nces were the result of
a pure accident, but sometimes they were intentional. For this fell
purpose a malignant wizard would dig a hole, invoke the spirit of the
man against whom he had a grudge, and when the spirit appeared over the
hole in the form of a light, he would curse it, and the man whose soul
was cursed would be sure to die, sooner or later; nothing could save
him. The Uriwera, who dwelt dispersed among the forests and lonely hills
of a wild mountainous region in the North Island, were reputed to be the
greatest warlocks in all New Zealand. When they descended from their
mountains to the coast, the lowlanders scarcely dared refuse them
anything for fear of incurring their displeasure. It is said that in
their magical rites they made a special use of the spittle of their
destined victims; hence all visitors to their country were careful to
conceal their spittle lest they should give these wicked folk a handle
against them.[44] Another mode in which a Maori wizard could obtain
power over a man's soul was by working magic on the footprints of his
intended victim. The thing was done in this way. Suppose you are walking
and leave your footprints behind you on the ground. I come behind you,
take up the earth from your footprints, and deposit it on the sacred
_whata puaroa_, that is, a post or pillar set up in the holy place of a
village and charged in a mysterious manner with the vitality both of the
people and of the land. Having laid the earth from your footprints on
the sacred post, I next perform a ceremony of consecration over it, and
then bury it with a seed of sweet potato in the ground. After that you
are doomed. You may consider yourself for all practical purposes not
only dead but buried, like the earth from your footprints.[45]

[43] Elsdon Best, "Maori Medical Lore," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. xiii. no. 4 (December 1904), p. 225.

[44] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843),
ii. 58 _sq._; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the
New Zealanders_, pp. 116 _sq._; _id._, _Maori Religion and
Mythology_ (London, 1882), p. 31.

[45] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 194
_sq._, 196.

From some of the foregoing facts it seems to follow that the souls of
the Maoris are not, so to say, constitutionally immortal, but that they
are of a brittle and p