[Maori tóhunga, lit. one skilled in signs and marks, f. tohu sign, omen.
Cognate with Samoan tufunga tattooer, carpenter; in Tongan, artificer, skilled workman; in Horne Is. tufuga master workman, architect, etc.]
A Maori priest of the second rank; a native doctor.
1872. A. Domett, Ranolf, V. x.
| But he whose grief was most sincere | |
| The news of that unwonted death to hear, | |
| Was Kangapo the ‘Tóhunga’—a Priest | |
| And fell Magician famous far and near. |
1893. Westm. Gaz., 13 Feb., 10/1. His secret longings and natural tendencies are towards the tohungas, the only visible monuments of his old priestly régime.
1904. Daily Chron., 23 July, 4/6. The methods of the ‘tohungas,’ or Maori native doctors of New Zealand, are remarkable.
