t extermination--immediate and
unrelenting--before them, the war chief cut out the heart of his own
son as an offering for victory; and then he and his tribe, with the
fury of despair and the courage of fanatics, rushed upon the foe,
defeated them with terrific slaughter, and the war demon had much
praise, and many men were eaten.

The warriors, when on a dangerous expedition, also observed strictly
the custom to which allusion is made in 1st Samuel, xxi. 4, 5.

CHAPTER IX.

The Tapu Tohunga.--The Maori Oracle.--Responses of the
Oracle.--Priestcraft.

Then came the _tapu tohunga_, or priest's _tapu_, a quite different
kind or form of _tapu_ from those which I have spoken of. These
_tohunga_ presided over all those ceremonies and customs which had
something approaching to a religious character. They also pretended to
the power--by means of certain familiar spirits--to foretell future
events, and even in some cases to control them. The belief in the power
of these _tohunga_ to foretell events was very strong, and the
incredulous pakeha who laughed at them was thought a person quite
incapable of understanding plain evidence. I must allow that some of
their predictions were of a most daring nature, and, happening to turn
out perfectly successful, there may be some excuse for an ignorant
people believing in them. Most of these predictions were, however,
given--like the oracles of old--in terms which would admit a double
meaning and secure the character of the soothsayer, no matter how the
event turned out.

It is also remarkable that these _tohunga_ did not pretend to divine
future events by any knowledge or power existing in themselves; they
pretended to be for the time inspired by the familiar spirit, and
passive in his hands. This spirit "entered into" them, and, on being
questioned, gave a response in a sort of half-whistling half-articulate
voice, supposed to be the proper language of spirits; and I have known
a _tohunga_ who, having made a false prediction, laid the blame on the
"tricksy spirit," who he said had purposely spoken false, for certain
good and sufficient spiritual reasons which he then explained. Amongst
the fading customs and beliefs of the good old times the _tohunga_
still holds his ground, and the oracle is as often consulted (though
not so openly) as it was a hundred years ago, and is as firmly believed
in; and this by natives who are professed Christians: the inquiries are
ofte