Tatai Whetu, or Tatau Manawa.

The following doggerel was repeated by children, the object being to see who could go through it in one breath. But it was also used as a tatai whetu. The latter was a singular act performed in former times in order to kill a frost—i.e., to stop a frost and cause the night to become warm, thus saving the crops. A person would take a firebrand and proceed to the urinal of the settlement, where he would walk round, waving the firebrand so as to light up the ground. Then, throwing the firestick away, he would face to the east and repeat the following two effusions, holding his right arm up, and with index-finger point from one star to another as he kept repeating his jerky lines, as a person does when counting a number of objects:—

Katahi, ka ri, ka wara, ka tikoki,
Manu ki, manu ka toro, kai o, tungongo,
Kai te, koata, raua riki, tara-kaina, e hi,
Tarera, e tika, ra waho, tikina,
Kapohia, te arero, o te rangi,
Wiwi, wawa, heke, heke,
Te manu ki, ki taikeha.