Islands, a heke, or migration, arrived there in the “Rangimata” canoe: “At Te Awapatiki” the captain of “Rangimata,” named Mihiti, and his people erected a post—first on tahuna (the sand-spit). This the tangata whenua (people of the country) took no notice of, but on seeing the heke put in another at Poretu (north side of the Awapatiki), and with it the image of their god Heuoro, they pulled them up.” These posts were erected as indicating a taking possession of the land—a titiri, or erecting the sacred mark of rahui.

To my thinking, it may be of interest if the two pedigrees of the Chatham Island natives (the Moriori) were studied by an expert in Polynesian languages, for I feel partly satisfied that some of the names given therein possibly relate to some deed or action; others to place-names touched at in migration; and later on to actual personal names.

At page 122 of the journal we read: “With Ro Tauira the children of heaven and earth separate to the world of existence; Te-ao-marama (World of Light) came forth, whose son was Rongo-mai-whenua (this was the ancestor who first