The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 14

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

14

perform a little ceremony. “You must with your
hand scoop up a little of the water, and throw it
out to each side of the well, two handfuls to the
right and two to the left,’ as a thank-offering
to the gods of Ngatoro-i-rangi and the ancestral
spirits, the Wananga, the Tauira; otherwise the
spring will dry up.

Another legend connected with the explorations
of the deified tohunga of the Arawas relates to the
ti-palms of the Kaingaroa Plains. Some of these
ti were originally women, who*by enchantment be-
came trees, and forever kept moving about the plains
in the strange old days, so that no traveler could
reach them. They are called Nga Ti Whakaaweawe-
a-Ngatoro-i-rangi, t.e., The Elusive Palm-trees of
Ngatoro-i-rangi. One of these ti-palms, by the side
of one of the old Maori tracks over the plains, can,
however, readily be approached. “It has three
branches, and its butt. is curiously carved with
stone axes.” Ngatoro-i-rangi, say the Maoris, at
this spot stopped, plucked out a hair from his sacred
head, and, speaking over it a charm (karakio), cast
it down here. Immediately this ti-palm sprang up
at the spot. It is considered a holy: spot by the
Maoris, and “at the foot of the tree lies a heap of
mata-tuhua, splinters of stone obsidian, used by
the nations to lacerate their flesh at funeral gather-
ings, and also to cut the hair of ta-pu (= taboo, 7. e.,
holy) persons —an operation always performed at
a sacred place.

‘Tarawera is a voleanic mountain, but it was not
always so, if we can believe the Maoris. There lived
at the time of Ngatoro-i-rangi, at the foot of this
mountain, a chief of the tangata-whenua, a cannibal
who waylaid, murdered, and ate stray travelers.
The Arawa tohunga decided to stop this, so he went
to this chief, by the name of 'ama-o-hoi, and said
to him: “So you are the man who slays and devours
travelers? Go down into the earth and stay there
forever!” Saying this, he stamped his foot and
formed a magical rua (chasm), pushed 'T'ama-o-hoi
into it, and stamped him into the earth, where he
slumbered for five hundred years. But Tuhoto,
a sorcerer, roused him up, and caused him and
Ruaimoko, the god of volcanoes, to rise and destroy
Te Wairoa and the Tuhaurangi tribe. Whether
Tama-o-hoi himself perished remains to be seen.
He has kept fairly quiet since then.

The story of the different tribes and their wan-
derings and final settling in the districts now occu-
pied by them would lead us too far. One tribe, the
so-called Taranaki natives, holds our interest more
than others on account of its importance, its false

The Teutheran Pioneer.

ee

prophets Tohu and Te Whiti, end because it is the
tribe among which our missionaries have almost ex-
clusively worked. It will then be necessary and in-
teresting to study this tribe somewhat more closely,
and to become more extensively acquainted with its
history. ;

Unfortunately, Rev. Te Punga, who belongs to
this tribe and is a rather prominent member of it,
is at present down with the influenza, and therefore
unable to supply me with certain information that
I desired to obtain. The interested readers — if
happily there be such — will kindly excuse the delay
until such time as our heavenly Father shall have
restored our beloved brother to health.

ArtHuR APPELT.

Items of Interest from Our Colored
Mission Field.

Witmineton, N. C.— “What are you going to
do about it?” asks Pastor Schwehn in referring to
the deplorable conditions now obtaining at Wilming-
ton. It seems to us that there can be but one answer
for us to give, and that is, “Just go ahead, buy a lot,
and put up a proper kind of building; we all will
see to it that it is paid for.” Am I correct, dear
reader? I know that Iam. I am sure that every-
body that reads Missionary Schwehn’s appeal will
not refuse to help, and that conditions in Wilming-
ton will soon change.

A. EK. F., France. — Our hearts were gladdened
a few days ago to receive a message from Missionary
R. C. Lynn, who is now serving in Battery B, 351st.
Field Artillery. The message came as a Christmas- ~
greeting from “Pont-a-Mousson, just south of Metz,
on the old line of battle.” Now that hostilities are
over, we hope that our young brother may be able
in the near future to exchange the sword of the
flesh for the sword of the spirit, and go back to
his old battleground in the “Black Belt” of Alabama.

ATLANTA, GA. — The Editor is in receipt of the
following letter, which shows how the work of our
missionary in Atlanta is appreciated even by those
who are not Lutherans: “84 Hubbard St., At-
lanta, Ga. Dear Editor: —I thiak especial mention
should be made in your paper of the excellent work
of Rev. John Alston and wife in the ‘Pittsburg
Community’ of our city. Their school is small, but
the results attained are good. All the patrons and
friends were invited to a Christmas-tree service on
the eve of Christmas. ‘The little folks were seated
on one side of the aisle, ready and waiting to do