Section 7. Ceremonies at Hair-cutting.
BUT when it becomes necessary to crop the hair, measures are
taken to lessen the dangers which are supposed to attend the
operation. The chief of Namosi in Fiji always ate a man by way of
precaution when he had had his hair cut. "There was a certain clan
that had to provide the victim, and they used to sit in solemn
council among themselves to choose him. It was a sacrificial feast
to avert evil from the chief." Amongst the Maoris many spells were
uttered at hair-cutting; one, for example, was spoken to consecrate
the obsidian knife with which the hair was cut; another was
pronounced to avert the thunder and lightning which hair-cutting
was believed to cause. "He who has had his hair cut is in
immediate charge of the Atua (spirit); he is removed from the
contact and society of his family and his tribe; he dare not touch
his food himself; it is put into his mouth by another person; nor can
he for some days resume his accustomed occupations or associate
with his fellow-men." The person who cuts the hair is also tabooed;
his hands having been in contact with a sacred head, he may not
touch food with them or engage in any other employment; he is fed
by another person with food cooked over a sacred fire. He cannot
be released from the taboo before the following day, when he rubs
his hands with potato or fern root which has been cooked on a
sacred fire; and this food having been taken to the head of the
family in the female line and eaten by her, his hands are freed from
the taboo. In some parts of New Zealand the most sacred day of
the year was that appointed for hair-cutting; the people assembled
in large numbers on that day from all the neighbourhood. 1
