diseases, and in omens, prevailed universally. Mariner tells a
story of a woman of rank who was greatly attached to King Finow,
and who, for the space of six months after his death, scarcely
ever slept elsewhere than on his grave, which she kept carefully
decorated with flowers:--


One day she went, with the deepest affliction, to the house of
Mo-oonga Toobo, the widow of the deceased chief, to communicate
what had happened to her at the fytoca [grave] during
several nights, and which caused her the greatest anxiety.
She related that she had dreamed that the late How [King]
appeared to her and, with a countenance full of disappointment,
asked why there yet remained at Vavaoo so many evil-designing
persons; for he declared that, since he had been at Bolotoo, his
spirit had been disturbed<22> by the evil machinations of wicked
men conspiring against his son; but he declared that "the youth"
should not be molested nor his power shaken by the spirit of
rebellion; that he therefore came to her with a warning voice to
prevent such disastrous consequences (vol. i. p. 424).


On inquiry it turned out that the charm of tattao had
been performed on Finow's grave, with the view of injuring his
son, the reigning king, and it is to be presumed that it was
this sorcerer's work which had "disturbed" Finow's spirit. The
Rev. Richard Taylor says in the work already cited: "The account
given of the witch of Endor agrees most remarkably with the
witches of New Zealand" (p. 45).