Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

Beliefs regarding menstruating women outlined. If a woman goes to a beach where pipis are found, they will migrate. If she cooks tawa berries in a boiling spring, they will not cook, but remain quite hard. If she goes to an aha tītī (fire made to attract muttonbirds), no birds will be caught. "In former times, women were not allowed to take part in the cultivation of the hue (gourd plant), because it was believed that if a menstruating woman went among the plants, they would surely die."

For a menstruating cloth, the Tūhoe use a "variety of moss (generic term rimurimu) known as angiangi. It is probably Hypnum clandestinus [sic]. It is a light coloured, fine, very soft moss found growing on logs in the forest. As used for the above purpose, it is termed a kope. It is not prepared in any way, but simply crumpled up and thrust into the vagina. After the discharge has ceased, the woman will go off into the forest and there bury the kope, each woman has a secret place where she does so."

"The stoppage of the menses is termed papuni. To cure this a woman will, at dawn of day, go and bathe in a stream, and then on her return she takes a dose of a decoction made as follows: Four pieces of flax root.... and four pieces of the branchlets of a forest climbing plant known as aka taramoa are cut up into small pieces and boiled in a vessel until the liquid is considerably reduced in quantity. This delightful beverage is said to be effective in cases of difficult menstruation. When obtaining these roots and twigs for the above medicine, they must be taken from the east side of the flax clump and creeper, as the mana, or virtue, of them is on that side only as regards their use as medicine for menstruating women. This singular superstition may be connected with the rising of the moon in the east. For when the same materials are being procured for the purpose of making a medicine for diarrhoea or constipation, it does not matter from which side they are taken. Another decoction used as a medicine in cases of difficult menstruation is made in a similar manner from the bark and berries of the rohutu tree" [Neomyrtus pendunculata]

[Best considered that internal medications were mostly a post-European practice]: "It is, however, very improbable that these "medicines" were used in olden times, but have only come into use since the advent of Europeans. The natives do not appear to have used internal medicines in ancient times, or certainly but to a very limited extent".