But
we come now to a marked difference between the Maori idea of the soul
and our own. For whereas the European commonly believes his soul to be
fixed during life immovably in his body, and only to depart from it once
for all at death, the soul of the Maori is under no such narrow
restrictions, but is free to quit its bodily mansion at pleasure and to
return to it without prejudice to the life and health of its owner. For
example, the Maori explains a dream by supposing that the soul of the
sleeper has left his body behind and rambled away to places more or less
distant, where it converses with the spirits of other people, whether
alive or dead. Hence no well-bred Maori would waken a sleeper suddenly
by shaking him or calling out to him in a loud voice. If he must rouse
him, he will do it gradually, speaking to him at first in low tones and
then raising his voice by degrees, in order to give the truant soul fair
warning and allow it to return at leisure.[36] Believing in the power of
the soul to wander far away and converse with other spiritual beings in
sleep, the Maoris naturally paid great attention to dreams, which they
fancied were often sent them by the gods to warn them of coming events.
All dreams were supposed to have their special significance, and the
Maoris had framed a fanciful system for interpreting them. Sometimes, as
with ourselves, the interpretation went by contraries. For example, if a
man dreamed that he saw a sick relative at the point of death, it was a
sign that the patient would soon recover; but if, on the contrary, the
sufferer appeared in perfect health, it was an omen of his approaching
end. When a priest was in doubt as to the intentions of the higher
powers, he usually waited for his god to reveal his will in a dream, and
accepted the vagaries of his slumbering fancy as an infallible
intimation of the divine pleasure. Spells were commonly recited in order
to annul the effect of ill-omened dreams.[37]

[36] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 177
_sq._

[37] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 333-335. As to omens
derived from dreams see Elsdon Best, "Omens and Superstitious
Beliefs of the Maori," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
vii. no. 27 (September 1898), pp. 124 _sqq._

But the departure of the soul from the body in life was not always
voluntary; it might take place