ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Kehua

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Part of speech noun

Quick meaning: Kehua is a noun meaning (New Zealand) A ghost; an evil spirit.

Meaning

(New Zealand) A ghost; an evil spirit.

Example Sentences

We'd say, 'Ready? Steady. Go!' And we'd run past his bedroom. Grandpa would be in his armchair looking out. We'd flash past crying out, ‘Kehua! Kehua!’
An old man explained to me, “The spirits of dead persons are afflicting such sufferers. These kehua control them. If the afflicted person survives he will be the medium of that [evil] spirit. Some people become demented when so affected.”
1924, Elsdon Best, Māori Religion and Mythology: being an account of the cosmogony, anthropogeny, religious beliefs and rites, magic and folk lore of the Māori folk of New Zealand, Part 2, 2005, Te Papa Press, page 42, The other aspect of the "etheric double" of the theosophist, that is the wraith or apparitional spirit seen after the death of the body, is the kehua of the Maori.

Word Forms

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include haunt, hori, hauntee, waheeny, hunter, heiau.

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Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

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