File:TE OHU, A HEATHEN PRIEST OF THE NGATIMANIAPOTO TRIBE, AHUAHU. KO TAUWAKI, A CHIEF OF TUKANU, KO TEONIONGA, A BOY OF TE RAPA, TAUPO LAKE, The New Zealanders Illustrated, 1847.jpg

English: TE OHU, A HEATHEN PRIEST OF THE NGATIMANIAPOTO TRIBE, AHUAHU.

KO TAUWAKI, A CHIEF OF TUKANU, KO TEONIONGA, A BOY OF TE RAPA, TAUPO LAKE.

[Image of page 96]

PLATE XLI.

TE OHU.

AN OLD TOHUNGA OR HEATHEN PRIEST.

TE Ohu is one of the most important of the tohungas, or heathen priests, in the vicinity of Kawhia: he resides at the small settlement Te Pahe, on the Waiharikeke river, which flows into Kawhia Harbour.

I obtained the portrait of this remarkable individual at Ahuahu, during a great korero, or meeting of chiefs for the purposes of consulting and making speeches on an important subject. He spoke with great eloquence; running about, shaking his grisly and gorgon locks, and stamping furiously on the ground, whilst his powerful voice rent the air like hollow thunder.

In the background of the portrait is a wahi tapu, or receptacle for the property of a deceased chief, which contains a basket of food, and a calabash of water, for the spirit to refresh itself, when revisiting its former abodes. To the left is an upright tomb constructed out of a portion of a canoe.

KO TAUWAKI AND KO TEONIONGA.

TAUPO.

The sitting figure, Ko Tauwaki, is a warlike chief belonging to the wild and primitive people of Tukanu, beyond Taupo Lake, and affords an excellent specimen of one of the interior tribes. The boy, Ko Teonionga, is a relation of the great chief Te Heuheu, at Te Rapa, on the shores of Taupo Lake; he wears one of the black mats of rough flax peculiar to the district, and in his hair are the white feathers of a gull. Beyond is seen an ornamented patuka or store-house for food, with a portion of the fence-work of the Pah.