The Maori As He Was : A Brief Account of Maori Life as it was in Pre-European DaysMaori As He Was : A Brief Account of Maori Life as it was in Pre-European Days[electronic resource]Elsdon BestNZETCNew Zealand Electronic Text CollectionWellington, New ZealandModern English, BesMaor
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2004713878The Maori As He WasA Brief Account of Maori Life as it was in Pre-European DaysElsdon BestDominion MuseumWellington, New Zealand1934New Zealand Board Of Science And Art. Manual No. 4.
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THE MAORI AS HE WAS
A Brief Account of Maori Life as it was in Pre-European DaysSECOND ISSUEELSDON BESTWELLINGTON, N.Z.
DOMINION MUSEUM1934
Preface
The want of a brief account of the Maori folk of New Zealand, of their ancient customs, beliefs, institutions, and industries, has been long felt. Inquiries for such a work are frequently made. It is therefore hoped that this condensed account of the Maori as he was will serve to meet the above-mentioned demand. The aim has been to touch on all phases of Maori life in pre-European days, and albeit detailed descriptions are impossible in so small a work, yet the reader will be enabled to picture Maori life as it was in neolithic times.
The account of Maori mythology and religious beliefs serves to illustrate the mentality of the natives of these isles. Evidence is given that shows the forbears of the Maori to have been a people possessed of a vivid imagination and a mythopoetic turn of mind, while their higher concepts point to powers of introspective thought that neolithic folk are not usually credited with.
Some of the illustrations represent artifacts in the Auckland and Whanganui Museums, and my thanks are due to the authorities of those institutions for permission to use such illustrations.
E. B.
Contents
PAGEINTRODUCTIONxiii
Chapter I
Physical and Mental Characteristics of the Maori2
Physical attributes. Anthropometry. Craniology. Melanesian element in New Zealand. Different types. Urukehu, or fair type. Dr. Scott on Maori osteology. Bodily powers of Maori. Effect of fatalism. Lack of discipline. Features. General health. Senses. Mentality. Remarkable powers of memory. Character. Language. Maori alphabet. Pronunciation. Importance of vowel quantities. Vocabulary. Leading features of the Maori tongue.
Chapter II
Traditional History. The Maori as a Navigator, Explorer, and Colonizer. The Settlement of New Zealand14
Takitumu traditions the best preserved. Polynesians as seafarers. The homeland of the Polynesian race. The lands of Uru and Irihia. ari, a prized food product. Ancestors of Polynesians leave homeland and become seafarers. They reach the eastern Pacific region. Polynesian voyagers. Voyage of Kupe and Ngahue from eastern Polynesia to New Zealand. Mouriuri folk settle North Island. Polynesians settle in New Zealand. Subsequent voyages. South Island traditions. Local Maori history. Polynesian vessels.
Chapter III
Mythology and Folk-lore32
Myth and religion. Folk-lore. Two versions of many Maori myths. Cosmogony. Personification. The Sky Parent and Earth Mother. Light and darkness personified. Persian concepts in Maori mythology. Origin of light. The waiora a Tane. Tane as the origin of occult knowledge. The twelve heavens. Creation of woman and vegetation. The Dawn Maid. Two spirit-worlds of the Maori. The Maori genius for personification. The Maui myths. The origin of the rainbow. Miscellaneous myths. Rongo and moon. Rona the Tide-controller. The legend of Mataora. Folk-lore. Greenstone myths. Taniwha and tipua. Supernatural beings. Fairy folk. Fables. Mountain lore. Mental condition that produces myths. Maori mentality. Superstitutions, omens, signs.
Chapter IV
The Religious Ideas of the Maori61
No recognized national system of worship. Barbaric man deeply religious. Religious ceremonial permeated every activity. Interesting stage of development. Religion in the making. Atua, or supernormal beings. Classification of gods. Tutelary beings and personifications. The cult of Io. Departmental deities. Asiatic analogues. Natural phenomena personified. Ancestral spirits. Human mediums of gods. Evil spirits. Demoniacal possession. Atua as guardians. Forms of incarnation. Too much importance attached to ancestor-worship. Supreme Being not placated. Offerings to other gods. Human sacrifice. Lack of idols and images. Ritual. Magic formulae. Karakia, an expansive term. Ceremonial functions. Priestly experts—tohunga. Several classes of priests. No temples erected. Tuahu. The whare wananga. Spiritual concepts of the Maori. Purification of the spirits of the dead. Spirit-life. Spirit-world in west. How reached. The Broad Path of Tane. Two spirit-worlds. No punishment of soul after death. Tapu.
Chapter V
Social Usages86
Substitutes for civil law. A form of theocracy. Muru, a peculiar institution. Social classes. Social unit. The family group. Ariki. Primogeniture. Women of rank. Tapairu, kahurangi, and mareikura. Tribal organization. Family life non-existent. Eponymic ancestors. Treatment of slaves. Property. Chieftainship. Personal behaviour. Power of public opinion. Public discussion of tribal, clan, and family affairs. Military duties. Public announcement an important usage. Sense of dignity. Consanguineous nomenclature. Division of labour. Tasks of men. Status of women. Tasks of women. Village life. Social life. Meals. Hospitality. Population. Generation of fire. Cooking. Domestic vessels. Feasts. Customs pertaining to birth. The tohi rite. Betrothal and marriage. The atahu. Customs and beliefs pertaining to death. Lizard connected with death. Maui and Hine. Death-journey food. The tuku wairua ceremony. Ritual pertaining to sickness. Trussed burial. Exhumation. Sand-dune burial. Objects placed with dead. Social pleasures. Lack of furniture. Mannerisms. Attitudes. Gestures. Carriage. Gait. Greetings. Terms of address.
Chapter VI
The Arts of Life116
Miscellaneous arts. Arts of pleasure. Art of war. Art of agriculture. Maori woodcraft. Textiles, clothing, and ornament. Habitations, storehouses, villages, the pa maori. Fishing.
ENVOI269LIST OF AUTHORITIES271INDEX273
List of Illustrations
PAGEFrontispiece.The Maori as he was.Fig. 1.Maori type, showing Melanesian characteristics2Fig. 2.A Polynesian type3Fig. 3.A Polynesian type5Fig. 4.A Maori woman7Fig. 5.Mode of carrying infant9Fig. 6.Maori children11Fig. 7.A Maori boy12Fig. 8.Maori war-canoe15Fig. 9.Old canoe16Fig. 10.Rude craft of Chatham Isles17Fig. 11.Bow-piece of war-canoe19Fig. 12.Bow-piece of war-canoe19Fig. 13.Sail of Maori canoe20Fig. 14.Stern-piece of war-canoe23Fig. 15.Canoe-paddles26Fig. 16.Canoe-bailer29Fig. 17.Ancient outrigger canoe31Fig. 18.A mnemonic aid to memory34Tailpiece.The Tamil bell60Fig. 19.Images used as temporary shrines71Fig. 20.The niu divinatory rite75Fig. 21.The raurau rite75Fig. 22.A form of tuahu77Fig. 23.A stone mauri, or talismanic symbol81Tailpiece.Stone artifact of unknown use85Fig. 24.Fire-making implements94Fig. 25.Fire-generation95Fig. 26.The umu, or steaming-pit96Fig. 27.A hakari stage (after Thomson)97Fig. 28.A hakari stage (after Yate)98Fig. 29.A cenotaph109Fig. 30.A carved coffin110Fig. 31.A carved coffin111Fig. 32.Custom of covering the mouth112Fig. 33.Carrying burden113Fig. 34.The hongi salute115Fig. 35.The Maori form of drill117Fig. 36.Native using the cord drill118Fig. 37.The balista tree-felling apparatus119Fig. 38.A type of Maori stone adze121Fig. 39.Stone chisels122Fig. 40.The Maori dog123Fig. 41.A curious method of measuring124Fig. 42.The moari132Fig. 43.A figure of cat's-cradle133Fig. 44.A haka, or posture dance135Fig. 44A.Three poi balls137Fig. 45.The mu torere game138Fig. 46.Maori kite139Fig. 47.Maori kite140Fig. 48.Maori kite141Fig. 49.Maori stilts142Fig. 50.Whip-top143Fig. 51.Humming-top144Fig. 52.The game of upoko-titi145Fig. 53.The karetao, or jumping-jack146Fig. 54.Wooden trumpets149Fig. 55.Two flutes150Fig. 56.Two pu torino151Fig. 57.Shell trumpet152Fig. 58.Bull-roarer and whizzer154Fig. 59.The patu paraoa158Fig. 60.Maori weapons, two-handed159Fig. 61.Short weapons: The patu onewa160Fig. 62.Short weapons: The kotiate161Fig. 63.The Mangapai bow162Fig. 64.Cross-section of village defences163Fig. 65.Stockaded village164Fig. 66.Defences of a pa seen by Cook165Fig. 67.Natives using the wooden spade167Fig. 68.Two forms of wooden spade169Fig. 69.Four forms of wooden spade170Fig. 70.A small cultivating-implement171Fig. 71.The timo, or wooden grubber172Fig. 72.Foot-rests of wooden spades173Fig. 73.A curious method of digging175Fig. 74.Stone image representing god of agriculture177Fig. 75.Taro plant179Fig. 76.Bird-snaring trough183Fig. 77.Bird-spear points184Fig. 78.Mutu, or snaring-perch185Fig. 79.A device for snaring birds186Fig. 80.Fowler taking blight-birds187Fig. 81.The pewa form of snare188Fig. 82.Rat-traps189Fig. 83.Native woman weaving193Fig. 84.Dressed Phormium fibre194Fig. 85.Mode of wearing garments195Fig. 86.Mode of wearing garments197Fig. 87.Aprons worn by women198Fig. 88.Cloak with decorated border200Fig. 89.Rough capes201Fig. 90.The Maori kilt202Fig. 91.Feather cloak203Fig. 92.Belts204Fig. 93.Woman making a basket205Fig. 94.Baskets and sandals206Fig. 95.Making a floor-mat207Fig. 96.Specimens of plaits209Fig. 97.A Maori dandy210Fig. 98.The hei matau pendant212Fig. 99.Maori necklaces213Fig. 100.Greenstone ear-pendants214Fig. 101.The koropepe and pekapeka pendants215Fig. 102.A rare form of pendant216Fig. 103.The heitiki217Fig. 104.Maori tattooing220Fig. 105.Maori tattooing221Fig. 106.Tattooing-implements222Fig. 107.A whare puni226Fig. 108.A superior house229Fig. 109.Lintel-piece of superior house231Fig. 110.Carved door-frame232Fig. 111.Carved object of unknown use233Fig. 112.Decorative designs on rafters236Fig. 113.Carved storehouse240Fig. 114.Food-storage pits241Fig. 115.Small hand-net246Fig. 116.Hoop-net247Fig. 117.Fish-stringer254Fig. 118.Barracouta-hook255Fig. 119.Fish-hook with wooden shank255Fig. 120.Kahawai-hooks256Fig. 121.Large wooden fish-hook257Fig. 122.Albatross-hooks259Fig. 123.Spreaders and sinkers260Fig. 124.Eel-weir261Fig. 125.Eel-pot and corf261Fig. 126.Lamprey-weir263Fig. 127.Lobster-pot265Fig. 128.Mussel-dredge266Fig. 129.Eel-spears267Fig. 130.Taha huahua, a neolithic epergne268
Introduction
The European residents of these isles have, as a rule, but a scant knowledge of the life of its native inhabitants, the Maori folk, as led by them in pre-European days. Inquiries for works dealing with this subject have been becoming more frequent for some time past, and the want of a small publication has been long felt. Two classes of inquirers have expressed a desire for such a booklet—the traveller and tourist, who wishes to gain some slight knowledge of the Maori and to preserve a memento of his visit, and others who wish to study native customs, beliefs, and peculiarities in a more thorough manner. By the aid of suitable illustrations, and a succinct account of native customs, industries, institutions, beliefs, and ceremonies, it is hoped that both classes of inquirers will be served in this small work.
Among existing races of the barbaric plane of culture we have probably no more interesting people to study than the Maori of New Zealand. This fact is owing to their achievements and concepts in the past. The exploits of the progenitors of the Maori, and of Polynesians in general, as deep-sea voyages, explorers, and colonizers during past centuries, form a remarkable and unique feature in their history, and in that of seafaring. An equally interesting subject is that of the mentality of the native race, together with its natural sequence, the highly interesting mythopoetic conceptions and peculiar form of religion of the people. These myths are based on personification, for which the Maori possessed a veritable genius, and, when carefully studied, they are found to be remarkably instructive. Maori religion, again, was in a very interesting stage of development in relation to the concept of a Supreme Being, the initial step taken toward monotheism, and the expressed and half-developed faith in two distinct spirit-worlds. The graded group series of gods, as suited to different mentalities, and the peculiar control of the cult of the Supreme
Being, by means of which the purity of the concept was conserved, are matters of deep interest to anthropologists, and throw light on the evolution of religions. It will be seen how the ancestors of the Maori had many customs and beliefs similar to those of the Semites, yet struck out new paths for themselves in other matters, and were developing a religious system on different lines.
The long isolation of the Maori in the isles of New Zealand has been of much service to the modern ethnographer, and much enhances the value of any data here gathered by reliable collectors. In studying the activities, beliefs, and traditions of local natives, we know that there can be no question of introduction, of contact with other peoples, during several centuries past, until the arrival of Europeans made such a vast change in Maori life. In times long passed away the Maori brought to these isles many traditions, usages, arts, and industries that he has preserved, and which are also known in the isles of Polynesia. He also practised others of which we find no counterpart in Polynesia, and these are of especial interest as pointing to a possible Melanesian source.
It is admitted that a vast number of books, pamphlets, and monographs on New Zealand and its native race has been written, and some have cried halt to this ceaseless flow, on account of repetition that is apt to become wearisome. There is, however, an opening for a small work that includes the latest acquisitions in the way of Maori lore, and that gives some explanation of the various myths and ceremonies of former times, their purport and hidden meaning. This is a feature that has been consistently neglected in the past by most writers, but it is the only one that will present to readers a clear view of native life and effectually illustrate Maori mentality.
The following pages will tell what we have gathered as to the origin of the Maori, his long experience as a voyager over great oceanic areas, his discovery and settlement of New Zealand. They strive to explain his systems of cosmogony, mythology, and religion; his social usages, industries, and arts; to present a fairly complete account of the Maori as he was, albeit in a condensed form. The Maori himself will never record such data, will never preserve his own traditions; it remains for us to do it to the best of our ability.
There remains naught save to greet old-time comrades of many a rough camp, the brown-skinned folk with
whom I have fore-gathered for nearly five decades. By cheery camp-fires and within his primitive hut, in military camps and the tents of the fore-loopers on rough bushtrails where the swag-straps bit into aching shoulders, or marching behind the straining pack-horses, have I known the far-travelled Maori of the Many-isled Sea. Over the weakening chords of memory come remembrances of much pleasant intercourse with him in the realms of Rehua and Hine-maunga, during lone night watches, and beneath the shining sun.
The ashes of those old camp-fires are cold and lost; the hand of Maiki-nui has struck down the genial comrades of yore; they have traversed the Broad Way of Tane to the realm of Rarohenga, near unto Tai-whetuki they claim the Dawn Maid's care. The sun sinks swiftly to the bounds of night; yet a little while and the last of the learned ones will have lifted the gleaming path of Tane-te-waiora—“Ko te Po te hokia a taiao” (The spirit-world, from which none return to the upper world).
Chapter I. Physical and Mental Characteristics of the Maori
Physical attributes. Anthropometry. Craniology. Melanesian element in New Zealand. Different types. Urukehu, or fair type. Dr. Scott on Maori osteology. Bodily powers of Maori. Effect of fatalism. Lack of discipline. Features. General health. Senses. Mentality. Remarkable powers of memory. Character. Language. Maori alphabet. Pronunciation. Importance of vowel quantities. Vocabulary. Leading features of the Maori tongue.
Nothing has yet been done in the way of a comprehensive anthropometrical survey of the natives of New Zealand, and we have on record merely such incomplete data as appear in works of a general nature. Most of the information contained in the later works on the Maori seems to have been derived from Dr. A. S. Thomson's Story of New Zealand and Colenso's useful Essay. Some work has been done in Maori craniology, but such papers are not easy of access to many people. The physical attributes of the Maori closely resemble those of the Polynesians in general, although among our local natives is observed a greater variation of skin-colour, features, and hair than appears among the native communities of the Cook, Samoan, Society, and Marquesan Groups, &c. The frequent appearance of Melanesian characteristics among the Maori was noted and remarked on by a number
of early visitors to New Zealand. This peculiarity was long thought to be due to the introduction of Melanesian slaves by the old Polynesian colonizers of these isles; but later researches have led to the disclosure of remarkable traditions preserved by the tribes of the east coast of the North Island that throw a new light on the matter. These oral traditions tell us that, on the arrival of the first Polynesian settlers in these isles, they found the northern half of the North Island inhabited by a dark-skinned folk of inferior culture and non-Polynesian features. The Polynesian new-comers intermarried with these original settlers, and thus we account for the marked Melanesian characteristics so noticeable in many of the Maori people.
Early writers speak of two different types among the natives, in many cases—Polynesian and Melanesian; but a few include as a third type the light-haired, fair-skinned folk occasionally seen, and which type is known as urukehu
to the Maori. This is, and, according to tradition, has been for centuries, a most persistent type, and it may be an illustration of atavism. It is not persistent in the sense of being continuous in a family, as we are told that it may miss a generation and then reappear. Such urukehu have reddish hair that sometimes carries a peculiar bronze-like sheen. This strain is quite distinct from albinism, cases of which were by no means common. The skin-colour of the ordinary Polynesian type is often described as copper-colour.
In volume 26 of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Dr. J. H. Scott has a paper on the osteology of the Maori and Moriori. It contains some interesting data based on the measurements of a series of eighty-three Maori skulls, obtained from different localities in the two Islands. He remarks: “We know the Maoris to be a mixed race, the result of the mingling of a Polynesian and a Melanesian strain. The crania already examined leave no room for doubt on this point.” He also shows the average or typical Maori skull to be at the lower limit of the mesaticephalic group. Forty-three per cent. of the skulls examined were dolichocephalic. In conclusion he remarks: “If any further proof were needed of the mixed origin of the Maori race it is given in this paper. An examination of the cranial indices and of the extent of their variation shows this clearly. These demonstrate two distinct types and intermediate
forms. At the one extreme we have skulls approaching the Melanesian form as met with in the Fiji Group—long and narrow, high in proportion to their breadth, prognathous, and with wide nasal openings. At the other are skulls of the Polynesian type, such as are common in Tonga and Samoa—shorter and broader, with orthognathous faces. And it must be noted that these extreme forms do not belong to different tribes or districts, but may both be found in one.” In view of our latest information as to the original settling of these isles, a remark by Dr. Scott is of much interest: “The Melanesian characters are therefore more accentuated in the North than amongst the natives of the South Island. The prevalence of the Papuan form among skulls from the Bay of Islands has also been observed by MM. de Quatrefages and Hamy.” This writer also refers to the fact that the teeth in skulls examined often had the whole crowns ground away, but that he had not observed the slightest sign of dental caries.
The researches of Dr. P. Buck will asuredly cast much further light upon the physical peculiarities of the Maori.
In physical form the Maori possesses a stature above the average, but as he is usually more heavily built than Europeans this is not very noticeable. He is heavier-limbed than our own folk, and this is specially so in regard to his legs, which, according to Thomson, are shorter than those of Englishmen of the same stature. This was very noticeable in the case of five hundred troops who marched through Wellington in the early days of the late war. Obesity is common among natives as they advance in years, and indeed is seen in young people. This was not noted as being common by early writers, and some distinctly state that the condition was unusual. An opinion is prevalent that it is largely the result of a less strenuous life and a diet consisting principally of potatoes.
The bodily powers of the Maori have been affected in modern times as a result of intercourse with Europeans. In the first place, they no longer lead the strenuous life of former times, and, moreover, they do not possess the stamina of their forefathers. In their original condition they were, however, undoubtedly inferior to the Indians of North America in endurance and fleetness of foot. Their agility in hand-to-hand combats was remarkable, the result of continued training from boyhood. In marching with heavy packs, lifting weights, and other such tests they are superior to the average European, but not to those whites who are practised in such activities. Bodily injuries
they bear with equanimity, and have been known to recover from very serious wounds, the shock of such to the system being apparently less than in the case of Europeans. Their powers of resistance and recuperation were, and are, often seriously affected by superstitious influences. A curious form of fatalism is also a defect, and is liable at any time
to impair the results of their energies. I have known Maori bush-workers, when they had the misfortune to break a timber-jack, return to their camp in a state of despondency for the balance of the day. European workmen, under similar circumstances, would have condemned their luck, but would have worked the harder to make up the loss. To sum up: in conditions of steady, continuous work, demanding strength, endurance, and steady application, the Maori is not the equal to the European settler. The discipline that produces these qualities is the product of more advanced civilizations, and is not a feature of the lower planes of civilization.
In most cases the Maori shows the true Polynesian hair, black and waved, not the lank straight hair of the American Indian. The frizzled hair sometimes seen is due to the Melanesian admixture. The Maori did not bleach his hair to a reddish hue by the use of lime as did the natives of some northern groups. Baldness was uncommon and excited derision. Men usually extracted hair on the face, as it obscured the close-set lines of tattoo.
The dark-brown eyes of the Maori are a Polynesian characteristic; but though well-shaped noses and lips are seen, yet these features often show the effect of Melanesian admixture in thickness and protrusion of the lips, flatness of nose, and widespread nostrils. These peculiarities are sometimes very marked. One occasionally sees a Semitic type of face, also a flat, Mongoloid form; in fact, there is considerable diversity of feature among the natives. As to head-form, a pyramidal type of forehead is common. In his teeth the Maori possessed his most remarkable feature—they were large, white, regular, and remained sound into old age. In old skulls one notes teeth worn down to a surprising extent, but still perfectly sound. An expert has stated that the Maori has the finest teeth of any existing race. The simple life, hard fare, and industry of the old-time Maori kept him usually in good health, and in many cases he was long-lived. No doubt the law of the survival of the fittest caused weakly children to perish, and helped to produce an energetic, healthy, virile population. Few diseases afflicted them, and, apart from the dangers of war and black magic, men reckoned to die of old age. Epidemics introduced by Europeans, such as measles, have at various times taken heavy toll of native lives.
In the senses of sight and hearing the Maori has a marked advantage over us, and this served him in good stead in connection with many of his pursuits connected
with his food-supply. Their senses of smell and taste are difficult to define, inasmuch as natives appear to differ from us in regard to certain sensations. On the whole, the Maori character is marked by cheerfulness and good nature, while dignity and punctiliousness were common attributes. They are very susceptible to ridicule, and have a keen sense of the ridiculous. Deformed persons, who were not common, met with little sympathy, and often received a name descriptive of their deformity. The treatment of the sick was deplorable—the outcome of ignorance and superstition.
The mentality of the Maori forms a highly interesting study. When we consider his ignorance of any form of script, his long isolation and narrow life, then we must be impressed by the evidence of his powers of reflection and his ideality, as shown in his mythopoetic concepts and the higher form of his religion. The Maori is mentally acute, and possesses remarkable powers of comprehension. His powers of memory are undoubtedly great, and sometimes appear marvellous to us. Thus an old man of the Tuhoe Tribe recited to the writer no less than 406 songs from memory. Another old fellow recited from memory the genealogy of his clan, a task that necessitated the repetition of over 1,400 personal names. Such powers of memorizing are the result of long centuries of training, of the lack of a written tongue, combined with a strong desire to perpetuate certain forms of knowledge.
The Maori is very imitative, and can quickly learn European trades, though often lacking the spirit of continuity that is so essential to success. Sustained effort in any particular line does not, as a rule, appeal to him, and this casual attitude also often appears in the brief interest he takes in anything new. Their sense of humour is a fairly high one, and their powers of mimicry are notable. In all these matters, as also in his sense and nomenclature of colour, his moral faculties, his sensitiveness, and many other things, the Maori resembles other peoples of his culture stage. Many of the failings of the Maori emanate from some form of irresponsibility, and are the result of lack of training and discipline. His communal mode of life held many advantages for him; its weaknesses being most apparent when the natives are brought into contact with European modes of life. The universal spirit of hospitality was an offshot of communism, and a necessary part of it, but it had not the same spirit and meaning that it has with us.
Our Maori folk were endowed with enterprise and courage, these qualities being exhibited to a remarkable extent in their ocean voyaging. They often showed bravery in war, but superstition might at any time undermine such courage. Ruthlessness, cruelty, and treachery were not uncommon in war, for altruism was ever
confined to tribal limits. On the other hand, a community showed virtues inculcated by such a mode of life, and members thereof were usually on good terms with each other. Such family or clan quarrels as occurred were often the result of unstrained passions, the lack of self-control, and sometimes of the disputes of children, who experienced but little home discipline. The spirit of revenge was ever keen, and offended dignity has been the cause of innumerable wars, the vanity and touchiness of clan chiefs being a common feature. All ranks participated in the industrial activities of a community, and idlers were practically unknown. In former times bodily activity was greater than it now is, as also probably was physical endurance.
A great deal may be said concerning Maori character, but the reader will encounter many illustrations of other phases in the following pages. The Maori himself shall tell us of his virtues and vices, his mentality and other attributes.
The Maori language is a dialect of the far-spread Polynesian tongue that is spoken from New Zealand northward to the Hawaiian or Sandwich Isles, and from Easter Island westward to Samoa. It is also met with in a number of isles of the Melanesian area that are inhabited by Polynesians, and at far-distant Nukuoro, or Monteverde, in the Carolines. The vast area over which Polynesians have settled naturally contains many dialects, some of which have been affected by foreign tongues; thus a comparative study of these dialects is of much interest.
The Maori alphabet has ten consonantal sounds, those of h, k, m, n, p, r, t, w, together with the nasal sound represented by ng, and that of the aspirated w, written wh. The sound of the Maori n differs from that of ours, the tongue being brought further forward in the mouth. The same may be said of t, which has a dental sound. Ng represents a sound that is difficult for some Europeans to acquire when it begins a word; that of wh being much easier learnt. With the exception of these two improvised symbols no two consonants can come together in Maori; they are always sundered by a vowel. Of the five vowel sounds, a is always sounded as is a in “father”; it may, however, be short or long. The vowel e is pronounced as e in “egg” and the initial e in “enter”; i as the initial e in “eve”; o as in English; and u as our double o in “hoot.” All vowels have long and short sounds, and one has to be extremely careful with vowel quantities in Maori. An error may quite alter the meaning of a sentence. As an illustration of
this fact, observe the four forms of the word kaka, and their diverse meanings:—
Kăkă—garment, fibre, stalk, &c.
Kākā—name of bird, a parrot.
Kākă—(1) name of bird, bittern; (2) affected by tutu poison.
Kăkā—red-hot.
This shows that an error in vowel-lengths, perhaps not detected by English ears, may lead to serious misunderstanding. To learn to pronounce Maori words cannot be considered a difficult task, apart from the ng stumbling-block. The person who does not trouble to learn makes, of course, many errors, most of which render native sounds harsher to the ear, such as omitting to sound the final vowel, with which every Maori word ends. The pronunciation of the vowel a so as to resemble that of a in “pat,” “mat,”
&c., is a common error, and is even explained as a Maori usage in a number of works.
The vocabulary of the native tongue has been a copious one in the past, though now much restricted. The system of nomenclature in certain departments is remarkably full and precise, but there is a lack of words to denote abstract qualities and concepts, as is common with all barbaric folk. Owing to the absence of harsh consonantal sounds, and the abundance of vowel sounds, the language is euphonious. It also lends itself to mythopoetic imagery in a marked manner, and is remarkable for its display of metaphor, similes, and aphorisms, its allegories and personifications. The mode of diction employed in debate and addresses is highly interesting, the Maori being an easy and fluent speaker. Their songs and proverbial sayings are well worthy of study. Rhyme was unknown to the native, but his keen appreciation of rhythm caused that element to permeate every department of Maori activity.
The Maori employs the aid of gesture to a considerable extent, and exercises this art in a facile and appropriate manner. In describing any incident he brings hands, arms, body, head, and features into play in his animated description. These gestures are in most cases of a natural and easily understood nature—indeed, they serve to illustrate the narrative. A few call for some knowledge of native usages ere one can understand them. Whether used as an accompaniment to spoken language of intercourse, or to posture dances, these gestures are never awkward or unpleasing to the eye. One sometimes detects in half-breeds something of the stiff, ungraceful limb-movements of our own folk.
So given was the Maori to song and the love of rhythmical sound that he always intoned any recitative form of speech, such as charms. Moreover, this harmonious, ear-pleasing mode of intoning was employed in cases wherein we should never think of using it. Thus, should a travelling party meet a number of strangers, or should a people be attacked by persons they did not recognize, their principal man would call out the inquiry “Na wai taua?” (“From whom are we?”—“sprung” or “descended” understood). This query was not spoken simply, but was intoned. The reply would be delivered in a like manner: “We are from Rangi above and Papa beneath.” Then would follow some explanation as to who the speaker was.
Chapter II. Traditional History. The Maori as Navigator, Explorer, and Colonizer. The Settlement of New Zealand
Takitumu traditions the best preserved. Polynesians as seafarers. The homeland of the Polynesian race. The lands of Uru and Irihia. ari, a prized food product. Ancestors of Polynesians leave homeland and become seafarers. They reach the eastern Pacific region. Polynesian voyagers. Voyage of Kupe and Ngahue from eastern Polynesia to New Zealand. Mouriuri folk settle North Island. Polynesians settle in New Zealand. Subsequent voyages. South Island traditions. Local Maori history. Polynesian vessels.
The more ancient traditions and esoteric lore of the Maori have been better preserved by the Takitumu tribes of the east coast of the North Island than by those of any other district. For that reason they will form the principal basis of this narrative, albeit tribal versions in other parts differ somewhat from them.
Oral traditions collected from many regions of Polynesia point clearly to two outstanding features—viz., that the race has had a long and adventurous career in seafaring, exploring, and colonizing; also that the original homeland of the Polynesians must be sought for outside the region now occupied by the race. The Maori of New Zealand represents one of many colonies of this far-scattered people, though we are now treating of a period long prior to his settling in these isles.
Takitumu traditions tell us that the old homeland of the race lies far away to the westward. It was a mainland region known as Uru, and there the ancestors of the Polynesians seem to have dwelt far back in the night of time. At a certain period these folk were much harassed by warfare with some other peoples of those parts, hence a number of them under a chief named Puhi-rangirangi, migrated eastward to a hot-climate land called Irihia. A traveller or voyager named Tu-te-rangiatea had told them of a fine land far to the eastward, a land known as Irihia, inhabited by slim, spare, dark-skinned people, a land producing strange food products, including one called ari. This ari was a bloodless or sapless food, and hence was utilized
as an offering to the gods. Thus, we are told, there were two causes for the migration, one being war, the other the attraction of a new food-supply.
So came the migrants to the hot land of Irihia—sometimes called Irirangi, on account of the heat of the sun in that land. They settled among the dark-skinned original inhabitants, some of whom had no settled places of abode, but moved about from place to place.
This tradition is a very old one, and there are two versions of it. One appears to show that the migrants from Uru expelled the ancestors of the Maori from the land of Irihia. The other seems to show that the migrants were the remote forbears of the Polynesians. An important chief of Irihia was one Kopura-tahi, who had, it is said, five hundred sub-chiefs under him. So numerous were his people that they were compared to the ocean sands in the saying, “Tena te ngaoko na me te onepu moana.”
The peculiar name Irihia is said to have also been applied to a certain mountain of that far land, a mountain the ascent of which occupied two days, and the summit of which was an extremely tapu place. There were performed and chanted the various ceremonies and invocations to Io the Parentless, the Supreme Being, and there were believed to lie the bodies of the supernatural offspring of the primal parents, the Sky Father and Earth Mother.
There also was the wondrous house known as “Hawaikirangi,” or “Hawaiki-nui”—of which more anon.
In the land of Irihia the ancestors of the Polynesians are said to have been harassed by wars with the aborigines, and, finally, a number of them left that land and sailed forth on the ocean in search of a new home. As to the length of their sojourn in the land of Irihia there is no hint in tradition, but presumably it must have been for a lengthened period. The original homelands of Uru and Irihia have long been unknown to all save the few highly trained record-keepers; the great majority of the people state and believe that Hawaiki was the homeland of their forefathers. This name was that of the tapu place already alluded to, and which has, in the course of time, come to be employed as a name for the homeland of the Polynesians, including the Maori of these isles. As to the name of Irihia, it is of interest to remember that Vrihia was an ancient Sanscrit name for India, and that this name can be pronounced by the Maori only as Irihia or Wirihia. The word ari, the name of a very important food-supply of Irihia, is the Dravidian word for rice, and it may be compared to vari, wari, pari, &c., all of which denote rice. An old Sanscrit name for rice was vrihi, which may possibly have been the origin of the name Vrihia. Again, Mr. S. Percy Smith has shown in his work Hawaiki that Hawaiki-te-varinga is mentioned in Rarotongan tradition as the name for the homeland, and here again this vari = rice word appears. As for the land of Uru, conjecture again is our only resource. There is, or was, a land of Uru to the westward of India, and in Conder's work, The Rise of Man, we are told that the ancient kingdom of Uru was situated on the lower Euphrates. It is mentioned as Ur in the Bible.
Tradition states that the migrants steered eastward from Irihia in their quest of a new home. They must have been residents of a sea-coast prior to that time in order to acquire a knowledge of navigation. This voyage continued, we are told in Maori tradition, for eleven nights, when the migrants reached a land named Tawhiti-roa, where they settled. This account gives some particulars of the vessels of the voyagers, and the management thereof at sea. They were evidently a form of prau fitted with outriggers; sails were used, and the vessel covered with a kind of awning during bad weather; the double outrigger seems to be referred to. The method of employing sea-anchors in a strong head wind is explained, also that of steering by the sea-breeze from the east on nights when the heavens were obscured.
After a sojourn at Tawhiti-roa, the length of which is unknown, the migrants, or their descendants, again sailed down into the east until they came to the land of Tawhitinui, where they again settled. These isles or lands have not been identified, and the names given were probably assigned to them by the voyagers, and so would not be preserved by the original and permanent inhabitants. From this land the wanderers, or their descendants, once more sailed out into the unknown, and so began their long career as voyagers, explorers, and colonizers of the Pacific area. In the Maori version we are told that they steered ever toward the rising sun, and so entered the region we now know as Polynesia. (Mr. S. Percy Smith was of the opinion that Tawhiti-roa and Tawhiti-nui are names for Sumatra and Borneo. One tradition tells us that the migrants who left Tawhiti-nui reached the isles of Ahu, Maui, and Hawaiki, and there settled. Mr. Smith identifies these islands as Ahu, Maui, and Hawaii of the Hawaiian Group.) We cannot clearly define the route by which these daring voyagers crossed the Pacific, but we do know that within the Melanesian area are many Polynesian colonies, small communities speaking the Polynesian language. Such communities are found at Futuna, Tikopia, Rennel, Ontong-java, and other isles, and also at Nukuoro, south of the Caroline Group. Some of these small colonies are probably due to drift voyages from Polynesia; we have records of such to Tikopia, and to Uvea in the Loyalty Group. It is possible that some represent descendants of the original migrants who settled by the wayside.
Having entered the eastern Pacific area, possibly by two or three routes and in several different migrations, the ancestors of the Polynesian folk settled the principal
archipelagos from Samoa and Fiji eastward, and then continued to make innumerable voyages in many directions. For centuries these practised and courageous navigators were ever voyaging among the far-scattered isles and archipelagos of the Pacific, settling and resettling, exploring and colonizing. Though many involuntary drift voyages and consequent settlings occurred, though many movements from isle to isle were caused by defeat in warfare, and so were compulsory, yet evidence clearly shows that many voyages, some of great length, were prompted merely by a spirit of adventure. This adventurous sea-life appealed deeply to the Polynesian, and his very peculiar faith in his gods enabled him to perform some marvellous voyages. Ignorant of compass and of metals, he yet made long deep-sea voyages and cross-hatched a vast oceanic area with the wake of his carvel-built craft. Nor were those craft commodious and decked longboats; they were narrow open vessels of the prau type, offering scant accommodation, and, at the best, a mat awning in rough weather.
Regarding the voyages made by Polynesian navigators, some very interesting information is recorded in Mr. S. Percy Smith's work Hawaiki, and a map published in the Geographical Review of New York (March, 1918) shows many of the routes followed by the neolithic seafarers. No other race of that culture stage has ever approached the Polynesian as deep-sea voyagers; truly have they written the wonder-story of the western world on the rolling sea roads of the great Pacific!
The isles of New Zealand were probably about the last to be discovered by the Polynesians, so remote are they from the archipelagos and isles of the northern area. Yet these far-southern lands were not only settled by colonists from eastern Polynesia, but tradition also tells us that drift voyages have reached these shores. The voyage of Kupe, who is said in Takitumu tradition to have discovered New Zealand, may have been one of exploration, but it has become, to some extent, encrusted with myth.
Voyage of Kupe and Ngahue from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand
The story is that Kupe and Ngahue (whose other name was Ngake) were natives of the Society Isles, and that they sailed from their home in two vessels. That of Kupe was
named “Matahorua,” and that of Ngahue was “Tawirirangi.” These daring voyagers made their landfall in the far north of New Zealand, and, after a brief sojourn in those parts, ran down the east coast of the Island. Great Barrier Island was named “Aotea,” and the North Island “Aotearoa,” by these explorers. The name “Aotea” is said to have been derived from a white cloud (ao tea) that was the first sign of land seen by the voyagers as they approached the North Cape region. After landing at Castle Point and Palliser Bay, they came on to Wellington Harbour and camped at what is now Seatoun. We are told that Somes and Ward Islands were named “Matiu” and “Makaro” after two relatives of Kupe, though no name appears to have been assigned to the harbour. From here the voyagers went to Sinclair Head; thence to Pori-rua; after which they sailed round the South Island. They are said to have discovered greenstone (nephrite) at Arahura, and Ngahue is credited with having slain a moa at that place. We are told that these isles were uninhabited by man at that time, and that the voyagers returned to eastern Polynesia. The period of this discovery of New Zealand has not been fixed. As a rule, the Maori has carefully preserved genealogies from the famed immigrants and chiefs of former times, and these have been checked by lines collected from different sources. In the case of Kupe, however, we have no satisfactory line, and are compelled to fall back on conjecture—a poor substitute.
The next Polynesian voyager said to have reached New Zealand was Toi, who flourished about thirty generations ago, and he found the northern half of the North Island occupied by a dark-skinned folk of apparently inferior culture. These people are alluded to by the Maori as “Mouriuri” and “Maruiwi,” but probably had no collective name for themselves. To judge from tradition, one must suppose that not less than eight or ten generations had elapsed since the discovery by Kupe, when Toi arrived here. Thus only can we account for the number of the original folk said to have been in occupation of Taranaki, the Auckland Isthmus, Hauraki, the Bay of Plenty, &c., when these first Maori settlers arrived.
The original settlers of New Zealand, the Mouriuri folk, are said in Maori tradition to have been castaways, the descendants of the crews of three canoes named “Kahutara,” “Taikoria,” and “Okoki”. These vessels had been driven from their homeland by a westerly gale, and, after a drift
voyage, made the coast of northern Taranaki, where the castaways settled. The wind that caused them to drift to those parts may have been a north-west one, but scarcely a west wind, unless a southerly drift took place later. These unwilling colonizers may have come from the New Hebrides, but not from Tasmania or Australia, the natives of which lands constructed no vessels that could live to cross the intervening ocean. They are said to have come from a hot-climate land, and found the climate here unpleasantly cold. Maori accounts describe them as having flat noses, distended nostrils, bushy hair, and restless eyes. They wore little clothing, and were improvident as to food-supplies. One might well suppose that the description was that of a Melanesian people, they being also described as dark-skinned—that is, in comparison with Polynesians. Personal and clan names, &c., preserved are assuredly Polynesian in form, though these may possibly have been given by Polynesian immigrants, or altered by them in order to conform with their own rules of phonology. Some writers believe them to have been a mixed Polynesian-Melanesian folk. The Maori states that they were a slim-built people, which Polynesians are not, and the account of them reminds one of Forster's description of the natives of Malekula. The whence of these early settlers will never be known, for we possess no reliable information concerning their language. An interesting fact is that among our Maori folk we find certain customs, arts, and artifacts not known to the natives of Polynesia proper, the isles to the northward. If these—for example, such things as curvilinear designs in decorative art, and the custom of erecting defensive earthworks round villages—were practised by the original inhabitants, then they cannot have been the rude savages that Maori tradition makes them. I suspect that the description of the Mouriuri people has become confused and mixed with that of some inferior folk encountered by the ancestors of the Maori in far-distant lands. There is some evidence in support of such an assumption.
Had any reliable collector worked the southern part of the South Island field in early days we might have possessed some further information concerning the discovery and settlement of these isles. Our early missionaries we have little to thank for in connection with the collection and recording of Maori lore. A few fragments seem to show that a mine of wealth has been neglected in the South, and it is now too late to save it.
The Polynesians settle in New Zealand
According to Takitumu tradition, the first Polynesians to settle in New Zealand were the crew of a single vessel that, under the command of a chief named Toi, reached these shores from eastern Polynesia. This Toi was a native of Tahiti, in the Society Group. He set forth from that island in search of a band of ocean waifs, among whom was his grandson Whatonga. These had been carried out to sea from Tahiti by a gale, and their vessels drifted to various isles—at least one reached the Samoan group. Toi visited different islands, and found some of the waifs at Pangopango, but heard no tidings of his grandson. He then ran down to Rarotonga, from which place he crossed the southern ocean to Aotea-roa, or New Zealand, thinking, we are told, that Whatonga's vessel may have reached this land. If his friends had been swept from the coast of Tahiti by an easterly gale, we may wonder why he came south-west to New Zealand in quest of the waifs; but these inconsistencies are not common in native traditions.
Toi is said to have missed New Zealand in his run down from Rarotonga, but he discovered the Chatham Isles, then apparently uninhabited. Eventually he reached New Zealand, and sojourned a while with the aborigines at Tamaki (the Auckland Isthmus), after which he went to the Bay of Plenty and settled at Whakatane. He is said to have dwelt in a pa maioro (village with earthwork defensive walls) called Kapu-te-rangi, situated on the hill overlooking the present township of Whakatane. If this is correct, then the Mouriuri folk must have been in the habit of erecting such defensive works, for they were unknown in the Society Group, and we have to turn to Fiji to find similar places.
We are told that, some time after Toi had sailed from Tahiti, Whatonga and his companions returned from the island their vessel had drifted to, Rangiatea. This is another weak point in the story, if that name stands for Ra'iatea, of the Society Group, as it is supposed to do; for Rangiatea is spoken of as though a hitherto unknown place, whereas it must assuredly have been perfectly well known to the people of Hawaiki, as Tahiti is called in the tradition. Finding that Toi had sailed in search of him, Whatonga fitted a vessel named “Kura-hau-po,” manned her with sea experts, and sailed off to look for Toi. Thus the seeker of the searcher sailed out upon the ocean that has been for many centuries the lure of Polynesian adventurers. This
expedition, after searching northern isles reached Rarotonga, and there learned that Toi had sailed for Aotea-roa; hence Whatonga swung his prow round southward of the setting sun, and sailed out upon the pathless waste that rolls for over five hundred leagues between Rarotonga and New Zealand. This expedition reached the Taranaki coast, then rounded the North Cape and ran down the coast to the Bay of Plenty, where Whatonga found Toi living at Whakatane. Both these leaders, with their companions, settled here, and obtained wives from the aboriginal Mouriuri folk, and so commenced the Polynesian invasion and resettlement of the North Island.
From this time onward for about two centuries many vessels reached these shores from Polynesia, bringing immigrants to strengthen the local Polynesian colony. Inasmuch, however, as many of these new-comers took to themselves aboriginal wives, a people of mixed origin was the result—namely, the Maori folk of New Zealand. As time went on these mixed folk became strong in numbers, quarrels arose between them and the Mouriuri people, and finally the latter were attacked and harassed until exterminated. We are told that some sought refuge in the interior, and in forest areas, such as Maunga-pohatu, while some went and settled at the Chatham Islands, where their descendants were found in 1791, when the “Chatham,” Vancouver's store-ship, visited the islands.
Thus commenced a long series of voyages made from Polynesia to New Zealand by adventurous seafarers. Some of these voyagers returned to Polynesia, but most of them settled here. Shortly after the arrival of Whatonga, four vessels from eastern Polynesia, commanded by two chiefs named Manaia and Nuku, reached Cook Strait and sojourned a while at Pae-kakariki. Manaia seems to have remained here, but Nuku returned to Polynesia. Other voyagers, among whom were Rongokako, Tama-ahua, and Tu-moana, also returned to the islands. About two hundred years after the coming of Toi and his companions there arrived from Polynesia a number of vessels, often referred to by us as “the fleet.” These were named “Te Arawa,” “Tainui,” “Matatua,” “Takitumu,” &c., and the “Aotea” arrived at about the same time. These vessels brought many immigrants who settled among or near the mixed Polynesian-Mouriuri folk already in occupation. By this time there were perhaps no pure Mouriuri left in the land, which was
held by the Toi tribes, as we often term the mixed folk. After this time communication between these islands and Polynesia seems to have decreased, until, finally, it altogether ceased. We have a tradition to the effect that, ten generations ago, two vessels left the east coast in order to reach Polynesia, but the natives of New Zealand have evidently been isolated for a long period.
A few scraps of historical tradition collected in the South Island seem to show that a considerable population has occupied portions of that region in remote times, but of their origin we know nothing. Divergences in form of certain stone implements found in that area, and the peculiar Melanesian-like form of a long-buried canoe found there, are suggestive and highly interesting facts. We also know from tradition that a harassed clan of the original inhabitants of the North Island sought a new home in the south probably five or six centuries ago. Behind this meagre data lies an unknown history of the south that is for ever lost.
As the northern parts of the North Island became more populated by increasing numbers of the mixed Maori folk, intertribal quarrels became frequent, and weak tribes were often compelled to seek new homes elsewhere. The general direction of these movements was southwards, and so, in the course of centuries, many such peoples were pushed southward to Wairarapa, the Wellington district, and the South Island. As the population increased, so, apparently, did hostile conditions and isolation, for intercommunication between tribes would tend to decrease as dissensions and fighting became more common. Maori tribal history is but a monotonous recital of intertribal quarrels and fighting relieved by very few incidents of any real interest. It is much too tedious to enlarge upon here. A certain amount of intertribal intercourse existed, but it was limited. There was but little barter carried on between the tribes.
The vessels employed by Polynesians in their deep-sea voyages were of two types, the outrigger and the double canoe. These were carvel-built craft, often constructed by securing successive strakes to a shallow hull little more than a keel-piece. In many cases each strake was composed of a number of pieces. In this building-up process the different parts were secured by lashings passed through holes in the plank. The Tongans and Samoans had adopted
a Fijian method in which cants or projecting rims were left on the inner sides of all four edges of each hewn plank. The holes to accommodate lashings were pierced in these rims instead of in the body of the plank, so that the outer side of the hull presented a fair surface on which no lashings appeared. The making of such a vessel with rude
tools was a prodigious task, but the various forms of Polynesian vessels, usually termed “canoes,” were marvels of symmetry and neat finish. The double canoe of Polynesia ranged up to 150 ft. in length; the outrigger craft were smaller than that. Sails were employed on one or more masts; the huge lateen sail of western Polynesia, as used on double canoes, was a cumbrous affair; the smaller upright form was much easier to manipulate. The Tongans employed some of the largest double canoes, and were adventurous navigators, making voyages into Melanesia as far as Tikopia, the Loyalty Group, and New Caledonia. The outrigger type seems to have been more manageable in rough weather than the double canoe, and most of the vessels that reached New Zealand were probably of that form. When Polynesians settled on these shores they found here large timber from which a big canoe could be dubbed out that needed but a single top-strake to render it fit for sea faring. Both the double canoe and the outrigger gradually fell into disuse here, though Cook saw both at Queen Charlotte Sound and on the northern coast. The wide-beam canoe gradually displaced both the outrigger and double forms. A most interesting specimen of the old form of narrow outrigger is in the Dominion Museum—an illustration of stone-tool work. In the Auckland Museum is the only specimen of a large war-canoe that has been preserved; it is 83 ft. in length and 7 ft. beam.
Polynesian methods of navigation are of surpassing interest, for here we have a neolithic folk who attained a remarkable skill in that science. Possessing but rude forms of stone implements, ignorant alike of compass and of charts, the ancestors of the Maori far surpassed Europeans of a much more advanced culture status in sea voyaging. They steered their primitive craft by the heavenly bodies, and by the regular roll of the waves before the trade-winds. With marvellous courage they explored vast areas of the Pacific Ocean; they settled and resettled many far-sundered isles; they carried with them cultivated food products, and practised agriculture in all suitable places. As time rolled on certain colonies became isolated; some communities abandoned ocean voyaging; dialects of the common tongue were evolved. Variations arose in common myths, ritual, traditions, customs, from the same cause. The race began to fall apart, to become separated into many independent
communities: this was owing to the peculiar geographical conditions. Whatever the innate powers of the Polynesians might have been, those conditions would effectually prevent the formation of a nation.
As neolithic navigators the Polynesians had no compeers. They traversed and explored a vast oceanic region; they wandered half a world away from their original homeland, and here, at the edge of the world, they abide, conservative and disdainful as of yore, to await the end.
Chapter III. Mythology and Folk-Lore
Myth and religion. Folk-lore. Two versions of many Maori myths. Cosmogony. Personification. The Sky Parent and Earth Mother. Light and darkness personified. Persian concepts in Maori mythology. Origin of light. The waiora a Tane. Tane as the origin of occult knowledge. The twelve heavens. Creation of woman and vegetation. The Dawn Maid. Two spirit-worlds of the Maori. The Maori genius for personification. The Maui myths. Origin of the rainbow. Miscellaneous myths. Rongo and moon. Rona the Tide-controller. The legend of Mataora. Folk-lore. Greenstone myths. Taniwha and tipua. Supernatural beings. Fairy folk. Fables. Mountain lore. Mental condition that produces myths. Maori mentality. Superstitions, omens, signs.
In any description of the mythology of a people occupying the culture plane of the Maori it is impossible to avoid intruding upon the domain of religion. Myth and religion meet upon the common ground of cosmogony and anthropogeny, as also upon that of personification. In the following brief account of the primary myths of the Maori folk it will thus be necessary to give some explanation of the first two grades or classes of the gods of the Maori pantheon—viz., the Supreme Being and the departmental gods. The former is connected with cosmogonic myths, and the latter with the origin of man. It is well to state that these departmental deities, together with most, if not all, of the progeny of the Sky Father and Earth Mother are personified forms of natural phenomena, conditions, and products. Here we encounter natural religion and animism, and these are encrusted with archaic myths in such a manner that the different concepts have become welded together into a decidedly harmonious whole. This aspect has undoubtedly been produced by the ever-present and persistent human desire to account for the origin of all natural phenomena, of man, of life and death.
It may be said that there is a wide gulf between the primary or sacerdotal myths of the Maori and their common
folk-tales. The first are practically a part of their religion, while the latter are not connected with it, but merely with superstition and the mythopoetic faculty. Polynesian myths and religious ideas illustrate the mentality of the race, and form a highly interesting study. The native concept of a Supreme Being, and their conception of the soul in nature, are pitched upon a high plane of thought, and point to very remarkable powers of abstraction.
There are usually two forms of the superior Maori myths to be considered, as apart from ordinary folk-lore. These forms are in sympathy with the two aspects of the old-time native religion, and in both cases they may be described as the esoteric and exoteric versions. This double aspect pertains to native concepts concerning the origin of the universe and of man, to those of the spirit-world, and many other subjects. This peculiar double aspect hinges upon the fact that there were two classes or grades of experts engaged in conserving and teaching sacerdotal and traditional lore. Possessing no form of script or other mode of recording events, all such knowledge was preserved by means of oral tradition. The superior class of experts was taught the superior version of archaic myths and religious practices. These were viewed as being extremely tapu, and were known to few persons; the bulk of the people knew naught of them. A secondary class of experts was not taught in the high school of learning, but acquired a considerable amount of knowledge of a less authentic nature. These secondary tohunga never acquired what may be termed the higher teachings, such as the ritual pertaining to the Supreme Being, and the more refined versions of the higher myths.
In the superior version of the cosmogonic myths of the Maori we are told that the universe was brought into being through the instrumentality of Io, the Supreme Being. It was he who willed that the earth should appear; he was the primal origin of all things; everything on earth or in the heavens could be traced back to the one cause, the sole origin, Io the Parent, Io the Eternal.
In the other version the name of the Supreme Being does not appear; it never does appear in any of the ordinary teachings intended for the many. In place of a creation by that Being we have an evolutionary process arranged in genealogical form, showing the development of mind, of matter, earth and sky, of light, and finally of man, from primal chaos, nothingness, and darkness. These remarkable
allegorical myths embody some extraordinary concepts illustrating the powers of the ancestors of the Polynesians in the line of abstract thought. They are encountered from New Zealand northward to the Hawaiian Isles. The cosmogonic myths of New Zealand, of the Tahitian, Samoan, Hawaiian, and Marquesas Groups, are notable examples. One Maori form carries us back to the cosmogonic tree of the old world. Another peculiar feature is that of wholesale personification. Natural phenomena and conditions are treated as entities, as sentient beings, and these beget personifications of other conditions. From the primal period, termed the Po, an expression that implies, night, darkness, and the unknown, were gradually evolved light and all other conditions, all matter, all beings. The ancestors of our Maori folk, in their strivings to discover origins, apparently thought out what they deemed a probable or feasible line of evolution, and then taught the same in the form of allegorical myth. Thus Darkness begat Light, for the stars were the offspring of Whiro, the personified form of darkness, in one version.
In one of these curious evolutionary formulae Conception is given as the forbear of Growth, who produced Energy; then follow Thought, Mind, Desire, &c. Then come various phases of Po and other conditions of chaos, until the last one, in conjunction with Atea (space), produces the heavens. The sky is personified in Rangi, who takes Papa, the Earth Mother, to wife, and this twain beget seventy offspring, all males, and all supernatural beings. Many of these are personifications, as of light, the sun, moon, darkness, wind, rain, clouds, lightning, &c. Some are described as originating beings—tutelary beings and “parents” of fish, birds, stars, stones, &c.; while yet others were denizens of the uppermost heavens. From among these offsprings were
selected many of the poutiriao, or guardians appointed by the Supreme Being to watch over and preserve the welfare of the different realms of the universe.
The following are the best-known members of the numerous offspring of the primal parents, Rangi and Papa, the Sky Father and Earth Mother: Tane, who is the personified form of the sun; Tane the Fertilizer, he who fertilized the earth and caused it to produce trees and herbage, as also man, who was born of the Earth-formed Maid. Rongo, who represents the moon, as shown in Hawaiian myth, is the patron of peace and the art of agriculture. Tu, who is the patron of war and death, probably personified the setting sun, as he did in Babylonia and Egypt. Whiro personifies darkness, evil, and death. Tangaroa is the origin and personification of all fish, though he occupies a much more important position in the mythology of some groups of Polynesia. Tawhiri-matea personifies wind; and Ngana, or Uru-te-ngangana, was the origin of stars. Kiwa was the guardian of the ocean; Te Ihorangi personifies rain; while Ruaumoko is the origin of earthquakes and all volcanic disturbances.
The curious myth concerning the children of the Earth Mother is to the effect that, in the night of time, sky and earth were in close contact, the Sky Parent embraced the Earth Mother, and Light was not. The offspring of the primal parents dwelt in gloom; darkness enveloped the earth. From this darkness the offspring found means to escape, and so came forth and found light—not the bright light we know, but a dim, subdued light. In order to obtain more light, and to relieve their confined position, it was resolved to separate Sky and Earth; the closely embracing parents must be separated. This was effected principally through the efforts of Tane. Despite their lamentations, regardless of their affection for each other, the parents were violently separated; their limbs, as they clung to each other, were severed; the sky was thrust far upward. Even so, the offspring gained space and freedom to move about athwart the breast of the Earth Mother. But ever do the primal parents yearn for each other, and bewail their separation; ever fall the tears of the Sky Parent in the form of rain and dew, and ever the rising mist betokens the love of Papa, the Earth Mother.
This harsh treatment received at the hands of her children failed to embitter the old Earth Mother. When the parents discussed the disposal of their descendants when
death should overtake them, Rangi said, “Let us place them between us.” But the gentle Earth Mother said, “Not so; leave them to me. Though they have rebelled against us, yet they are still my children. I brought them forth to the world of life, in death they shall find rest within me. Mine shall be the care of the dead.” Even so we see that man, when struck down by Whiro, or Maiki-nui, is buried within the body of the old Earth Mother.
Now there came about the first great contest known in the world—the fierce, long-continued struggle between Tane and Whiro. This is but another version of the old Persian myth, wherein Ohmuzd and Ahriman strive for mastery, the one personifying light and goodness, the other darkness and evil. In Whiro we have the personification of evil, darkness, and death; while Tane represents light and life, but he cannot be said to personify goodness. The clear contest between good and evil was not a Maori concept. After many encounters Whiro and his legions were defeated, and retired to Rarohenga, the underworld. Thus was Darkness defeated by Light; thus was the personified form of darkness and evil driven down to the underworld, the realm of Rarohenga. In that realm is Tai-whetuki, the dread House of Death, wherein dwell Whiro, and Maiki-nui, Maiki-roa, Maiki-kunawhea, and many others, a grisly company. These are the personified forms of disease, sickness, and all grievous affictions. Ever they assail mankind; ever they strive to destroy man, who dwells in the Ao Marama, or Taiao, the world of light and life, this upper world. That strife never ceases; and the visible form of dread Whiro the Destroyer in this world is the lizard.
The Origin of Light
Those members of the primal offspring who remained in this upper world were sore oppressed by the gloomy light that here obtained. It was Tane who introduced the clear, bright light we know, he who set on high the whanau marama, the light-giving family, the Children of Light, the heavenly bodies. These Shining Ones were arranged on the breast of Rangi, the Sky Parent, by Tane-te-waiora, and to each member was assigned the path he must traverse. So the sun, moon, and stars appeared, and so the maramatanga taiahoaho (clear enduring light) entered the world.
Tane-te-waiora is one of the many names applied to Tane, each of which denotes some function of his. The peculiar expression te waiora a Tane, so often mistranslated by us, really denotes sunlight, and Tane-te-waiora is the personified form of sunlight. As Tane-te-hiringa and Tane-te-wananga he represents occult knowledge; as Tane-mahuta he represents trees, and so on.
At first there was no night; the sun ever shone fiercely upon the naked body of the Earth Mother, and she and her children were in sad distress. Hence the sun was moved, and to him was assigned the day, while night was allotted to the moon and the ra ririki (little suns—i.e., stars). So day and night became known.
The expression waiora denotes life, welfare, and similar conditions, evidently the same word as vaiora (= to survive) of the Paumotu dialect. Cf. Maori waiora (= the blank, unmarked spaces between lines of tattoo). In both the Paumotu and Tahitian dialects we find vai (= to be, to exist), and this is evidently the basis of the expression waiora or vaiora. It is also probably the wai of such words as waimarie, wairuhi, maimate, &c. The waiora a Tane, according to popular belief, is the old, old quest of mankind, the Fountain of Youth, sought by many men of many lands, from neolithic man to Ponce de Leon. A popular Maori myth is to the effect that the waning moon is restored to youth and beauty by bathing in the waiora a Tane, and this curious concept is known from here to the Sandwich Islands. But the famed waiora of Tane is sunlight, not the revivifying waters of the popular myth.
Tane as the Origin of Occult Knowledge
We are told that to Tane we owe our possession of the higher forms of knowledge. It was he who ascended from earth to the uppermost of the twelve heavens, the realm of Io, the Supreme Being, and from him obtained the three kete (baskets, receptacles) of occult knowledge, of good and of evil. The first of these included high-class sacerdotal lore and ritual—esoteric knowledge of such—and this was viewed as an important boon to the sons of Rangi and Papa, and to man. The possession of this knowledge enhanced their mana for all time. The second contained the knowledge of evil things, of black magic, of war, of all things harmful to man. The third contained knowledge of human affection and sympathy, of peace and the arts of peace. As Tane ascended to the heavens he was assailed by the
emissaries of Whiro, the same being a horde of birds and insects. Hence he called up the offspring of Tawhiri-matea to his assistance, and there came a goodly company of the Wind Children who soon dispersed the hordes of Whiro. After this adventure Tane was met by some of the attendants of Io, he was purified after the manner Maori and then admitted to the presence of the great Io. From him Tane obtained the three “baskets” of knowledge, and brought them down to earth. Thus did man acquire knowledge of these subjects. All this is curiously suggestive of the three “baskets” of sacred knowledge of the Hindoos.
The twelve heavens have each a distinctive name, and each is inhabited by two companies of supernatural beings, one composed of males, the other of females.
The Creation of Woman and Vegetation
Tane is specially prominent as the Fertilizer. It was he who fertilized the earth and caused it to produce trees and herbage. It was he also who took a portion of the body of the Earth Mother, vivified it, and so produced Woman. All this was the result of the search for the female element. When the offspring of the primal parents resolved to introduce man—that is, a non-supernatural race—to occupy the earth, then the difficulty was that no mortal female existed who might become the mother of mankind. All the said offspring were males, and all the female denizens of the twelve heavens were supernatural beings. It was impossible to derive ira tangata (human life—i.e., mortal man) from ira atua (supernatural life, or life as possessed by the gods). Hence it was necessary that the mortal female element be sought, and this became the great quest of the gods, on which the sons of the Sky Parent and Earth Mother were long engaged. Far and wide they wandered throughout the universe, ever seeking the female element, and ever failing to find it. Tane the Fertilizer encountered many beings whom he mistook for females who might possess the seed of man, but they produced only trees and plants. It was thus that the naked body of the Earth Mother became clothed with vegetation.
It was now known that the female element necessary to the introduction of man, of non-supernatural beings, did not exist, hence it was resolved that woman should be created. This important task was assigned to Tane the Fertilizer. He proceeded to form an image in human form
from earth, a portion of the body of the Earth Mother. In this form he implanted the spirit and breath of life, obtained from Io, the Supreme Being. Even so the image of earth sneezed, opened its eyes, breathed, and arose—a woman!
We now see that Tane, who represents light and warmth, was not only the Fertilizer—he was also a demiurge, a creator. The woman so created was named Hine-ahu-one, the Earth-formed Maid, and with her originated the ira tangata, or human life—mortal life as pertaining to mankind. Hine-ahu-one may be termed the mother of the human race.
Tane himself took the first woman to wife, for to him was assigned the position of procreator; it was he who begat man. Their offspring were females, who appear to be personifications. Of these maids the most important was Hine-titama, she who divides night and day, she who is described as the most beautiful of all maids, for she personifies dawn, and heralds the coming of her sire; Hine-titama is the Dawn Maid. The myth of Tane and Hine-titama is one of considerable interest, for it gives us in allegorical form the passing of the dawn, the coming of the sun, and its passage through the heavens, the gradual retreat of the Dawn Maid before her night-dispelling sire, until they reach, in the far west, the entrance to the underworld, the realm of gloom and night. The Dawn Maid descends to that realm, there to abide for ever, and assumes the name of Hine-nui-te-po. Tane ever pursues her, but is turned back and compelled to return to this world, for his task is to beget other Dawn Maids. Hence, every day a Dawn Maid is born, fares westward to the realm of night pursued by Tane, who reappears the following morn as the rising sun.
The task of Hine in the underworld is the protection of the souls of the dead from dread Whiro, who ever strives to destroy them. Her ceaseless charge is the toiora (spiritual welfare) of her children, who are drawn down to the spirit-world by Rua-toia and Rua-kumea. Whiro and his evil band, the powers of darkness, of disease, of terrestrial convulsions, ever wage war against Hine, the ex Dawn Maid, who guards the spirits of the dead.
The Two Spirit-worlds of the Maori
We may here draw attention to the fact that Maori religion and mythology were in a very interesting stage of evolution at the time when the arrival of Europeans
broke down the system. These barbaric folk had evolved a belief in two distinct spirit-worlds resembling that borrowed and developed by Christianity. These two realms would probably have been developed, in the course of time, into a heaven and hell, such as those of Christian teachings. The peculiar conditions of life in the underworld were so strange that some change in the conception, as time rolled on, would presumably have been inevitable. The spirits of both good and evil persons went to the underworld, where, if not protected by the Dawn Maid, Whiro would assuredly destroy them. Again, some spirits of the dead ascended to the heavens, where they abode in the uppermost of the twelve heavens, where Io-matua, Io the Parent, abides. There is no word of any trouble or danger in this upper spirit-world—in fact, evil had apparently no place in that realm.
Now, the Maori had never evolved or borrowed the belief in punishment of the human soul after death, neither does he appear to have developed a clear, universal code of ethics. Hence there was no system of rewards and punishments in the spirit-world, nor were there separate realms for the spirits of good and evil persons. Yet the belief in two spirit-worlds existed, while in the underworld forces of evil existed under a personified form of evil. Thus the Maori had advanced far in his search for knowledge in this direction, the destination and fate of the human soul. Greater power in priestly hands, and better recognition of the forces of good and evil, would probably have given him a hell and a heaven such as ours.
The popular conception of the underworld is that the ex Dawn Maid destroys man, but the higher teaching was that above given. The bulk of the people knew little or naught of the upper spirit-world, which has the aspect of an aristocratic realm, or concept. The statements made by some natives concerning punishment of the soul in the spirit-world are the result of missionary teachings.
The only explanation given of the fact that spirits of the dead went to two different realms is that those who sympathized with Papa, the Earth Mother, in regard to the forcible separation of the primal parents go to her in the spirit. They descend to Rarohenga, the subterranean spirit-world. The spirits of those who sympathized with Rangi, the Sky Parent, ascend by means of the whirlwind to the uppermost of the twelve heavens, where they are welcomed by the mareikura, or celestial maids.
It is just possible that the peculiar aspect of the Maori beliefs in two spirit-worlds and the destination of the human soul after death may be due to racial mixture and a consequent mingling of two mythological systems. On the other hand, they may represent a local development, a concept evolved by the ancestors of the Maori folk—that is to say, of the Polynesians. I am inclined to think, in face of evidence from many lands, that the latter view is correct.
The concept of two distinct spirit-worlds, one subterranean and the other a celestial realm, is apparently connected with the recognition of the importance of the opposing conditions of light and darkness. In a cosmogonic genealogy of much interest preserved by natives of the Waikato district Io appears as the origin of everything, the creator. The stars are brought into being, then the moon and sun, the moon being of the female sex and the sun a male. Then come, in the form of a double line of descent, male and female lines from sun and moon in genealogical form. The male line contains nineteen names commencing with Ao, a word denoting daytime, and followed by a qualifying or explanatory term, after which comes Rangi (sky). The female line, coming from the moon, contains nineteen names commencing with Po, a word meaning night, and then comes Papa, the Earth Mother. Sky and Earth come together; the Sky Parent mates with old Terra Mater, and their progeny we have already referred to. Herein we have two distinct lines of descent, male and female, illustrating the phases of light and darkness. The two coalesce in the union of sky and earth, of the male and female elements, after which Tane created the Earth-formed Maid as a progenitor of the human race. Thus man has a double origin: he is partially divine—he has within him a portion of the ira atua, or supernatural life, inherited from Tane.
The Maori Genius for Personification
One of the most interesting features of Maori mythology is that of universal personification of natural phenomena and other things. We have already enumerated a number of such personified beings, and there are many others that enter into the singular allegorical myths so much appreciated by the Polynesian race. Such phenomena, conditions, and forces as wind, rain, mist, water, fire, space, lightning, thunder, comets, meteors, sun, moon, stars, cold, frost, summer, spring, winter, dawn, rainbow, volcanic forces,
clouds, compass-points, stones, clay, sand, rock, mountains, trees, birds, insects, fish, disease, knowledge, misfortune, and many others were personified. It will thus be seen how such a system lent itself to the development of mythopoetic allegories, quaint myths, of teachings enveloped in extremely figurative language. The study of the esoteric version of Maori myths, the hidden meaning concealed within metaphysical abstractions and recondite concepts, is one of peculiar interest. The power of abstract thought is the very essence of the superior myths of the Maori; yet some writers, including Buller and Shortland, have stated that the Maori lacks that power—a most incomprehensible statement. Barbaric man has an outlook on life and on the hidden past very different to our own in many ways; his personification of natural phenomena led to the appreciation of poetic imagery, and he clothed his deductions therein. As Tylor puts it, “What is poetry to us was philosophy to early man.”
In his work on Primitive Traditional History, Hewitt explains how, in olden times, the peoples of southern Asia kept national records in the form of stories. The inner meaning of these was retained by the priestly conservers, and imparted only to select pupils. This describes Maori methods to a nicety. Our literal interpretation of native myths and stories shows how little we understand them, and how we need the services of a sympathetic expert to explain to us these illustrations of human culture. The development of myths forms a consistent part of the development of culture, and nature myths are the most beautiful of poetic fictions. Several phases of feeling apparently underlie the love of personification, and not the least interesting of these was a desire to illustrate admiration of certain sentiments and qualities. Hence was the Earth Mother endowed with the power of speech, with mother-love, and other human attributes. This feeling survives with us in our personification of such qualities as mercy, charity, peace, &c. Among a barbaric folk, such as the Maori, these personifications of qualities are not so common as they are in some higher culture planes, but still they exist. One of the most interesting illustrations of this faculty is seen in the personified forms of knowledge, all of which bear the name of Rua, followed by some explanatory word or phrase. Thus, Rua-i-te-whaihanga personifies the knowledge of the artisan; Rua-i-te-horahora represents the diffusion of knowledge; and so on. Thought, memory, powers of reflection, are also included in this series. Many interesting examples of personification are available,
and some of these will appear in the following pages. The peculiar phase of mentality that evolves and appreciates myths is no longer ours; even as Tane drove the Dawn Maid down the long descent to the underworld, so has the change of thought driven these mythopoetic concepts from our ken.
The Maui Myths
The numerous stories connected with Maui, the famed hero or demi-god of native myth, have been collected and published by the Rev. W. D. Westervelt, of Honolulu. Maui was known far and wide throughout Polynesia. He is assuredly the personified form of some phase of light, and so is connected with, or represents, life; for, in Polynesian concepts, light and life are closely connected. Apparently maui has, in the past, been a vernacular term for “life,” or some similar meaning, as witness the Maori expression whakamaui (=to regain life, to cause to live, as of a person rallying from a severe illness). Moui is but a variant form of maui, and at Niue and Tonga has the meaning of “life alive, to live.” It is quite possible that there is connection between maui and mauri in this sense, for at Rotuma the latter term means “to live,” while at Futuna tamauri means “life.” One of the gods of Egypt representing light was Moui.
In parts of Polynesia Maui is said to have been the husband of Hina (Sina in some dialects), and Hina is the personified form of the moon. He is said to have cured Hina of blindness—that is, to have restored light to the darkened moon; and this looks as if he represented the sun, or the light thereof, as did Moui of Egypt. The most important local myth connected with Maui is that in which he contends with the queen of the underworld, the ex Dawn Maid, over the question of eternal life for mankind, the abolishment of death from the world. This was primarily a contest between light and darkness, but the darkness of death triumphed, though Tane had banished its representative Whiro to the underworld.
It is a curious fact that in Maori myth we have two personified forms of the moon—Rongo and Hina—one male, the other female; though the Hawaiian version assigns both names to one being. In Babylonia the moon seems to have had three personified forms. Sin, the moon-god of Babylonia, reminds us of Sina and Hina, the moon-goddess (personified form of the moon) of Polynesia and New Zealand, though in certain dialects of Melanesiasina denotes the sun, and “to shine.”
In the myth concerning the origin of fire we again encounter Maui. The sun desired to send a boon to mankind, hence he sent his own son, Auahi-turoa (personified form of comets), down to earth as the bearer of fire. This fire-bringer took to wife one Mahuika, said in one version to be a young sister of the Dawn Maid, and their offspring amounted to five. The names of these young folk are the names of the five fingers of the hand, and they are called the Fire Children. In far-off India, Agni, the fire-god, had ten mothers, who were the ten fingers of the hands. Maui hied him to Mahuika and craved the gift of fire for man. Mahuika, who figures as the personified form of fire, gave him one of the Fire Children (that is, one of her fingers), which she pulled off for that purpose. The deceitful Maui took this fire aside and destroyed it, then returned to beg another. This action he repeated until he asked for the last of the five fingers of Mahuika. This she plucked off and angrily threw at him, whereupon flames of fire sprang forth, and Maui fled, pursued by Fire. So hard-pressed was he that he was forced to call upon Te Ihorangi (personified form of rain) to save him. Then heavy rains came to his aid, and the raging fire was conquered. The remnants of that fire fled to the forest to seek a refuge—fled to Hine-kaikomako and sought shelter within her body. Now, this maid is the personified form of the kaikomako tree (Pennantia corymbosa), and it is the wood of this species that is utilized by the Maori for the purposes of generating fire. Thus the seed of fire ever abides within the body of Hine-kaikomako, the Fire-conserver.
Even so were the Fire Children destroyed by Maui; but those children were the offspring of the sister of Hine-nui-te-po, the ex Dawn Maid, who abides in the underworld of darkness and death. Hereto pertains another story, for Hine of the Underworld resolved to avenge the death of the Fire Children by destroying Maui, and the great contest began between that twain. She did so slay him, though one version states that he regained life.
Another feat performed by Maui was the slaying of Tuna, the so-called eel-god. Tuna had been interfering with Hina (personified form of the moon, and wife of Maui), who here appears under her name of Hina-uri, or Darkened Hina; her other name is Hina-keha, or Pale Hina. The former denotes the dark period of the moon. In studying these myths in which Tuna appears it is not necessary to attribute them to such an eel cultus as that which obtained in India, for there is some evidence in favour of the theory that in Maori myth the eel takes the place of the snake in
Asiatic myths. It is, however, suggestive that Ira, the eel-god of India, is represented by a linga with a lunar crescent on its head. This preservation of the light of the moon by Maui may be compared with the Polynesian story of his restoring the sight of Hina the Blind. In some versions Hina appears as the sister of Maui.
The Origin of the Rainbow
Here we have one of the curious myths that pertain to natural phenomena. The story of Uenuku and the Mist Maiden is one known far and wide across the world, and many lands have told it. As preserved by the Tuhoe folk of the Urewera district we are told that the Mist Maid, one Hine-pukohu-rangi (Celestial Mist Maid) came down to earth in order to bathe in the waters of this world. This being is the personified form of mist, the white mists we see rising from the body of the Earth Mother in early morn. Her sister is Hine-wai, who personifies light, misty rain. These two maids came down to earth from their abode in the heavens, and enjoyed the waters of this world. As they did so Uenuku saw them, and became so enamoured of the beautiful Mist Maid that he resolved to capture her. This he succeeded in doing, and so Uenuku took the beautiful Mist Maid to wife. She did not dwell with him openly and continuously, but came to earth each night and sojourned with him until dawn, when she returned to the heavens. Her sister Hine-wai accompanied her each night and warned her of the approach of day, that the twain might depart ere dawn arrived. The Mist Maid would not allow herself to be seen by the people, nor would she let Uenuku mention her to them. He was told that he must not mention her until her child was born, otherwise she would forsake him for ever.
This condition of affairs continued for some time, but at last Uenuku could no longer refrain from boasting of his lovely bride, and he decided to allow his people to see her. In order to effect this he carefully closed all apertures and crevices of his abode, so that no ray of light might enter therein. His plan was to keep the place in utter darkness until day came, that the Mist Maid might be deceived into believing that night still held, and so she might be exhibited to the people. That plan succeeded full well, to the discomfiture of the Mist Maid and the utter undoing of Uenuku. For, as dawn approached, Hine-wai called to her sister to awake and depart, but no Mist Maid appeared, and so Hine-wai was compelled to return alone to the heavens.
When broad daylight arrived the people assembled before the abode of Uenuku in order to gaze upon the fair Mist Maid, of whose beauty he had spoken in such glowing terms. As he drew back the sliding-door of his dwelling the light flashed into it and awoke the sleeping Mist Maid. She rose and came forth from the house, clothed only in her long hair that covered her like a veil. She ascended to the ridge of the house, and stood at the gable-point, where she sang a song of farewell to her earthly husband. Then, as she sang, and as the assembled people gazed upon her, a mist-cloud was seen descending from the heavens. As she concluded her song, the mist reached and enveloped her. Then, as the column of mist rose and ascended to the heavens, it was seen that the Mist Maid had vanished. Never again was the Mist Maid seen by her deceiver; never again did Uenuku behold his lost bride.
As time wore on, Uenuku, urged on by regrets and remorse, set forth in search of the lost one. Over far lands and distant seas he sought her in vain; through long, weary years he continued his fruitless search. In distant realms of forgotten names old age came to Uenuku, and death found him. But the gods of old knew of his remorse and faithful search, and so transformed him into the rainbow that, in many hues, bestrides the far horizon. And when we see that bow we know it to be Uenuku, he who found and lost the peerless Mist Maid.
Even so, when the Dawn Maid comes to us with gleaming presence, and passes on her way pursued by Tane, we may look upon the fair Mist Maid as she rises from the breast of the old Earth Mother and ascends to her home in the heavens. And Uenuku, the Seeker, he who lost his bride through disobedience, still tarries afar off, and spans the wall of the heavens as though yet in search of Hine the Mist Maiden.
Miscellaneous Myths
Some curious myths are connected with the heavenly bodies, as we have seen in the case of Tane. A more popular form is that in which the sun is said to have two wives, Hine-raumati, the Summer Maid, and Hine-takurua, the Winter Maid; he spends half the year with each. In Hina, the personified form of the moon, we have a female who appears in two phases, as Hina-keha (Pale Hina) and Hina-uri (Darkened Hina), but in Rongo we apparently have a male personification of the
moon. This fact is not supported by much evidence in New Zealand, so far as we know, but is made clear in Hawaiian mythology, wherein Hina ascends to the heavens and is hereafter known as Lono, the Hawaiian form of Rongo. This is Lono of the flashing eyes, who dwells upon the waters—for ever, as in Asiatic myths, the moon is connected with water. In the popular story of Rona we are told that she is the woman in the moon. She was formerly a denizen of this world, but she grievously insulted the moon one night when going to a spring for water, because it did not shine on her path. Hence she was taken up to the moon, where she may be seen with her gourd water-vessel. In the higher form of the myth, however, this puerile folk-tale aspect disappears, and we learn that Rona was the guardian and conductor of the moon, and also the controller of the tides, hence her full name of Rona-whakamautai. Tangaroa, who bears the same title, assists in tide-controlling. There are a number of fables and popular myths pertaining to sun, moon, and stars, all of which come under the head of folk-tales. Of much greater interest are the proofs of former systems of sun and star worship as found in the cult of Tane, and in certain invocations addressed to the planets and more important stars. In Maori belief the stars influenced or betokened weather conditions, and also controlled food-supplies to an important extent.
A peculiarly interesting myth, and evidently a very old one, is that concerning one Mataora, who is said to have visited and sojourned a while in Rarohenga, the underworld of spirits. In this archaic story we learn that Mataora was a denizen of this world who encountered a party of female turehu (beings from the underworld). One of these, by name Niwareka, he took to wife, but, having received ill-treatment at his hands, she left him and returned to her own folk. Mataora then went to Rarohenga in order to recover his lost wife. He found the underworld of spirits to be a most desirable place, a place where no evil, in thought or deed, existed—a realm of peace and harmony. Life in that region, however, seems to have possessed a very material aspect, and people lived very much as they do in this world. For instance, Mataora found them tending crops, building houses, fishing, playing games, and so on. He encountered one Uetonga, who was engaged in tattooing a person, and persuaded the artist to tattoo his face. Previous to that time men of this world had merely painted designs on their faces; they knew not the art of tattooing by
puncturation. Mataora found his wife, but her folk objected to her returning to this world, saying, “Is it a custom of the upper world to beat women?”
Said Tauwehe, brother of Niwareka, “Mataora, abandon the upper world; it is the home of evil; hence we see that all folk of that world eventually come to the lower world through violence and other evils.” Said Uetonga, “The upper world and its deeds of darkness is widely sundered from the underworld, which is a realm of light and benevolence.”
In connection with these remarks, our native informant said: “Observe well the words of Uetonga. Here in the upper world alone are evil deeds known; this is truly the realm of darkness. As to the underworld, no evil is there known, nor darkness; it is a realm of light and rectitude. And this is the reason why, of all the spirits of the dead, from the time of Hine-ahu-one even unto ourselves, no single one has ever returned hither to dwell in this world.”
Finally, Mataora and Niwareka returned to this world, bringing knowledge of the arts of tattooing and weaving. Since that time no being of this world has been allowed to pass down to the underworld and return hither; none save spirits of the dead can enter Rarohenga. Yet these barbaric myths are often inconsistent and contain contradictory statements. The spirit only can enter and dwell in Rarohenga, yet the denizens of that realm are spoken of as possessing our earthly bodies, and as engaging in the ordinary tasks, industries, pastimes of this world. The Turehu folk encountered by Mataora are said to have been residents of Rarohenga, and they ate their food raw, though otherwise described as a folk of considerable culture. Evidently there is here a mixture of myths. A number of Maori folk-tales mention people encountered in far-off lands who were ignorant of the use of fire. Some of these, such as the Nukumaitore, are said to have lived in trees. Portions of such myths have probably been included in the story of Mataora.
In the above myth we possibly have a distorted account of an expedition made by some traveller or voyager of remote times, who encountered a people who practised tattooing and the peculiar method of weaving employed by the Maori of to-day. The fair-skinned Turehu folk may represent a race actually encountered by such a voyager, or simply a myth that has become incorporated with the legendary account of a genuine experience. The myth or story of Mataora may be termed a doubtful one to classify.
Folk-lore
Another department of mythology includes matter of secondary importance, folk-tales, fireside stories of everyday recital, such as were heard among young folk when assembled in a house during long winter evenings. These tales include stories of mythical man-destroying monsters, of fairies; they teem with personifications; they endow animals with the power of speech, and inanimate objects with those of speech and locomotion. Many quaint narratives, weird adventures, and puerile fables were known to the old-time Maori, and a number of these have been preserved and recorded in various publications.
One section of folk-tales includes stories of impossible happenings that may be connected with some central incident representing actual fact, such as a genuine historical tradition. In this wise: we have a native tradition to the effect that one Ngahue, a Polynesian voyager, made a voyage to New Zealand in remote times, discovered greenstone (nephrite) in the South Island, and returned to his home in eastern Polynesia. This is the genuine fact, the central core that has become encrusted with mythical accretions. Hence we hear the story now told in the following form: Ngahue was in some way connected with Poutini, the personified form of greenstone, and in their home at Hawaiki they incurred the enmity of one Hine-tua-hoanga, the personified form of sandstone; hence they fled hither to New Zealand. This part of the story is explainable, for sandstone was the principal agent employed by the Maori in fashioning greenstone implements, so it is spoken of as the enemy of greenstone. On reaching Tuhua, or Mayor Island, Bay of Plenty, Poutini (i.e., greenstone) proposed to remain at that place, but was alarmed by the presence of Mata (personified form of obsidian), and so fled to the East Cape district. Here he encountered Waiapu (a form of chert), another enemy, and so fled onward to Arahura, South Island, where he found refuge, and whence the Maori has ever obtained greenstone for the manufacture of implements and ornaments. The various enemies of “the greenstone folk” as the Maori quaintly puts it, are said to have pursued them and attacked them, slaying some and capturing others. The names of the captives are those of famous greenstone heirlooms, implements, and ornaments. All these quaint concepts are the outcome of the mythopoetic mentality of the Maori, and serve to illustrate his desire to explain origins by means of allegory.
In the long-preserved stories of Rata, Whiro the Voyager, and others we have historical traditions of incidents in Polynesian history that have become partially impregnated with myth. In Tawhaki, Whaitiri, and Wahieroa we have beings alleged to be historical characters, but who seem rather to personify lightning, thunder, and comets.
All folk-tales of the Maori come under the generic term of korero purakau. Some of these are known far and wide throughout Polynesia; some are known to all or most of the tribes of New Zealand; others are local stories known only within a limited area. Many very old stories were brought hither from Polynesia and localized by the Maori. In volume 3 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society is a story concerning a fabulous monster called Te Kaiwhakaruaki. This creature abode in the Nelson district, and is said to have slain numbers of persons in the vicinity of Motueka and Takaka. Now, afar off at the Society Isles we find that Motue'a, an islet off Taha'a Island, is said to have been the abode of a man-destroying monster known as 'Ai-fa'arua'i in former times, while Ta'a'a is the name of another islet in that vicinity. By replacing the dropped k of the Tahitian dialect in the above names, we see fairly good proof that this myth was introduced into New Zealand, together with certain place-names.
These tales of ferocious reptiles and monsters are encountered throughout Polynesia. The monsters are often termed moko, a name sometimes applied to them in New Zealand, though they are generally called taniwha here. Moko also denotes a lizard in New Zealand and throughout Polynesia, but in one region of Melanesia is applied to the crocodile. Many stories of these dread taniwha are known to our Maori folk, who point out their former abodes, and relate harrowing tales of their deeds in former times. In many cases they were water-dwellers, and so may possibly represent a former knowledge of the crocodile on the part of the Maori. One that does not appear to have been amphibious (as many were) was named Hau-taruke, though it is generally referred to as Te Kuri nui a Meko—the Great Dog (or Beast) of Meko. This monster occupied a cave on the bank of Waikare-taheke, a tributary of the Wairoa River, and it is described as being a ferocious man-eater. Meko is said to have been a descendant of Te Orotu, after whom Napier Harbour was named Te Whanga nui a Orotu. Meko possessed certain supernatural attributes, but the origin of the monster is not explained. From Kura-tawhiti,
a brother of Meko, who was an ordinary mortal, are counted fifteen generations to the present time.
A man named Tuwhai succeeded in slaying this scourge of the Waikare-moana district. He constructed a large crate of supplejacks, termed a taiki, into which he conducted five men to serve as live bait. These men, by dint of loud cries, soon attracted Hau-taruke, who rushed forth to devour them. Not being able to get at its prey, the creature thrust its legs through the openwork cage or crate, whereupon four of the men seized and held stoutly on to them. The fifth man, by means of a vigorous use of his spear, soon despatched the man-eater, and so the district was freed of this scourge. This slaying occurred six generations after the time of Meko, so that this particular monster must have enjoyed a fairly long life.
Many of these taniwha are described as beings of saurian form, and the stories describing the slaying of them by courageous brown-skinned dragon-slayers of yore are replete with detail. We are told that some of the huge beasts were cut up and eaten by the slayers. Their remarkably capacious stomachs were often found to contain the bodies of hapless folk they had devoured, as well as their garments and weapons. In some cases these monsters are said to have captured native women and kept them until rescued by their friends. This rescue was usually effected by means of building a special house, inviting the ill-assorted pair to visit them, and then setting the house on fire when the taniwha was alone in it. The huge moko known as Ngarara-huarau, that devastated the Wai-rarapa district in times long passed away, was killed at Tupurupuru by means of a very curious device. A track passing near the den of the beast led through a forest, and all the trees near this path were hewed into until nearly ready to fall. A dog was then sent to bark before the den of the taniwha, and so act as a patoi, or decoy. The beast pursued the dog along the forest-path, but came into contact with the deeply cut trees, thus causing them to fall on him with crushing effect. Thus perished Ngarara-huarau.
In the story of Hine-popo that woman is deserted by her husband, who sailed away to Rangitoto (D'Urville Island). She swims across Cook Strait in pursuit of him, but not for the purpose of reconciliation, for, by means of her magic arts, her errant husband and his brother are swept out to sea when fishing from a canoe in the strait. Far across the ocean were the waifs
carried, until they reached a strange land occupied by a strange folk. These people knew not fire; they ate their food raw, and possessed singular customs. The castaways succeeded in slaying a man-eating taniwha that had long terrorized the people, hence the more prominent one was provided with a wife by the grateful folk. Then came the surprising discovery by the castaways of the fact that children were not born in the normal way, but that the Caesarian operation was always performed on the hapless mother, thereby causing her death. The myth is unsatisfactory, and we are not even told that the ocean waifs returned home. It seems probable that we have a mixture of two myths in this story.
One species of taniwha is known as a tuoro, and seems to have spent most of its time underground, where it burrowed its way through the earth, sometimes over-throwing great trees during its operations. A monster of this type is credited with having formed the valley of the Waikare Stream, a tributary of the Whakatane River. Examples of metempsychosis are met with in Maori myth, as when the spirit of a dead person passes into an animal form. In some cases men have so acquired taniwha form after death, though apparently not the saurian form described above. Thus Te Tahi, a famed ancestor of the Awa folk of Whakatane, became a marakihau after death. This mythical being is a species of merman, a sea-denizen of human-like form, and furnished with a remarkably long tongue, by means of which it is said to secure its food. One Hine-ruarangi, an ancestress of the natives of Te Whaiti, appears as a kawau or cormorant, and is a kind of tribal banshee. She hovers in that form over a village when any person is about to die there.
In the story of the slaying of Tutae-poroporo, a man-eating monster that lived in the depths of the Whanganui River, we note another novel method of disposing of objectionable taniwha. The heroic Aokehu was enclosed in a large box-like receptacle, and this was cast into the river and allowed to drift down to the lair of the ogre. It was swallowed by that creature, and when Aokehu found himself in its stomach he at once proceeded to recite certain potent charms in order to nullify the powers of his enemy. He then cut the lashings of the box, emerged therefrom, and, with certain magic implements, cut his way out of the body of the taniwha. The end of this gallant act was the death of the monster, and the freeing of the district from a dread scourge.
Another old-time man-destroying creature is known as the Awarua o Porirua, and is supposed to dwell at Porirua, near Wellington. It was formerly a traveller, and wandered as far as Te Roto-a-Tara, where it formed the small islet that is still known by its name, Te Awarua o Porirua.
In the old primal myths we find that the genus taniwha traces its origin back to Tane and one Hine-tupari-maunga, the Mountain Maid. Water and stones have the same origin, but come from other members of the offspring of Tane. There is ever an element of the supernatural pertaining to taniwha; they are endowed with certain superhuman powers, as is usual with such conceptions.
We may note another supernatural form in what are known as tipua, or tupua, a word denoting something uncanny or strange; sometimes to be rendered as “demon.” These tipua were common in former times, and many curious superstitions are connected with them. Any object might be viewed as a tipua; in many cases rocks and trees were so viewed. In many instances such natural objects were also uruuru whenua—places at which travellers made small offerings, as a branchlet or handful of herbage, to the spirits or demons of the land. Such offerings were of a placatory nature. If neglected, travellers would be harassed by unpleasant weather conditions. Any impious interference with such objects always brought punishment to the offender. Some stone tipua have the power of moving from place to place, and it is necessary to repeat a charm when passing any of these peculiarly endowed objects. At Wairau and Maunga-pohatu are two ponds of water that are tipua. A drifting log in Waikare-moana (lake) was viewed as a tipua. It is said to have had a habit of singing as it drifted over the waters of that lone lake, and natives dwelling on the shores would hear it in the silent night, and remark, “Ko Tutaua e waiata haere ana” (“It is Tutaua singing as it goes”). Weiweia was a similar tipua log in the Waikato; it was seen in so many different places that a saying pertaining to it is still heard: “Ko paenga rau o Weiweia” (“The many stranding-places of Weiweia”). Yet another haunted the waters of Wai-rarapa Lake. In all cases, should a person interfere with one of these enchanted logs it would at once betake itself to another place. All these supernormal objects possessed, in native belief, an indwelling spirit or power, and the ramifications of that
belief were far-reaching and curious withal. A native once remarked to me that, as water is heard singing, it must necessarily possess a wairua (spirit).
A rock of great mana, or abnormal powers, was that known as Uenuku-tuwhatu, situated at Kawhia. It is said to have been resorted to by childless women, with excellent results. Similar powers were possessed by a tree called Te Iho-o-Kataka, at Rua-tahuna. In this latter case the powers of the tree originated with the iho or umbilical cord of one Kataka, that had been deposited on or in the tree.
Among the Maori are found the usual folk-tales about fairies or forest-dwelling beings of human form, but differing from man in other ways. Such beings are known as Turehu, Heketoro, Patu-paiarehe, Tahurangi, &c., and few stories about them are explicit; they are hazy in detail. These forest-dwelling Turehu are sometimes said to be fair-haired people, unlike the Maori in appearance. They were but seldom seen by man, but on dull, wet, or misty days they were heard talking, singing, and playing flutes on the bush-clad hills. A condition of tapu pertained to these forest creatures, and should any person intrude on their domain they would immediately abandon that part of the forest.
We are told that these Turehu were the original inhabitants of New Zealand, and hence they held that all products of the land were their own property. When natives were engaged in digging up the edible rhizomes of the bracken, commonly termed “fern-root” by us, they sometimes heard a mysterious voice say, “You are joyful to-day, but my turn will come on the morrow.” They would know that it was the voice of a Turehu, and would hasten to set aside for the fair folk the first three pieces of fern-root dug up by them. This was a placatory offering to the Turehu owners of the land. On the following day no work would be done at the root-digging, that day being left for the Turehu. On the succeeding day work would be resumed.
These fair-skinned Turehu are credited with having captured and carried off Maori women to their forest haunts occasionally. Thus the wife of one Ruarangi was captured by a Tahurangi and dwelt with him for some time on the hill of Pirongia. Ruarangi sought her, and at length met her in the forest, but she fled from him, for the tapu of the forest folk was upon her, and so she had become estranged from her own people. Fortunately her husband was carrying with
him a modicum of cooked food. This he threw at her, and, as it struck her, so her tapu was violated, polluted, and destroyed—so remarkable are the effects of cooked food on any condition of tapu. She now returned to her husband, but was followed by the Tahurangi, who made every effort to regain her. Ruarangi now came near to losing her a second time, for the Tahurangi entered the house, seized the woman, and was carrying her off, when she remembered the horror those beings have of red ochre. She called to her husband to mark the door-posts with that substance, so that the intruder would be unable to pass through it. He did so, and was about to also mark the other aperture, the window-space, when the Tahurangi released the woman and leaped through it. Ruarangi now marked the garments of himself and his wife with ochre, so that the nanakia (troublesome one) would be unable to touch them. The creature was now compelled to avoid Ruarangi on account of the dreaded ochre, and the latter kept following him about and marking with ochre each spot he had occupied. Thus, ere long, unmarked spots became few, and the Tahurangi was compelled to leap from one to another so as to avoid the noxious ochre. Eventually he was obliged to depart, and so leaped to the roof of a house, from which he sang a song of farewell to his lost Maori wife, and then fled to the forest. And that song is still known to the native folk of Waikato.
These forest folk were occasionally seen in numbers in native cultivations, but they did not damage the crops in any way. Albinos were said to be the offspring of fair-skinned Turehu and native women.
The evil effects of charcoal fires in unventilated, earth-covered huts were held by the Maori to be due to the malignancy of certain supernormal creatures known as Patu-paiarehe. Tutumaiao were weird creatures seen on sand-beaches looming through the sea-haze afar off. They looked like the spirits of human beings, but invariably disappeared as the observer approached them. Parangeki are spirits of the dead, and these may be heard, and occasionally seen, by man. The name of Tira-maka also seems to apply to these shadow folk. As a rule, only seers (matatuhi or matakite) can see these creatures; they are not visible to ordinary eyes. A species of forest elves was known as the Tini o Te Hakuturi, and these creatures were guardians of the forest and its denizens, the Children of Tane—that is to say, trees. The lax, drooping form of the fronds
of the tree-fern is the result of these elves having perched themselves thereon. These particular elves, however, are usually located in a far land, a former home of the Maori folk, as also are the Aitanga a Nuku-maitore, a weird, uncanny folk who lived in trees and knew not the use of fire. Another “origin myth” connected with the leaning or bent trunks of the rata tree is to the effect that it was trampled on by the moa, presumably in its young stage of growth.
There were a great many folk-tales (korero tara) known among the natives, and much might be written on this subject. Some of these tales are highly curious, such as the story of the great battle between the land-birds and sea-birds, the battle between dogs and lizards the story of how it is that lizards lose their tails. Some tell of the Porotai, a strange class of beings whose bodies are half of flesh and half of stone; others of the Pakepakeha, little creatures occasionally seen floating down rivers on driftwood, ever singing as they drift; of the Turi-whekoi, and other weird creatures.
Fables
A considerable number of fables were also known to the people. As a sample of these we may quote that of the sandfly, the mosquito, and man.
It fell upon a certain fine day that Namu the Sandfly and Naeroa the Mosquito foregathered, when the former said, “Friend, let us go and assail Man, and consume his blood.” Naeroa proposed to wait until nightfall, lest they be seen and slain by Man. The Sandfly folk declined to wait, and so set off in great numbers to attack Man. But, as they settled on him, he smote them with his great hand, and lo, a myriad went down to death! Thronged the Sandfly folk about the face of Man, only to meet the slapping hand, and truly a multitude perished. Sadly the survivors returned, and reported, “We are no more; nor numbers, nor courage availed us.” Then Naeroa the Mosquito sang his lament for the slain:—
I said, I said,“Remain, remain,Lest slain ye beBy slapping hand of Man.”Alas! Alas!Behold your fate.
Then sorely wept Namu, lamenting his lost kin, and so sang the following dirge:—
What matters death,What matters death,Now that his blood,Now that his bloodIs welling forth?
Thus we see that the Sandfly folk reek not of death so long as they can shed the blood of Man.
In the fable of the hawk and the hokioi we note the humbling of a boaster. The hawk challenged the hokioi (a mythical bird, apparently) to a flight toward the heavens, telling him that he could fly no higher than a fern-bird. In the contest that ensued both rose to a great height, until at last the hawk was compelled to descend, when his companion jeered at him for a boaster, and continued his own upward flight. To such a great height did he ascend that he never returned to earth; but sometimes, in the dead of night, men hear the hokioi, far up above the earth, calling out its own name: “Hokioi! Hokioi! Hu!” The last word is supposed to represent the sound of the flight of the bird. Now, when a person is given to boasting and self-praise the Maori compares him to the hokioi, the bird that is ever calling out its own name.
There is also the story of the Ruruhi-kerepo—a terrible ogress; the tale of the woman who was taken up to the heavens by spiders; the story of the woman who ate her own child's heart; with many another quaint and puerile folk-tale of bygone times. In some of the fabular accounts of former times we are told that certain inanimate objects possessed the powers of locomotion and speech in those mist-laden days. Thus we hear strange fables concerning mountains and prominent hills perambulating around the land, experiencing human emotions and indulging in conversation with each other. It was owing to family troubles that Mount Egmont moved away from the Taupo district and found a new home at Taranaki. Again, Mount Edgecumbe, Kakaramea, and Maunga-pohatu originally stood in the same district, but moved northward to their present sites. The last-named is said to have been the wife of Kakaramea, but they became separated and are now far apart. When overtaken by daylight each became fixed, and could not move again; evidently their migration was a deed of darkness.
It is said that Kakaramea and his wife quarrelled, this leading to their separation. He persisted in going northward, while she made for the east. As the former stopped by the wayside to cook a meal, he got no farther than Wai-o-tapu, where he still stands. Their children, however, succeeded in getting farther; being much smaller, we may presume that they were more active. Hence Tapanaua, a large rock in the Tauranga Stream, reached Te Wai-iti; the Toka-a-Houmea, an isolated mass of rock, reached its present position at Whakatane; Hingarae got to the mouth of the Whakatane River; while Moutohora (Whale Island) got some miles out to sea. Mount Edgecumbe (Putauaki) occupied a lonely position, and so he sang a song of greeting to Maunga-pohatu, which song is yet known to the Maori. Whakaari (White Island) and Pohatu-roa (a huge mass of rock of the mesa type at Atiamuri) also moved to their present positions from Taupo.
A similar fable is told concerning the Waikato and Rangitaiki Rivers. These rivers commenced to flow from the Taupo district, and each strove to outpace the other in a race to the Bay of Plenty. Rangitaiki forged so far ahead that Waikato gave up the contest and turned westward, following the course he still pursues.
We have now descended from the height of the superior myths of the Maori to the much inferior level of fables and other simple folk-tales. Remains to say a few words anent the peculiar mental conditions and superstitions that produced such a mythology. It may be said that the Maori mind is essentially practical until the superstitious side of his character is affected, and then anything may happen. Hence the absurdities noted in native behaviour when under the influence of pseudo-tohunga, shamanistic frauds, and such humbugs. This curious phase of human character is, of course, still in evidence among ourselves, and we have all seen illustrations thereof. The higher-class myths pertaining to cosmogony and the origin of man are the result of introspective thought in the domain of causality. The folk-lore of the Maori is the fruit of his mythopoetic nature, his ignorance of natural laws and forces, and his inherent superstition. These brief statements may be allowed to stand in place of lengthy explanations, inasmuch as they cover the problem. Our Maori folk are of those who feel the unseen presence in forests, who hold close kinship with nature, who have a fellowship with every member of the far-scattered Children of Tane. They enter sylvan solitudes
imbued with a subconscious feeling that they are among not only friends, but beings related to themselves—for are not men and trees alike descended from Tane? The old Earth Mother seems very real to them; they greet the Mist Maiden when, in early morn, they see her rising from forest-clad gulches and ascending to her celestial home. From the breast of the Mountain Maid across green valley comes the carolling of Punaweko (personified form of birds) that calls them to daily activities. As night falls across the white world they greet the children of Light, the Whanau marama that gleam on high, the stars that look down on the hidden homeland of the race. They chant old songs of welcome to those heavenly bodies; their memories wheel back to far-off days of lone voyagings in strange seas; their hearts cling to scenes, concepts, and emotions of a thousand years ago.
As to Maori superstition, examples might be given in a hundred forms, but a long list of such would be tiresome to the reader. Let a few illustrations suffice. Like many other peoples, the Maori was a firm believer in dreams. His priestly adepts were held to be past masters in oneirology. Dreams influenced the most serious activities, such as warlike operations. Many omens were drawn from involuntary movements made by sleeping persons. Any twitching of nerves of the body was ominous. To hear the note of a robin on your right hand is a lucky omen; if on the left hand it is unlucky. It was unlucky to see human spirits moving abroad; to see certain species of lizard; to see certain kinds of stone; to eat food while standing when on a warlike expedition; to hear the singing or babbling of a stream; to make a false move when performing a war-dance; to awaken a sleeping person; to dream of having one's hair cut; to weave a garment after sundown; to blow chips aside when wood-carving; with many other things too numerous to mention. To excavate a house-site and then abandon it is extremely unlucky: we have wounded the Earth Mother without just cause. Landslips betoken some approaching disaster. A very numerous series of unlucky signs and incidents are connected with the pursuits of the fowler and fisherman; these are termed puhore. To speak of the game you are going to secure is extremely unlucky. A settler who went pig-hunting with natives took some salt with him to make a hastily prepared meal more palatable. This act was condemned by his companions, who said, “Kaore ano kia mate mai he poaka, kua kainga ekoe” (“Ere yet we have killed a pig it is eaten by you”). One must be careful how one speaks in the bird-snaring season, or the birds will hear one and escape. When digging for roots of the perei, one must not call it by its proper name, or no roots will be found.
To see a lizard is terribly ominous, for this creature represents death, and it is advisable to destroy it and employ an expert to avert the omen. As cooked food is a very polluting substance, it would be sheer lunacy for a tapu person to enter any hut containing it. No food was eaten in the dwellinghouses; meals were consumed out in the open, or in the porch of the house. Unlucky actions are numerous as sands of the seashore—these are called aitua; but of lucky signs, termed marie and waimarie, we do not hear so much—one is often left to inference. If it be unlucky to commit a certain action with one's left hand, then presumably it is lucky to do it with the right hand.
Divination was much practised by priestly experts of Maoriland, and auguries were derived from a great many sources. Serious attention was paid to many trivial things and occurrences on this account. Many of the so-called weather signs are absurd, and it may be said that such beliefs resemble those among our own children.
In studying the beliefs and concepts of a barbaric race such as the Maori it is necessary to pay a considerable amount of attention to its mythology, simply because myth and religion are commingled, and the maintenance of law and order within the commune was based upon belief in the gods.
Chapter IV. The Religious Ideas of the Maori
No recognized national system of worship. Barbaric man deeply religious. Religious ceremonial permeated every activity. Interesting stage of development. Religion in the making. Atua, or supernormal beings. Classification of gods. Tutelary beings and personifications. The cult of Io. Departmental deities. Asiatic analogues. Natural phenomena personified. Ancestral spirits. Human mediums of gods. Evil spirits. Demoniacal possession. Atua as guardians. Forms of incarnation. Too much importance attached to ancestor-worship. Supreme Being not placated. Offerings to other gods. Human sacrifice. Lack of idols and images. Ritual. Magic formulae. Karakia, an expansive term. Ceremonial functions. Priestly experts—tohunga. Several classes of priests. No temples erected. Tuahu. The whare wananga. Spiritual concepts of the Maori. Purification of the spirits of the dead. Spirit-life. Spirit-world in west. How reached. The Broad Path of Tane. Two spirit-worlds. No punishment of soul after death. Tapu.
An eminent writer on Egyptology has told us that the ancient Egyptians can scarcely be said to have possessed a national religion, and that we can merely speak of their religious ideas. The latter, however, were exceedingly numerous, as also were the gods, or manifestations of gods, in the Egyptian pantheon. This was precisely the condition of Maori religion. No concrete form of national religion existed; no universal system of worship was practised. The cultus of the Supreme Being was confined to a narrow circle; it was never a national system, never known to the people. Our task, therefore, is to examine the nature of Maori belief in supernatural powers, the status and duties of his so-called priests, his spiritual concepts and belief in a future life, together with his practice of shamanism and magic.
As a preliminary statement it may be asserted that a barbaric folk such as the Maori is usually much more religious than are peoples of a higher culture stage—than ourselves, for example. We may contemptuously brand
native beliefs with the name of superstition, but they are the beliefs from which our own higher religions have been evolved. They entered into practically every activity of Maori life. Some form of ritual, some ceremony or formula, pertained to every industry, to agriculture, seafaring, war, social usages, house-building, canoe-making, bird-snaring, fishing, travelling, &c. The Maori could do little without relying on his gods for help or protection. In birth, marriage, sickness, death, burial, and exhumation the gods must be consulted or appealed to. Without their protection man cannot retain life; his spiritual welfare would depart and evil powers would destroy him. We have to rely on force, in the form of civil law and police, in order to maintain order and peace; without these, chaotic disorder and disaster would overtake our social system. The barbaric Maori had none of these: his gods preserved order for him; fear of their anger was the most powerful influence in the Maori commune.
Maori religion was in a most interesting stage of development when Europeans broke through the hanging sky and destroyed the fabric of untold centuries. We shall see anon that these barbaric folk had in times long passed away evolved, inherited, or borrowed the concept of a Supreme Being, which conception was pitched upon a high plane of thought; that they believed in two spirit-worlds, in the existence of a personified form of evil dwelling in the underworld, and were apparently developing the belief in a hell and heaven, though they had not reached the point of belief in any punishment of the human soul after death. They practised to some extent ceremonial confession, absolution, and immersion; and other evidence points to a dawning idea of the necessity of combining morality and religion. Other matter shows us how these Polynesian folk were gradually evolving a form of racial religion, and the methods followed. Speaking generally, these methods and concepts resembled those of other races, but differed in some respects. Thus their treatment of the concept of a Supreme Being was very different from that employed by Semitic folk as shown in the Bible. The Maori, in common with his brethren of the isles of Polynesia, possesses a good deal of Asiatic mysticism, and shows in his myths, spiritual concepts, and religious ideas that he has in the past been given to introspective thought. Doubtless this remark applies to the higher minds only of such a folk; but the same may be said of any people. It is very remarkable that the average Maori can, if he has confidence in you, discuss questions relating to abstruse
matters in a manner impossible to many of our own folk, with all our advantages. In the following brief account of Maori beliefs, or religious ideas, we shall see that we are viewing a remarkable and highly interesting process—namely, a religion in the making. This inner view of the process, of the working of the mind of barbaric man, is assuredly of great value to anthropologists, more especially to those who study the development of religion.
It will be seen that myth, religion, and magic are commingled in our account of Maori life, and it is quite impossible to wholly separate them. The same may be said of higher forms of religion, wherein are conserved many old pagan myths of remote times. It must also be explained that several planes of Maori religious ideas and practices existed—certainly not less than three—and also that atua (supernatural beings, gods) and tohunga (priestly experts) must also be divided into different grades. Followers of the cultus of the Supreme Being had no dealings with low-class shamanistic performances and black magic, and those who upheld the latter were not allowed to attain any knowledge of high-class ritual and teachings. The cult of the departmental gods formed a third system intermediate between those above mentioned.
In the first place, we will glance at the native beliefs connected with such supernormal beings as we generally term “gods,” though the term is not always appropriate. Some of these beings may be classified as tutelary deities, as “parents” or originating-powers; others as “demons,” or evil spirits. Even the lowest type were supposed to be helpful to man, if placated in a proper manner. The only ones who were persistently evil, who never assisted or succoured man, seem to have been Whiro and his myrmidons of the lower world.
Our atua maori, or native gods, may be classified as follows:—
Io, the Supreme Being.
The departmental gods—personifications of natural phenomena, &c.
District gods—more or less widely known.
Inferior beings—deified ancestors, “families,” demons, of local fame.
In the first class Io stands alone. There can be but one Supreme Being, and the cult of Io was the acme of the esoteric beliefs of the higher minds of the people. It was unknown to the majority of the people, being confined to the first order of priestly adepts and the superior families. The departmental gods are represented by the
offspring of the primal parents, Sky and Earth, and are personified forms of natural phenomena. Each presides over his own department, and is looked upon as a parent or originating being—a tutelary being more than what we commonly understand as a god. They were, however, placated by means of offerings, and ritual formulae were recited in order to influence them in favour of the reciters or the clan. It is thus seen that they must be included in any description of Maori religion. In the third class we have a number of beings who occupy a lower rank than the departmental deities, and may be said to be subordinate to them. Thus Tu, of the second class, personifies war and bloodshed; he may be styled the chief war-god. But Uenuku, Kahukura, and others of the third class, also are war-gods, though they do not rank with Tu. The latter personifies war, is looked upon as a general supervisor of the art of war; his tapu rests on all fighting-men, but any fighting-force selected an atua of the third or fourth class as a fighting-god, or more intimate controller of their actions and destiny. There is a considerable difference between the tutelary beings of class 2 and the atua of class 3 in the native mind, but that difference is by no means easy to explain. Some of these third-class beings are also personifications: the two mentioned above are personified forms of the rainbow. Some of them are known all over New Zealand, as are Uenuku and Maru, and a few are also known in Polynesia. The fourth class of atua includes many deified ancestors—indeed, is apparently principally composed of such ancestral shades. The spirits of still-born infants, termed atua kahu, also come into this class. Any person could, by means of certain ceremonial observances, become the medium of a deceased parent or other relative, and so gain the status of a seer. The spirit of such deceased forbear would watch over such a medium, and warn him of any danger threatening his life or spiritual life-principle. Such atua as these can scarcely be termed “gods”—they are familiar spirits.
In regard to the superior cult of Io, the Supreme Being, its ritual was resorted to, or practised, only in connection with what were considered highly important matters. It never became known to the many, but was jealously conserved and retained by the few, hence it was not affected by degeneration as were similar concepts in other lands. The Maori preserved the purity of his conception of the Supreme Being by means of withholding it from the bulk of the people, hence Io was never degraded to the level of a tribal war-god, as was the case with Jahweh. To
force monotheism on a barbaric people must necessarily result in a form of degeneration of a superior concept. If the lower minds of a community are not allowed to deal with low-class gods, then they will proceed to drag down the high-class being to their own level.
Among the beings of the second class the most important are Tane, Tu, Rongo, Tangaroa, Whiro, and Tawhiri-matea, with others of minor importance. These were all offspring of the primal parents, the Sky Father and Earth Mother, and are personifications of natural phenomena. Thus Tane personifies the sun; he is the fertilizer and light-bringer. As the fertilizer he was the origin of trees and all vegetation, and also created woman. He was the most important being of his class. Tu represents war and bloodshed, and resulting death; he seems to personify the setting sun, as Tum did in Egypt. Rongo was the patron of agriculture, and, as is shown in Hawaiian myth, personified the moon. For Rongo was but another name of Hina, though the change of sex is unusual. Hina and Sina are the names of the moon-goddess throughout Polynesia, while Sin was the moon-god of Babylonia. One would suppose that Tane the Fertilizer, the warmth-giving sun, would have been selected as the principal patron of growing crops; but not so: the Maori deemed Rongo more important in connection with agricultural rites and ceremonies pertaining to peace-making. In this he was but following ancient Asiatic and Egyptian belief and usage, for in those lands the moon was viewed as a generator, and so became a patron of agriculture and a corn-god. In the latter land the personified form of the moon was also connected with the art of weaving and with maternity, even as Sina, or Hina, or Hine-te-iwaiwa, is in New Zealand and Polynesia.
In Tangaroa we have an ocean denizen; he is another parental or origin being, and represents all fish. Whiro is the personified form of evil, darkness, and death; while Tawhiri-matea personifies wind. All these, and others, were placated and conciliated by means of offerings and incantatory formulae, although no offerings were ever made to Io. The peculiar dual name of Rongo-ma-Tane (Rongo and Tane) occurs in both New Zealand and Polynesia, employed as though it were the title of a single being. This is equivalent to utilizing the form “Moon and Sun” as though those two useful bodies represented one being. Both were viewed by the Maori as fertilizing agents. In certain lands of the Old World moon-worship is supposed to have preceded sun-worship, as is Babylonia.
In Babylonia and some other regions the moon was considered at one period to be older and of greater importance than the sun. With the Maori Rongo was an elder brother of Tane, and the two are coupled together in the dual being Rongo-ma-Tane (Rongo and Tane), represented apparently in the double stone image employed in connection with growing crops. The crescent carved on the upper end of the shaft of the old Maori spade is a well-known lunar symbol.
Many of the gods of the third class are also personifications. Thus Uenuku and Kahukura are personified forms of the rainbow, and Maru (known in Polynesia) represents some celestial phenomenon. Tunui seems to represent meteors, and Te Po-tuatini comets. Tupai, Mataaho, Hine-te-uira, and Tama-te-uira all personify lightning, as also does Tawhaki. Whaitiri is thunder, and Te Aputahi-a-pawa represents the same phenomenon. Aitupawa, known to Maori and Samoan, also belongs to this class. Rongomai seems to personify meteorites or aerolites. Rakaiora represents lizards; but Rehua, Puhaorangi, Ruatau, and Tau-o-rongo are denizens of the heavens. Hine-korako personifies some lunar phenomenon—a halo, probably; while Ruamano and others represent monsters of the deep. Puhi is the so-called eel-god; Tamarau represents meteors. Ihungaru and Te Ihinga-o-te-ra lack explanation. Tahu is a kind of tutelary being presiding over all foods of man. To give further lists of names would be tedious; but we can now grasp the meaning of Mackenzie's remark in his work on Babylonian myths— “Behind all systems of primitive religion lies the formative background of natural phenomena.”
The fourth class of atua, or “gods,” as we are pleased to term them, includes cacodemons, evil spirits, and other low-class beings, also “familiars” and deified spirits of ancestors. The bulk of these beings seem to have been ancestral spirits, in fact, and any person might become the human medium of his deceased parent or other forbear. In this latter case the medium would thus become possessed of a familiar spirit whose duty it would be to assist and succour him, and to warm him of any threatening danger. These godlets, or spirits, had, of course, to be conciliated by means of offerings, and any infringement of the rules of tapu would cause them to withhold their protection and withdraw the powers granted to the medium. In such a condition the medium would become hinapo (syn. kahupo)—that is, he would be spiritually blind; he would be unable to see supernatural warnings; he would no longer be a seer.
Many of these inferior atua had but a brief reign, possibly only a generation, when they passed away into the unknown. A man might conciliate the spirit of a defunct parent or grandparent and become its medium for his lifetime, but possibly no one would occupy that position after his death, so that that atua or “familiar” would disappear from human ken. In fact, that god died. This term atua was used in a wide sense; it included all supernatural beings, spirits or manifestations, from the majestic Supreme Being down to low-class malignant demons, also familiar spirits, lares, and even any inanimate object viewed as a tipua. The term is even applied to disease, and may include almost anything that is disagreeable or viewed as being supernatural, as atua. Its wide range of meaning is disconcerting to the student and writer.
A number of the fourth-class atua were what are known as atua kahu. These were the spirits of still-born children, and such spirits were believed to be peculiarly malignant, hence they were often conciliated and utilized as tribal war-gods. Women sometimes acted as mediums of these parental, ancestral, or foetus spirits. A detailed account of one of the latter class appeared in volume 6 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society.
Evil spirits are known as atua whiro, probably because Whiro is the personified form of evil. (This Whiro of times primeval must not be confused with Whiro the Polynesian voyager alluded to previously in connection with Rata.) Demoniacal possession was a common belief, and disease and bodily pains were believed to be caused by atua ngau tangata, or man-assailing demons. This gross and world-wide superstition was the cause of countless barbarities and untold misery and suffering. Such possession might be the result of infringing some law of tapu, or be brought about by means of black magic. Thus the treatment of disease was purely empirical, and the priest acted as doctor, his task consisting of expelling the evil spirit. This was accomplished by means of a shamanistic performance and the recital of magic formulae of incantatory aspect. This absurd belief in demoniacal possession was long a marked feature of Christianity, which absorbed many pagan myths and superstitions. The above belief as to the cause of disease would, of course, prevent all medical research. Among an ignorant and superstitious folk the practice of the medicinal art is apt to be looked upon as being an impious interference with the activities of supernatural beings.
Atua of the third and fourth classes were in some cases employed by their human mediums as messengers in connection with war or black magic; these were termed atua toro. They were also utilized as guardians and protectors of burial-caves or other tapu places, and of villages and people. It must be recognized that man was ever, in Maori belief, under the protection of the gods, and lacking such protection he had but a poor chance to retain life. The Maori placed himself under the protection of a certain god or gods, and this protection was his defence against the innumerable evil spirits that ever surrounded him. The loss of that protecting power would mean that his sacred life-principle would be seriously endangered; he would be exposed to, and defenceless against, the fell designs of evil spirits, of dread Whiro and his satellites, the shafts of black magic, and all evil and destructive influences. “Be assured,” saith the Maori, “that man cannot live without the protection of the gods.”
These ancestor “godlets” were in most cases confined to the fourth or lowest grade of atua, hence we see that ancestor-worship, so called, occupied but a lowly position among the Maori folk. As to the word “worship,” it is not applicable to the Maori attitude towards his gods; for he did not worship them as we understand the term. Such a feeling is discernible only in the attitude of superior minds towards the primal being Io.
Atua of the third and fourth classes possessed aria (visible forms, or forms of incarnation). Thus some were incarnate in birds, some in lizards, &c., while the aria of others was the rainbow, a meteor, lightning, comets, or other natural phenomena—that is, they were personified forms of such phenomena.
Lord Avebury's statement to the effect that ancestor worship occupies a higher plane than sun-worship cannot be accepted in connection with the natives of Polynesia. Here we find that the former represents the lowest form of religion, while the cult of Tane is the higher phase, second only to the cult of Io. Spencer's theory that all religions were based on ancestor-worship seems to be untenable, and is not supported by evidence from Polynesia. Grant Allen's belief that all gods were simply dead men must be classed with Spencer's theory. Both have failed to grasp the important part that personified forms of natural phenomena have played in the theogonies of barbaric man.
The subject of offerings made to gods is one of some importance, or was so to the Maori of yore. The Supreme Being alone was exempt from this practice; no offerings
whatever were made to him, presumably because he was viewed as a beneficent being. Had he been a jealous, vengeful being, as Jehovah is depicted, then assuredly it would have been necessary to placate him by means of offerings. Offerings commenced with atua of the second or departmental class: thus offerings of birds were made to Tane, of fish and seaweed to Tangaroa, of cultivated foods to Rongo. Such offerings were termed whakahere and whakaepa, both of which terms mean “to conciliate by means of a present.” Some offerings, such as those pertaining to cultivated crops, were made with certain ceremonial performances, while a traveller or other person might simply toss aside a portion of a meal with the remark, “To kai, E Whiro!” (“Thy food, O Whiro!”). Natives believed that the gods consumed merely the ahua (semblance) of these offerings. Small offerings, such as a modicum of food, were often “waived” to the gods, the hand containing it being extended with a waving motion toward space. A portion of the first fruits of each season—fish, fowl, and vegetable—were offered to the departmental gods. Small offerings were made by travellers to the genius loci of any place where they camped. Those overtaken by a storm or other danger at sea would pluck a hair from their heads and cast it into the waters, at the same time reciting a charm to avert the danger.
The most important offerings made to the gods are represented by human sacrifice. This custom is one that calls for close examination, as certain cases described as illustrations of human sacrifice were simply non-ceremonial killings in connection with food-supply. Ceremonial or ritual human sacrifice was by no means a common occurrence among the Maori. Human beings were occasionally sacrificed both in war and peace; sometimes as direct offerings to the gods, rarely for purposes of divination. Another custom was the slaying of a person in order to add éclat to some social or ceremonial function; this was a fairly common procedure. In some cases slaves provided the necessary victim; in others a raid was made against a neighbouring tribe; but in some cases a member of the same tribe was slain. In this latter case the victim would not be a member of the same hapu or subtribe as his slayers. In war, the first enemy slain was tapu, and his heart was offered to the war-god. Other occasions on which a human sacrifice was sometimes made were—(1) the building of an important house; (2) the launching of a new war-canoe; (3) the completion of a new pa, or fortified village; (4) in connection with agriculture. Human beings were slain in
connection with certain other functions, but apparently merely to add importance to such meetings—that is, to the leading persons concerned in them.
Maori religion is marked by a lack of idols and images of gods. Of true idols we may say that he had none, and but very few images were employed. No images represented Io the Supreme Being, but small wooden ones representing Tane, Tu, Rongo, Tangaroa, Tawhiri-matea, Haumia, and Maru were occasionally used. Some of these are in human form, but others, of which no specimens have been preserved, are said by Mr. John White to have been peculiarly formed wooden pegs of a symbolical form, as illustrated in volume 1 of his Ancient History of the Maori. Stone images of very rude form were used in connection with crops, and some of these represented Rongo; otherwise the Maori did not fashion stone images. The wooden images representing Rongo, Tangaroa, &c., were utilized by priestly adepts simply as temporary abiding-places for spirit-gods while certain magic formulae were being chanted, after which the atua abandoned the image until again summoned by the priest. The carved figures in human form seen in houses, storehouses, and on stockades never represented gods, but many were named after ancestors.
The lesson to be read from all collected data is simply this: that Maori religion was no well-defined system of beliefs and practices. It was a loose, free-and-easy series of beliefs and ceremonies that left each individual at liberty to please himself to a great extent. So long as he observed the rules of tapu he might please himself as to his dealings with the gods. He was extremely fortunate in not being subjected to any form of priestly intolerance, for that barbarous condition often pertains to a higher plane of culture than that occupied by the Maori.
In regard to ritual, we find that such matters differed almost as much as did the status and disposition of the gods. That pertaining to the cult of Io was marked by much solemnity, and its invocations and chants were greatly superior to those connected with the lower gods. This cultus had no concern with affairs of minor importance, or with anythig evil, such as black magic. Nor were all persons allowed to attend its functions, but only members of the higher class of priestly experts and of the principal families. The ordinary people were not allowed to listen to the ceremonial chants, nor to become acquainted with the twelve names of Io.
The ritual connected with the gods of the second and third classes was of an intermediate character. Occasionally one notes a direct appeal to higher powers, something that may be termed an invocation; but such effusions are certainly rare. The Maori folk did not pray. In the great majority of cases they employed formulae that can only be termed “charms” or “incantations”: they are not prayers; they are not invocations. They are on a level with the magical formulae employed by the people of Egypt, Sumeria, Babylonia, and elsewhere in olden times. In all cases these karakia, as the Maori termed them, although containing no appeal, were yet supposed to influence the gods indirectly, and to cause them to assist the reciters. These charms or incantations entered into every activity and phase of human life. There were many pertaining to birth, baptism, courtship, marriage, divorce, sickness, death, burial, exhumation, reburial, and the despatch of the spirit to the spirit-world. Others concerned all industries—house-building, canoe-making, tree-felling, agriculture, fishing, bird-snaring, and many other activities; while those pertaining to war, magic, divination, exorcism, &c., were as the sands of the seashore in number—yea, as leaves in the vale of Vallombrosa.
The charms and incantatory formulae pertaining to the fourth-class atua, and those employed by ordinary persons to avert evil omens, &c., were simple productions of no merit, and often apparently of no meaning. Of all recitations termed karakia, we find at the bottom of the list the charms used in playing games, &c., as those to cause a kite to fly well, and others used in dart-throwing, wrestling, and so on. Thus the term covers a host of jingles, charms, chants, and recitations, from such as are employed in childish games to the chants, sonorous and euphonious, of the cult of Io. The higher-class karakia represent a kind of blank verse. They were intoned, not merely spoken, and always in rhythmical measure. In some cases, when lengthy chants of importance were delivered, two adepts took part in the performance. One would commence the recitation, and continue it until his breath gave out, whereupon his companion took up the intoning without a moment's break in the rendering. This breakless recital was deemed a matter of importance, and any mistake or omission was viewed as a serious affair—indeed, it might cause the death of the reciter.
It must be added that every man possessed some knowledge of such charms. He would at least know some used for the purpose of averting evil omens, and others connected
with his various occupations, such as fishing, trapping, bird-snaring, &c. More important ritual recitations were acquired and delivered only by priestly experts.
In some cases religious ceremonies were performed in public, but some of the more important ones were too tapu to be witnessed by the many; the knowledge of higher ritual was confined to the few. Ceremonial feasts were a marked feature of such functions, and at these the food for tapu persons were cooked in special ovens. The religious functions pertaining to firstfruits and harvesting operations were of much interest. The elements of fire and water entered frequently into Maori ritual; sacred fires pertained to many ceremonies, while water was employed in many rites of purification. The practice of immersion was followed in connection with certain ceremonial performances, and was, indeed, a part of a peculiar ritual of absolution. There was more in Maori religion and ethics than we know of, but no person has made a close study of them. The use of human hair as a kind of offering in times of danger, and the employment of saliva in ceremonial observances, were other peculiar features. The ceremonies and ritual performed by first-grade priests over a newly born child of rank were very remarkable; the dedication of the child to Io in connection with its sacred life-principle being a peculiar feature thereof. There may be survivals of a phallic cultus noted in Maori beliefs and practices, or at least they held very singular views regarding the innate powers of the organs of reproduction. The old concept of the phallic serpent, and the Asiatic symbolizing of the phallus in the eel, are met with in Polynesia, and Maori myth has preserved some very strange beliefs in this connection. The explanation of our borrowed myth of Eve and the serpent is in Maori minds.
We now see that the so-called priests and mediums influenced supernatural beings by means of incantations, offerings, and ceremonial performances, all of a conciliatory nature.
Priestly Experts—Tohunga
The term tohunga, as understood by the average European resident, denotes a shamanistic humbug; but the word simply means an expert or adept, and not necessarily in sacerdotal matters. Thus a tohunga matatuhi is a seer, but a tohunga whaihanga is a carpenter or canoe-maker, and a tohunga ta moko a tattooing-artist. The higher class of priests were tohunga ahure wa and tohunga tuahu.
Other terms were tohunga puri and tohunga kiato; while tohunga makutu and ruanuku denoted a wizard—dealer in black magic. The title of pouwhiro was applied in some parts to a high-class priest, and that of horomata to one of the third grade. Those engaged in learning the higher type of oral traditions, and in acquiring sacerdotal lore, were known as pia, taura, and tauira at different stages of their progress. These tohunga of the highest class did not indulge in shamanistic jugglery or black magic. Thaumaturgic performances were the province of the tohunga kehua (a charlatan, an empiric and imposter).
The upper orders of tohunga were the conservers of all superior versions of tribal lore, and transmitted such knowledge orally down succeeding generations. Youths of superior intelligence and memorizing-power were selected to be trained as tohunga. The teaching of matters pertaining to religion, cosmogony, the origin of man, &c., was an extremely tapu business, and such men as these tohunga remained tapu for life. Those of the low class were but shamans and wizards, and never acquired any knowledge of an esoteric nature. Many of them, especially those dealing with atua of the fourth class, were not in any way trained men, but merely imposters of the shaman type. There was a world of difference between the low-class sorcerer and the priests of the cult of Io.
The position of tohunga of the superior class, priestly experts, in the tribe was an important one. In many cases they were members of the more important families, and so possessed two forms of prestige. They took part in the conduct of all tribal affairs, and in war their assistance was, of course, indispensable in connection with divination and the many ceremonial performances. They were the historians and record-keepers, the conservers of old-time ritual, and astrologers. The tohunga occupied the place of the doctor, the military leader, the agricultural expert, and many others.
When performing any tapu ceremony a priest might not wear any clothing, his covering being confined to a rude apron of green twigs. Some European observers have thought that these priests were acquainted with ventriloquism. Many of them were rhapsodists in connection with their practice of matakite, or second sight, and prophecy. These prophetic utterances or oracles were often delivereed to the people in the form of short songs. When they pertained to war—a proposed raid—these were often adopted as war-songs, and were sung during the
performance of the war-dance. A few students of Maori life and customs are inclined to believe that many of the old-time tohunga were acquainted with hypnotism and telepathy; that they possessed certain phases of knowledge and powers not usually attributed to barbaric folk; also that the many karakia or formulae employed were really a form of medium between a mental process and its object. Thus the karakia makutu, or spells of black magic, acted as a connecting-link between the innate powers of the wizard and the object to be affected by them. The object might be a person to be slain, a tree to be blasted, a stone to be shattered. A certain element of Asiatic mysticism is assuredly found among the Polynesians, and certain strange eastern ceremonial acts—fire-walking, for example—were practised in Polynesia and New Zealand.
It is a noteworthy fact that the Maori of these isles never erected any form of edifice wherein to perform religious ceremonies; he ever preferred to conduct such in the open. The stone pyramidal structures of Tahiti were unknown here, as also were the stone platforms of Tonga. The most ever done by the Maori to mark his tuahu, or places where religious rites were performed, was to set up a rough unworked stone or stones, and a rude platform of sticks on which offerings were placed. Among the illustrations prepared for Mr. White's Ancient History of the Maori is one entitled “A tuahu and six hara.” This is not a New Zealand item, but represents a sacred place at Tahiti. It appeared in Cook's Voyages, and later in the works of Ellis and Rienzi. This dislike to erecting any form of sacred edifice for the performance of tapu ritual, the strong preference for the open air when dealing with the gods, was a very marked characteristic of the Maori. It tends to explain the absence of archeological remains of interest in New Zealand, of stone buildings, for among similar barbaric folk such erections are in many cases connected with the religion of the people; they pertain to ceremonial religion, or the dead. The objection of the Maori to fashioning any images of his gods for public exhibition has likewise deprived us of such interesting objects as the stone sculptures of Easter Island and other regions.
One of the few occasions on which highly tapu ritual was recited within a building was when scholars were being taught the venerated tribal lore in the school of learning. A building used for this purpose contained an ahurewa, which name denotes an exceedingly tapu place whereat priests performed religious ceremonies. The generic term
for such places is tuahu, and there were different kinds of them, each of which possessed a specific name. Inasmuch as no building was erected, it is not easy to ascertain what the difference amounted to.
Many ceremonies were performed at the wai tapu of a village community. This was a stream or pool in the vicinity that was resorted to in many cases where immersion or some other form of lustration was practised.
The Whare Wananga
In pre-European times the Maori had evolved a peculiar institution in the form of a school of learning. In order to preserve tribal lore it was necessary that it should be taught to a certain number of young men of each generation, hence the institution known as the whare wananga and Whare kura. Each tribe of importance contained certain men skilled in tribal history, in long-conserved myth and ritual. To these men were given the task of transmitting the prized lore to the young men selected as pupils. The
subjects taught may be classified as follows: (1) High-class ritual and other lore; (2) historical and other matters of less importance; (3) the arts of black magic. In some cases at least the conservers of what may be termed high-class matter, such as the higher form of ritual and old cosmogonic myths, would have nothing to do with black magic, the art of the warlock. The teaching of all these tapu matters was necessarily itself an extremely tapu business, and no person not engaged in either teaching or learning was allowed to be present. In some cases the instruction was given at some secluded spot away from the village; in others the lessons were conducted in a house that was put under tapu and to which thee public had no access for the time.
The whare wananga, or house of occult lore, was an ancient institution. The original one, known as “Rangiatea,” was situated in the uppermost of the twelve heavens. The first one on earth was erected by one Rua-te-pupuke, who is the personification of knowledge, and was situated in the original homeland of the Maori. The name of this house of learning was “Whare-kura,” which name is often employed as a synonym for whare wananga. In this house was conserved all the tapu knowledge of the three “baskets” of the wananga, or esoteric lore obtained by Tane from the Supreme Being. Another house constructed by Whiro, and named “Tai-whetuki,” was devoted to the conserving of all noxious ritual, arts of black magic, all arts and knowledge pertaining to evil and death. From that remote period man has ever constructed and utilized these houses of knowledge, says the Maori, even to the time when the arrival of Europeans broke down ancient customs and practices. In whatever lands the Maori of yore sojourned, such places were utilized, and the priestly experts who presided over them became the keepers of tribal records and national history. In his settlement of Polynesia the Maori was compelled to dwell in isolated far-sundered communities, and then each one had to preserve its own lore as it best could. Some communities seem to have succeeded much better than others. In New Zealand the institution was kept up faithfully by the principal tribes, and we have the names of many of the old houses. The Takitumu folk of the eastern side of the North Island were perhaps the most advanced in regard to this mode of preserving knowledge: Some of the whare wananga were famous for many generations; such as the “Ra-wheoro” at Uawa. In such cases the actual house was rebuilt when it fell into disrepair, for it was not a
Maori custom to repair a house. In other cases the whare wananga was but a name and a system; no special house bore the name, and the knowledge pertaining to it might be taught in the open air or in any house set apart for the purpose.
East Coast natives tell us that there were three schools of learning in former times in that region. In one was taught what was deemed high-class matter only, in another ordinary tribal history, and in a third the arts of black magic. A learner made his own choice as to which “basket” of knowledge he would acquire. It is certain that different houses were not erected in which these subjects might be taught.
A considerable amount of ritual pertairred to these instructional courses, as also some very peculiar customs, and scholars had to show that they had successfully memorized the matter taught. After each lesson the scholars had to be freed from tapu ere they could return to their homes. Some of these scholars became priestly experts in the sense of practitioners, but not necessarily so.
Spiritual Concepts of the Maori
The Maori conception of the spiritual nature of man is a matter of considerable interest, and his beliefs in connection with the possession of such a spirit by inanimate objects are very remarkable, though not uncommon among barbaric folk. The conclusions arrived at by the priestly adepts of yore as to the soul of Nature and unity of all things, and of all things originating with the Supreme Being, show that they must have indulged in a considerable amount of introspective thought.
The Maori has ever recognized an immortal element in man, which he styles the wairua. Indeed, he may be said to have held the theory of the tripartite nature of man—body, soul, and spirit being his tinana, mauri, and wairua. This word wairua also means “shadow.” Another Maori word denoting a reflected image and shadow is ata, and this is a name for spirit or soul here, and at Uvea in the Loyalty Isles, as also at Taumako. The wairua of a person is that which leaves his body at death, never to return. It also leaves his body for brief periods during his life—that is, when he dreams—and is a more active force than the mauri. Spirits of the dead that do not immediately proceed to the spirit-world but lurk round the village home in the form of ghosts are termed kehua. The mauri of a person
differs from his wairua, for it cannot leave the body during life. It is his life-principle, or vital spark, and so is sometimes referred to as mauri ora, or living mauri. This word ora itself is used to denote a spirit at Tikopia. The mauri is termed the mouri in some dialects; it is the mauli (life, soul) of Wallis Island, the mauri (to live) of Efate, and mauri (Soul, mind) of the Paumotu Group. Certainly the moui (life) of Niue is connected with this mouri or mauri.
This mauri is also possessed by what we view as inanimate objects, thus we hear of pains being taken to protect the mauri of crops so that they may flourish. A similar belief in connection with rice exists in Indonesia. Again, apart from this soul mauri, there is also the material mauri, which is some object that represents the vitality and general welfare of a place, a forest, river, lake, village, or of people. This material object, often a stone, was a taunga atua, a sort of shrine in which certain spirit-gods were located by priestly experts. Thus such a talisman might be employeed in order to protect a fortified village—that is, to preserve the health, courage, prestige, and general welfare of the inhabitants of that village.
Another peculiar word is hau. The hau of a person, of land, of a forest, &c., is its vital essence or power. The material mauri above described serves to protect the hau of land, forest, or man. A forest or stream provided with such a talisman will be the resort of great numbers of birds or fish, because they are under the protection of that object. The material mauri protects their intangible mauri, hence birds and fish from regions not so favoured will flock thither in order to share its prosperity and enjoy the protection of its talisman. But ever the powers of that talisman emanate from the gods.
A singular illustration of the esoteric beliefs of the Maori, of his powers of introspective thought, is seen in the highly interesting concept of the purification of the human spirit after death. This belief was apparently confined to what we may call the higher minds of a community, and was unknown to the ordinary people. It taught that the spirit which leaves the body at death still holds certain gross elements, and that after a certain period of time these are sloughed off, and so the wairua becomes etherealized, as it were. This purified spirit
is known as the awe, a word denoting lightness, and hamano, which expression implies the heart or centre, the innermost part.
A peculiar form of ritual, termed tuku wairua, was recited over dying persons in order to facilitate the passage of the spirit to the spirit-world. The term ata (reflected image, shadow, semblance) is sometimes applied to this departing spirit.
The ordinary conception of spiritual life after death was a somewhat matter-of-fact one. The spirits of men are spoken of as though retaining in the lower spirit-world their material form of this world. They are said to live much as they did here; they dwell in houses, cultivate and consume food-supplies, and in the story of Mataora we note that they tattoo themselves. This latter statement, however, may perhaps be viewed as an historical tradition permeated by myth. What the inner teachings may have been concerning such spirit-life we do not know, but they could scarcely have been more vague than our own.
An old native belief is to the effect that when a person is near the point of death the spirits of his dead forbears come hither from the spirit-world in order to guide his own wairua to spirit-land. The spirit-world, or the entrance thereto, lies afar off in the west, under the setting sun, hence it is alluded to as “the hidden land of Tane.” At the same time we are told that the spirits of the dead remain about their former homes here for just so long a period as intervened between their birth and the falling of the pito (umbilical cord). Maori beliefs resemble our own in at least one particular—they are often inconsistent. However, the passage of the freed spirit across the vast ocean to the westward is made clear to us. It traverses the way known as the Ara Whanui a Tane (the Broad Path of Tane), and that path is the gleaming sun glade, the golden path of the setting sun. Along that glittering path that traverses the heaving breast of Hine-moana fare the spirits of the dead, until in hidden, far-off seas they reach the old homeland of the race, the land of Irihia. There they congregate at the sacred meeting-place of spirits at Hawaiki-nui, and from there pass to one of the two spirit-worlds, that in the heavens or the underworld. There is some evidence to show that the upper spirit-world was the aristocratic realm of the two, and that the majority of the people knew little or nothing of this conception. Each spirit seems to have made its choice as to its ultimate destination, and apparently there was nothing to dread in either case, for there is no punishment of the spirit after death in Maori belief. It was reserved for the gentle teachings of Christianity to acquaint the Maori with the existence of burning lakes, fiery pits, and other unpleasant conditions awaiting him.
A popular belief is that Hine the erst Dawn Maid is the destroyer of man, that ever she draws mankind down to death in the underworld, known as the Po, or the Reinga, also as Rarohenga. This is quite a wrong impression, and it is shown in whare wananga teachings that Hine is the protector of the spirits of the dead. Ever she wages war against dread Whiro and his evil satellites, who ever strive to destroy the spirits of mankind that abide in Rarohenga.
Tapu
We now come to one of the most important institutions of Maori life, and one that not only permeated his religion but also formed a very necessary and effective element in
his social life. Inasmuch as the Maori did not possess a code of civil law, it was necessary that he should have some institution to act as a corrective and coherent power in his social life. The most important of the substitutes employed was tapu. The system of tapu was a series of prohibitions, and its influence was very far-reaching—so much so that it entered into all activities of native life. The laws of tapu affected all crises of life—birth, marriage, sickness, death, burial, exhumation; all industries; and no person in the community was exempt from its stringent rules. To disregard those rules meant disaster to the individual; but the punishment meted out to the transgressor was not inflicted by his fellow-tribesmen—it was imposed by the gods. Such punishment came in one or two forms: either the offender was afflicted directly by some dire tribulation, possibly illness caused by demoniacal possession, or even by death, or the protection of the gods was simply withdrawn from him. In this latter case the offender was still in the most dangerous condition, simply because his sacred life-principle, his mauri, was unprotected and exposed to many serious dangers. That tapu principle became exposed to every ill wind that blows, to all shafts of black magic, to all the malign influences that ever surround man on every side, that are ever ready to assail him. Unless a person in this sorry plight hied him to a tohunga, or priestly expert, and had such disabilities removed, he would probably worry himself into an early grave. If a seer disregarded a rule of tapu, he at once lost his power of second sight and became kahupo, or spiritually blind—that is, he would be unable to see the portents and signs by means of which the gods warn man of dangers that threaten him, and enable him to peer into the future. It is a singular fact, and one frequently noted by European sojourners among the natives, that a Maori can “die whenever he wants to,” as some put it. This means that when a native believes that he is stricken by, say, a spell of black magic he is almost assuredly doomed, and will not live long.
The word tapu is often explained as bearing the meaning of “sacred,” but that may be said to be one of its minor or secondary meanings. The term always implies a prohibition, and the rules of tapu are practically a series of prohibitions. A tapu place is a probibited place; a tapu person is a person who must keep aloof from others; a tapu house cannot be used for common purposes, as cooking or eating. To pollute any tapu place or person, as by
contact with cooked food, is a serious matter, and places the offender in a very dangerous predicament. It is dangerous because he has offended the gods, and until he has, through the services of a tohunga, placated such gods, his life is in danger. Another phase of tapu is represented by such conditions as are termed “unclean” in the Scriptures. The gods represent the vital power and force of all tapu, they are the backbone of the system, and fear of the gods was the strongest force in Maori life.
The removal of a condition of tapu from place or person was an act that involved some peculiar ceremonies and the recitation of certain formulae. These acts of purification were deemed to be of great importance, and indeed were absolutely necessary, so genuine was the belief in the powers of supernormal beings. The ceremonial lifting of tapu from a newly constructed fortified village or a new house was an impressive act, and included some remarkable ritual chants. The release of a bird during such a rite finds its parallel in India, and tapu was a marked feature of the cultus of Zoroaster, as it is of Indian religions.
The condition of tapu of so pronounced a form as to prevent a person touching food with his hands was not an uncommon occurrence in Maoriland. Such a person was helpless at meal-times, and had to be fed by another, while he had to be particularly careful to avoid pollution of his tapu, a misfortune that might entail the most serious consequences. The head was the most tapu part of a person, and should a very tapu person happen to scratch his head with his fingers, that hand at once became useless, and could not be used until purified—i.e., rendered noa, or free of tapu. If such a person blew a fire in order to make it burn, that fire was thereby rendered tapu, and could not be used for any ordinary purposes. Tapu represents the mana or power of the gods, and is not to be trifled with. It may be said to have possessed a moral force that no other system or institution could have exerted. Montgomery puts this well in his Religions, Past and Present: “Taboo is an important aspect of the phenomena of religion, influencing primitive ethical and social behaviour in general to an extent that makes it in some regions as broad a concept as that of religion itself.”
Early visitors to New Zealand were often entertained by the vagaries of tapu natives, and others who respected the rules of tapu. In many cases Europeans seriously offended natives by unwittingly disregarding such rules. Dr. Savage noted how natives objected to passing along the
tween-decks of the ships where nets containing potatoes were slung overhead. A native on board Marsden's vessel had a plate of rice, a spoon, and a pot of tea placed before him. He took spoonfuls of rice from the plate and emptied them into his hand, from which he ate it. He then poured the tea into his hand and so let it run into his mouth. By acting so he avoided making the vessels tapu, when it would have been necessary to destroy them or deposit them at some tapu place.
Tapu objects, or objects marking a tapu place, were often painted a red colour by the Maori, a custom that also obtained in India.
Chapter V. Social Usages of the Maori
Substitutes for civil law. A form of theocracy. Muru, a peculiar institution. Social classes. Social unit. The family group. Ariki. Primogeniture. Women of rank. Tapairu, kahurangi, and mareikura. Tribal organization. Family life non-existent. Eponymic ancestors. Treatment of slaves. Property. Chieftainship. Personal behaviour. Power of public opinion. Public discussion of tribal, clan, and family affairs. Military duties. Public announcement an important usage. Sense of dignity. Consanguineous nomenclature. Division of labour. Tasks of men. Status of women. Tasks of women. Village life. Social life. Meals. Hospitality. Population. Generation of fire. Cooking. Domestic vessels. Feasts. Customs pertaining to birth. The tohi rite. Betrothal and marriage. The atahu. Customs and beliefs pertaining to death. Lizard connected with death. Maui and Hine. Death-journey food. The tuku wairua ceremony. Ritual pertaining to sickness. Trussed burial. Exhumation. Sand-dune burial. Objects placed with dead. Social pleasures. Lack of furniture. Mannerisms. Attitudes. Gestures. Carriage. Gait. Greetings. Terms of address.
The social customs of the Maori folk were those of a communistic people, and hence may be likened to those of Polynesia generally. Early voyagers to these isles had a remarkably fine opportunity to study the arts, customs, and institutions of a neolithic folk, a people ignorant of the use of metals, a barbaric community possessing many elements of interest. We have seen that the religious ideas and practices of the Maori were in a very interesting stage of development, and their social usages are also worthy of study. The most striking institution in Maoriland was undoubtedly that substitute for civil law that had served its purpose for so many centuries. The means by which law and order are preserved in savage and barbaric communities, wherein such institutions as our civil law and police force are unknown, convey to us some very important
lessons. We see how uncultured man has in the remote past evolved certain restrictive regulations by means of which society was controlled. In conjunction with the communistic spirit and habits of the people, they induced the cohesion and produced the discipline necessary to a condition of welfare. In the foregoing brief account of Maori religion we saw that the institution of tapu occupied a very important place in Maori economy as a substitute for civil law. Inasmuch as the powers of this tapu came from the gods, they alone rendering it effective, it follows that the Maori had evolved a somewhat theocratic form of government. There were, however, other forces that were relied on in domestic government, as public opinion, the influence of chiefs, and such institutions as that of muru. In all communistic societies public opinion is an exceedingly strong force, a corrective and preventive power of great utility. The Maori also showed much respect for chiefs of importance so long as their behaviour met with approval.
The peculiar institution termed muru was of so strange a nature that it calls for some explanation, and a new paragraph. The word muru means “to plunder,” and was applied to an extraordinary custom, the plundering of those who had committed some offence against the community. So far it was a disciplinary measure, the oddness lying in the list of offences. People were subjected to muru plunderings on account of offences committed by others, and in which they had taken no part. This is one of the anomalies of communistic life. Should a man meet with an accident and so incapacitate himself, he was liable to be plundered as a punishment. Such offences as adultery were generally punished by a muru raid, the unjust part of such proceedings, from our point of view, being the fact that innocent and guilty alike suffered in many cases. It is almost impossible for us to conceive or to bear in mind the point of view of such peoples. To them the individual is as nothing—he does not exist, as it were, as an individual, but only as a part of the group or clan. When any trouble or danger threatened a Maori community its ranks closed up at once and it presented a united front. To assail one was to assail the lot. On the other hand, as a member of the tribe he has no status as an individual under certain circumstances, and he has no right to deprive the community of his services by meeting with an accident.
If you ask a Maori to define the classes of native social life in former times he will specify three such ranks: (1) The chief; (2) the common folk; (3) the slaves.
By making further inquiries we find great difficulty in locating the ware class, or commoners. No one will admit that he is a ware, and, indeed, most can prove that they are closely related to some family of rank. When a family occupies a lowly position it may often be noted that such position has originated in some circumstance that cast it under a cloud for a generation, or perhaps longer. All families can show their connection with people of standing, even though they do not themselves occupy a position of any influence. The descendants of younger sons sometimes hold an inferior position, but in other cases a younger son may, by personal merit or ability, obtain a very important standing.
The rangatira, or chieftain class, embraces not only all the head people of tribe and subtribe, but also all persons of good birth, and it is difficult to determine who are to be excluded and relegated to the common, or ware, class. It would not be far out to say that every freeman considered himself a rangatira. The real gulf lay between the freeman and the slave. An examination of the social organization of the Maori shows us that the smallest cohesive and self-contained group was that termed by anthropologists the extended family, or family group. This was the real social unit, not the true family, and this family group is termed a whanau. It extended to about four generations from the common ancestor—the primal pair—after which its title and status would be altered to that of a hapu, or clan. Now, the principal man of a whanau would assuredly consider himself a rangatira, and every other person of the group being a near blood relative of his would also claim to be of the rangatira class. Hence we see that the class-name means little more than “freeman.” The terms ware and tutua, denoting low-born persons, never apply to oneself, but only to the other fellow.
Seeing that the title of rangatira had such a wide range of application, it was necessary to have some term by which to describe a superior or head chief. Hence the name of ariki was frequently heard as applied to such a man, though perhaps its original meaning was “first-born” of a family of rank. Much stress was laid on primogeniture by the Maori, and he ever respected rank and birth so long as the individual was worthy of such respect. But should the eldest son of a tribal or clan headman prove to be unworthy of such a position, then he might be passed over by the people, who would place some more desirable person in the position, probably a younger brother of the
deposed one. Primogeniture certainly endowed a chieftain, however, with additional prestige and influence.
Other terms were employed to denote a high chief, some, no doubt, representing local usages. In regard to women, the title of tapairu was applied to the first-born female of a superior family. In the Kahungunu district the term mariekura was applied to a woman of the highest rank, and kahurangi to one of somewhat inferior rank.
The tribal organization of the Maori included three different groups—the tribe (iwi), the clan (hapu), and the family group (whanau). True family life, as we know it, did not exist among the Maori. The clan or subtribe was composed of a number of family groups, and the sum of the clans (hapu) formed the tribe. Each family group had the right to use certain lands, fish certain waters, &c., so that clan and tribal boundaries were well known.
Many tribes and clans were named after their respective eponymic ancestors. European writers disbelieve that such ancestors are genuine, but so far as the Maori is concerned they are so. These natives were very particular in such matters: no outsider could become a member of the tribe, though he married into it and lived with it until his death; his children would be tribal members in virtue of their mother's standing. There is no doubt in my mind that all members of a Maori tribe were not only blood relatives, but were also descended from a common ancestor. Why should it be otherwise, when we know how a whanau originates and develops into a clan, and how no outsider can become a true member?
The status of a slave was a somewhat peculiar one from our point of view. Although he was ever liable to be knocked on the head and consigned to the oven when food-supplies ran short, yet otherwise he was not badly treated. In many cases slaves married members of their masters' tribes, and in such cases their children were not only free but also tribal members. Occasionally slaves were employed as a medium of exchange, and southern natives have been known to give as many as ten slaves for a musket when purchasing from northern tribes. We are told of cases in which slaves have risen to hold important positions in the tribe. These slaves were captives taken in war.
Apart from his interests in certain lands, which were inalienable, the Maori possessed but little property, and his personal property was pretty well confined to his few garments and weapons. Dwelling-huts contained no
furniture, and even bedclothes were almost unknown, though a special large-sized rug of Phormium fibre was sometimes kept for this purpose. Otherwise people used the same garments day and night.
The condition of tapu pertaining to a superior chief would have considerable effect in producing a feeling of deference and respect toward him. If his character and actions met with general approval he would acquire much influence over the people. From other points of view, however, the Maori was given to independence and democratic usages. The people would obey an order from a chief so long as they approved of such order and the man who gave it. Also, they were not backward in letting him know what they expected from him in the way of consideration. Intercourse between folk of the rangatira class was marked by a good deal of punctiliousness and etiquette, more especially during any function, social or political. Contrary to an impression that obtains somewhat widely, there is a considerable amount of politeness practised by barbaric peoples such as the Maori. A persistently boorish element noticeable in our modern civilized communities is lacking among folk of lower culture grades; it would be impossible in the face of public opinion. We are quite unable to conceive the force of public opinion in a communistic society; it has a crushing effect on the recalcitrant. In the Maori community the powers of public opinion were remarkable, and had no small effect in the preservation of law and order.
A marked feature of the social life of the people was that of public discussion of all proposals and activities. The family groups discussed in common all matters pertaining to the group, even matters that with us are controlled by the restricted or true family only, such as marriage. All these family groups would also attend meetings of the clan and discuss and arrange matters concerning that body. Again, all the clans would assemble to discuss tribal affairs. All matters were thus openly discussed. Influential chiefs even did not arbitrarily order the people to adopt any course of action; the people would have objected to such a procedure. They would propose a certain line of action and the people would discuss it. Some might approve of it and follow him, while others might refuse to do so, in which case he had no power to coerce them. He could call on no force, military or civil, to carry out harsh decrees affecting the people. The military force was a volunteer one, but always in training
and always ready to lift the war-trail at an hour's notice. But if it did not approve of a proposed campaign it simply declined to march. With all the Maori's respect for rank he was extremely independent, also in many ways democratic. Another usage was that any statement made before the assembled people was recognized by all to be of a permanent and binding nature; such a public announcement took the place of written agreements, wills, &c.
The Maori possessed a marked sense of dignity, this being more noted among the families of superior rank. It was not infrequently carried to unpleasant extremes, which resulted in a “touchy” disposition. This, added to the petty jealousies that often existed between different chiefs, led to certain habits and weaknesses that showed a lack of self-discipline. Perhaps the Maori sense of dignity was seen to its greatest advantage at the clan or tribal assemblies, whereat speech-making was much indulged in. These social meetings were much appreciated by all, for at them folk from scattered villages met; they introduced a form of change into somewhat monotonous lives. Matters of general interest were here discussed—anything affecting the welfare of the tribe—though the main object of the assembly may have been the opening of a new house, the launching of a new war-canoe, the funeral ceremonies of a person of rank, or an exhumation of bones of the dead.
As a result of the communistic habits of the Maori, his consanguineous nomenclature differed from our own. Thus the ordinary terms for “father” and “mother” (papa and whaea) are also used to denote the brothers and sisters of parents. There do exist names that are applied to true parents only (viz., papara and kokara), but they are not often heard, especially the former. A native will often explain that he is using the term papa as meaning his real father: “Toku papa nana nei ahau” (“My papa, he who begat me”). The terms tuahine (sister) and tungane (brother) are employed in the same loose manner, while those denoting an elder brother or sister (tuakana) and a younger brother or sister (taina) were carried still further and applied to other branches of the family. Maori nomenclature, in its different departments, is a subject on which much might be written.
There was a certain amount of division of labour among the natives, principally as relating to the two sexes, but there was also a little specializing done. For instance, certain men would excel in certain industries—house-building,
carving, canoe-making, the manufacture of stone implements, &c.—thus by common approval they would largely confine themselves to such tasks. Men, women, and even children worked together in some cases, as in clearing a piece of land for cultivation. Men alone worked at any task into which the element of tapu entered, as house-building, canoe-making, crop-planting, &c. A considerable amount of their time was taken up by fishing and obtaining other food-supplies. The procuring of fern-root for daily use, the seasonal tasks of bird taking and preserving, the snaring of rats, the collection of berries and their preparation, all occupied much time. Again, the manufacture of implements was a ceaseless task, so tedious were the processes employed, owing to the lack of metal tools. Among folk who lived on the coast-line men passed much time in sea fishing, and in many cases those who lived some distance inland made occasional trips to the coast, where for a period they occupied their time in fishing.
The status of women among the natives was a fairly favourable one, but they were expected to do far too much heavy work, such as the carrying of extremely heavy burdens. They not only attended to all such domestic work as the preparation and cooking of food, but also performed no small share of the work involved in the procuring of food-supplies. Thus they assisted in certain labours connected with crops; they always procured the shell-fish, though sea fishing was done by men. Women joined in the task of procuring berries and edible roots, and sometimes assisted in bird-snaring operations. They also had other tasks that were confined to women, such as weaving. This industry, although a light one, was exceedingly tedious work, the preparation of the fibre and the actual weaving being slow processes. The manufacture of a superior cape or cloak demanded months of patient work. Women were also exceedingly deft in plaiting baskets and floor-mats. Small, quickly made open baskets were used as dishes to contain food, fresh ones being made for each meal; thus the native woman escaped one harassing task that darkens the lives of our women folk—she never knew the horrors of washing up.
The peculiar communal system under which the native lived prevented the development of true family life, of home life to which we are accustomed. The privacy of the house that we prize so highly was unknown in Maoriland, and, never having known or conceived such a domestic life, presumably the Maori did not miss it.
As in most other barbaric lands, we find that women were looked upon here as being inferior to man. At the same time, a woman endowed with initiative could acquire influence, and some of superior families have attained commanding positions. Children possessed an interest in land derived from both parents, so that added somewhat of dignity to the position of the woman. Rank also was transmitted through both parents, and consanguineous relationship counted through both. On the whole, the Maori leaned to agnatic filiation; the male sex possesses greater mana than does the female, for is not man descended directly from the gods, while woman had to be created from earth!
The Maori ever dwelt in villages, fortified or otherwise, and fully appreciated social pleasures; the joys of solitude appealed not to him. Industry was forced upon him and kept him in good health. At night the people loved to assemble in one of the larger huts and there pass the evening in conversation, story-telling, and amusements. Fires in small pits sunk in the earthen floor of a hut were used in winter for both warmth and light. Always was the Maori an early riser, and he liked to commence his daily labour at an early hour, though he did not work late into the evening. Two meals a day sufficed him, and meals were always taken in the open air. Natives had strong prejudices against partaking of food in a dwelling-hut. Early travellers were often surprised and annoyed by such superstitious observances. Women would take their meals apart; they, being denizens of cooking-sheds, were void of tapu.
As is usual among folk occupying the culture stage of the Maori, hospitality and generosity were considered to be two of the highest virtues. As it was impossible for a person to accumulate property under such social conditions, then he might as well be generous. All this display of hospitality and altruistic talk so much heard among the natives is rather marred by the petty jealousies and backbitings that are soon found below the surface when one abides among these children of nature.
There was evidently a certain amount of difference in the general culture and conditions of life of different districts, and the east coast of the North Island appears to have occupied about the most advanced position. Cook noted the superiority of the natives of that district over those of the Bay of Islands and the South Island. Their garments and dwellings seem to have been superior, as also their practice of the arts, as those of weaving, &c. In the
preservation of traditionary lore they also seem to have excelled, for the best series of traditions collected by White and others are of Takitumu origin—that is to say, of the east coast. Some districts were markedly backward, and in some regions agriculture could not be practised, the climate being too cold for the subtropical products brought from Polynesia. Thus the population was in some places sparse and much scattered, while in other places, favoured with fertile soil and mild climate, a large number of people must have lived. In such districts as the Auckland Isthmus a great area must have been under crop to support the number of natives it would take to occupy such a village site as One Tree Hill. It must have taken five or six thousand people to occupy the residential terraces of that much-scarped hill, and there are many other such places within sight of it.
We are much struck by the crudeness and primitive aspect of certain Maori implements and processes. Thus, we find that his so-called weaving is naught but a method of plaiting, and no true weaving. It is the “tied cloth” of anthropologists. We see that his mode of generating fire was a very primitive one, the rubbing of a small piece of wood in a groove formed in another piece, the “fire-plough” of the Pacific area.
The most favoured mode of cooking among the natives was the earth-oven, or steam-oven, in which food was cooked on heated stones in small pits excavated in the earth. A fire was kindled in the pit and dry fuel piled on. Stones were placed on the top of the fuel, and, when the fire had burned down, green leaves, branchlets, &c., were placed in the hot stones. On this bed the food was placed; then a covering of more leaves placed over it, and water sprinkled over all. Some flax mats were then used to cover the oven, and earth was heaped over the mats until the steam was confined. In about one and a
half to two hours an ordinary meal would be cooked, and an excellent method of cooking it is.
As the Polynesians never acquired the art of pottery-making, the Maori housewife was compelled to use vessels of wood, gourds, bark, and plaited baskets. True boiling was impossible, but a crude, incomplete form of stone boiling was occasionally practised. Gourd water-vessels were in common use, and bowls were made by cutting gourds in half, while others were laboriously hewn out of blocks of wood. A few stone bowls were fashioned. Few peoples were so poorly provided with domestic vessels as the Maori, but apparently the housewives were satisfied with the few utensils they had. A flake of obsidian or other stone served as a knife; a shell served as a fish-scaler, while the ever-present basket served as dish and plate. Cooking was often done out-of-doors, but oven-pits within sheds served on wet days. Those cooking-sheds were rude, comfortless erections; indeed, it must be said that the Maori never utilized his intelligence in the way of promoting his comfort. The ordinary dwelling-hut presented a cheerless interior, and the lot of woman was but a poor one from our point of view.
The native character is an interesting study, and presents to our view curious contradictory aspects. Thus the people spent much of their time in collecting and
preserving food-supplies for future use, such as cultivated products, dried fish and shell-fish, preserved rats and birds, berries and roots, &c. At such tasks they wrought with much diligence; and yet in other ways they were most improvident. They were wont to waste their substance in giving great feasts to which all were invited from far and near. These hakari, as they were termed, were often but the result of an ostentatious desire to excel the efforts of some other clan or tribe. The question of an equivalent was always to the fore in the Maori mind; and whether it was a question of a gift made by a private individual, or a feast provided by the efforts of a thousand clansmen, always there was present the expectation of a return gift or feast. At some of these feasts enormous quantities of food were consumed, and in late times some curious features were introduced. Thus at one given by Poverty Bay natives the dining-room was a temporary structure of great length, and covered in with new blankets, all of which were presented to the guests. Another favoured novelty was the giving-away of money to the guests in the form of £1 and £5 notes, the same being inserted in cleft sticks standing amid the piles of food presented.
Customs pertaining to Birth
Many peculiar customs and superstitions and a considerable amount of ritual formulae pertained to birth and death among the Maori folk, but not so much to marriage. Ceremonial performances pertained principally to birth, death, and exhumation of bones of the dead. Burial of the body was not marked by much ceremony, presumably because it was but a temporary affair.
In viewing these peculiar ceremonial functions pertaining to birth it must ever be remembered that they were practised only in connection with the more important families of a community. There was but little ceremony connected with birth among ordinary folk, though the condition of tapu held good in all cases to a certain extent. In this connection tapu may be said to be equivalent to the condition termed “unclean” in the Scriptures. A woman was tapu in this sense when giving birth to a child, and for soem days after, hence she was segregated for a certain period. As a rule a woman in this condition was treated much as a sick person was: she was placed in a temporary hut or shelter outside the bounds of the village. Not until the tapu was removed from her could she return to the village or mix again with people.
The temporary hut in which the child was born was known as a whare kohanga, or “nest house.” While interned in that rude erection she was attended by one or more female attendants. A tohunga might visit the woman in the events of his services being required to recite charms in a case of difficult parturition. There was a greater amount of tapu and ritual pertaining to a first-born child than to any other. In some cases the clansfolk assembled in rejoicing and congratulation when it was known that a prominent woman was with child.
The Maori warlock practised a certain ceremony by means of which he caused conception, or people thought that he did. Other charms acted as a whakapa, or prevented conception. In the Tuhoe district is a famous tree that possesses the power of causing conception, hence it has for centuries been resorted to by childless women. A stone at Kawhia is said to possess similar virtues.
All matters pertaining to birth come under the sway of Hine-te-iwaiwa, a kind of tutelary being who controls matters connected with women's industries, childbirth, &c. This Hine is identified with Hina the moon-goddess, or personified form of the moon, who is the Sina of Polynesia. Here, as in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, we find the moon connected with productiveness and fruitfulness of crops and women.
Childless women sometimes carried a kind of wooden doll about, which they treated and sang to as though it were a child. I have also seen them nursing young pigs in lack of children, though this practice seems to have been abandoned in these latter days.
When a child was born to one of the principal families, but more especially in the case of a first-born male child, the people would assemble in order to greet the child and welcome him into the world of life. Gifts, principally of food, were brought for the child, and consumed by the mother. Songs of welcome were sung, and a ceremonial feast held. These songs were ancient compositions, and although they do not resemble any form of prayer as known to us, yet they were viewed as solemn ritual formulae by the Maori. This performance concluded by the whole of the people rising and chanting:—
Welcome, O child! welcome, O child!To this world, to the world of light
The most important ceremony performed over the child, however, was that known as the tohi rite. This was the
ancient custom of baptism, much resembling our own—a rite that was very carefully performed, and with which was connected some of the highest forms of ritual of the cult of Io. The ceremony took place in a stream or river, the performers facing the east, and the officiating priest standing in the flowing waters, where he was, as it were, spiritually insulated. The whole formed an impressive ceremonial, as, for instance, when the child was held up in the hands of the priest and dedicated to the Supreme Being, and an attendant priest released a bird, allowing it to fly away.
After the tohi rite came that known as the pure. The former was performed at a place removed from the village, but the latter occurred at the village itself, the principal house being prepared for the purpose. This affair was a final greeting to the child. Further ritual formulae were chanted by a priest over the child, and the relatives of both parents delivered speeches greeting the child and welcoming it into the world. During this formal reception the parents occupied the porch of the house, with their child, and the people were collected on the plaza before the house. In the ceremonial feast that followed this function the parents of the child were fed by attendants, being too tapu to be allowed to touch food with their hands. All those who attended the tohi rite had to be freed from tapu ere they could return to ordinary ways of life. This rigid tapu was caused by the introduction of the name of the Supreme Being into the ritual, and that was the reason why so few persons were allowed to attend that ceremony. This series of ceremonial functions, with their processions to and from the baptismal waters, were performed, be it remembered, over children of rank only. As a rule such honorific treatment was not accorded to female infants, but only to the more important males. Occasionally a female child of rank was so honoured.
Betrothal and Marriage
The custom of taumau, or betrothal, was an old Maori usage, and was practised in relation to infants in some cases. Thus at such a function as the one described a man might rise and propose a betrothal; he would bespeak the infant as a future husband, or wife, for a child of his own clan or group. Such betrothals were often made for political purposes in former times. Natives were particular in regard to the marriage of those of near kin, and objected to what were termed incestuous marriages. The line was
drawn at two generations from a common ancestor; if the young folk were three generations from a common ancestor they were allowed to marry. Thus we cannot apply the term “exogamous” to Maori folk, for marriage within both tribe and subtribe or clan was allowed.
A betrothed girl was known as a puhi in some districts, but among the Matatua tribes of the Bay of Plenty this term was applied to a girl of rank who was appointed as a person of importance, a leading woman of the tribe or clan. Such a young woman was provided with a special residence and female attendants, and was exempt from all ordinary labours.
In regard to courtship, such a procedure was often not followed, as in many cases a young man first informed his elders of his desire, whereupon they would arrange the matter. Girls sometimes made known their desires in a similar way. Quite frequently the parents took no prominent part in such arrangements, which were conducted by other elders of the young couple. Probably a meeting of the family group would be held, at which the matter would be discussed, and whereat any member of the group had a right to object to the marriage. The girl would be asked before the assembly whether or not she desired to marry the young man. Communism breeds strange customs, and considerable stress was laid on the fact that a marriage was arranged in a proper and orthodox manner.
When it happened that a woman declined to meet the advances of a man, there were several acts of white magic to which he might resort in order to influence her. That known as atahu consisted of the recitation of a charm and the employment, in some cases, of a bird messenger to act as a medium between the love charm and its object. The despatch of the bird necessitated another act of white magic. Some very singular stories are related of such alleged occurrences. The bird so employed on such delicate errands was apparently in most cases the miromiro, the little black-and-white tit. When the bird settles on the person she (or he) is compelled to rise and proceed to the sender—the impulse cannot be resisted. We are told that such bird messengers were sent long distances on such errands.
A form of marriage by capture was practised by the Maori. For instance, a clan or family group might resolve to demand a young woman of a neighbouring clan as a wife for one of their number, and a party would go and demand her. Owing to the unwillingness of the girl, or
to a feeling that resistance was the correct attitude, her people might refuse to hand her over, and then a wild scene would ensue. The claimants would seize the hapless woman and endeavour to take her away, while her friends would also seize her in order to foil the abductors. The rough scene that followed beggars description, as these excitable folk fought, struggled, and yelled like maniacs, while the hapless female was in grave danger of being torn limb from limb.
There was a form of “aristocratic marriage,” on the lines of the Roman confarreatio, in which certain ritual was repeated over the couple, though this was practised but to a limited extent and among the more important families only. Yet all marriages called for careful and deliberate arrangement by the group community, otherwise they were viewed as not having been properly arranged. The feast that accompanied a marriage was known as kai kotore among the Matatua folk of the Bay of Plenty district. This function and the formal handing-over of the woman is usually called pakuwha.
As in most barbaric communities, adultery was punished more severely when the culprit was a woman, though her husband would also suffer in such a case, as the punishment was by muru, or plundering. These taua muru, or plundering-parties, acted as correctives doubtless, but some wild scenes resulted from their activities, and the parties sometimes came to blows, houses might be destroyed and duels fought. Payment in goods, as reparation, was sometimes demanded and made, as apart from direct plundering, in order to equalize some injury.
The Maori is a very practical person in many ways. When Takarehe, of Ruatoki, struck his wife for not preparing his dinner in a proper manner, he assuredly asked for trouble, and he got it. She fled to her father, Tama-hape, whom she found weeding his crops. Tama saw her wound, and said, “You are an escapee.” Said the woman Mahuru, “It was my husband; he follows me.” “Enough,” said Tama, “Remain here by my side.” When Taka arrived he was at once attacked by Tama, who succeeded in slaying him. Not wishing to waste useful provender, Tama and his daughter got a steam-oven under way and proceeded to utilize the late son-in-law and husband.
There was a certain ritual of divorce employed in former times that was based upon the separation of Sky and Earth in the days of the gods. This was one of the ceremonies performed in a stream, and during which
the subject was sprinkled with water by the priest officiating. Widows were often taken to wife by a surviving brother of the defunct husband, this being a very old custom in many lands.
Polygamy was not uncommon among the chieftain class, and it was supposed to add to their dignity. The principal wife was the first one; she possessed more authority than the others, who were called wahine murimanu.
Customs and Beliefs Pertaining to Death
There was a vast amount of tapu pertaining to death among our Maori folk, and several different phases of that disability are noted in connection with sickness, death, and burial-places. The tapu of a sick person is much the same as that of a woman at the birth of her child; it carries a sense like that described as “unclean” in the Scriptures. Behind that lay the belief that all sickness is the work of the gods.
The myth of the origin of death is but an allegorical rendering of the old story of the conquest of Light by Darkness. Maui, who represented light, was destroyed by Hine, who at first represented the dawn, but, like all dawns, had passed into the shades of night. Darkness and death go ever together in the mind of barbaric man; hence Whiro, who represents darkness, and dwells in the underworld, also represents death. His emissaries are ever among us, striving to strike us down; but his permanent representative here on earth is the lizard, hence the great fear displayed by the Maori when he encounters the harmless little green lizard (Naultinus).
The Maori was fortunate in not having a priesthood whose ambition it was to make him fear death, hence he had no fear of the hereafter, and death-beds were remarkable for the calmness of the passing sick man, and the collected, clear-minded way in which he expressed his last wishes. This is a fact I have been much struck with, and have witnessed such passings with great interest. The common saying is that the dead have been caught in the snare of Hine-nui-te-po, of the underworld; but the esoteric teachings show us that Whiro is the destroyer, not Hine. Her task is to protect the spirits of the dead. It was not until the ira tangata (human life, mortal beings) entered the world that death was known. Prior to that time the ira atua, or supernatural life, alone was known in this world.
In Maori myth Maui is credited with the desire to permit temporary death on earth, so that man might die and revive as does the moon; but Hine-nui-te-po, the erst Dawn Maid, now queen of the underworld, opposed him. This led to the contest between Maui and Hine, or Light and Darkness.
When a native was taken ill he was not allowed to remain in a dwellinghouse, but was removed to some place, usually outside the village, where a rude temporary hut was erected for his accommodation. The tapu pertaining to a sick person was the cause of this procedure. If left in the dwellinghouse he might die therein, whereupon the house would have to be destroyed, or at least deserted. A person of importance was, in some cases, carried to the plaza of the village when near death, and there made his dying speech to his people. Such a speech would consist of advice as to future actions of the people, and a statement of his desires as to his property and family. The Maori really prefers to die in the open air, so that he may look upon and greet the world for the last time, for this is what he calls a mihi ki te ao marama. But little care was bestowed upon a sick person, and the belief that sickness is caused by the gods prevented any use being made of medicines or simple remedies. An oft-expressed desire of those taken ill away from home was that they be conveyed back to those homes. Thus sick persons were often carried long distances that they might die on their own land. Any place whereat the carriers laid down their burden in order to rest would be known by a special name thereafter if he were a man of importance. I have seen carved posts set up at such places in order to mark them.
A person in extremis is sometimes farewelled to the spirit-world ere the breath of life leaves his body. This would be done by the people near at hand. Otherwise the wailing commenced immediately after the breath of life left the body of the sufferer. An interesting fact is that death not infrequently took place shortly after the consumption of a relished o matenga. This is the “death-journey food,” the last food partaken of by a dying person. Human flesh, rats, and earthworms were viands much favoured by invalids at such a time. I have known many cases in which a surviving relative has taken as a new name that of the death-journey food of a parent or child, or other kin. Thus my worthy old friend Hatata assumed the name of “Kuku” because the last food partaken of by his late grandchild chanced to have been some mussels (kuku). Another such case is that of a
child named Te O-arani, so called because the last food partaken of by a dying relative was an orange, pronounced arani by natives. A woman named Pua-wananga received that name at her father's death because he had taken some medicine made from roots of the pua-wananga plant (Clematis indivisa). Certain East Coast natives, however, achieved the climax when they named a hapless child Apenehaiti Apereihana (appendicitis operation)! When near death a wish might be expressed for a certain kind of food, and if the invalid were a person of importance no pains would be spared in procuring it. In some cases a man would say that he longed to drink once more of the waters of a certain stream, and, though that stream were twenty miles away, the water would be quickly procured for him by swift-footed messengers.
In some cases at least, or perhaps in certain districts, a curious custom was practised of forwarding the departing spirit to the spirit-world. This was done by means of the reciting of certain ritual termed a tuku wairua, a name that explains the object of the act. This ceremony seems to have sent the flitting soul on its way, and prevented it hovering about its former abode. Among the more important families the ritual pertaining to sickness, death, and burial was of a high class, inasmuch as priestly adepts of the first grade were the performers, and these men were the upholders of the cult of Io. Prior to visiting the sick person these priests would immerse their bodies in the waters of a stream. They would then approach the hut wherein the sick person was lying, chanting karakia as they did so. Other such formulae were intoned over the body of the patient, in which were mentioned the names of a number of gods. These had the effect of what we would term absolution—all disadvantages derived from past indiscretions of wrong actions were swept away. A person must be cleansed spiritually, as it were, ere undergoing any high-class ceremonial. Also the gods were called upon to succour the sufferer, for he had been placed under the protection of those gods when he was baptized shortly after birth. The healing charm was then recited. This calling upon the great gods, Tane and the various poutiriao, or guardians, was a very tapu affair. When two priests were performing this rite, each one laid a hand on the head of the sufferer, and held the other hand up, much as the modern Ringa-tu folk hold up the right hand. That position they maintained while intoning the final ritual.
Farewells to the dead, as made at death, often appear also in songs composed by friends of the departed. Such
remarks as the following often occur in such addresses: “Farewell! Go forth to the region wherein human life began. There your ancestors and elders will greet you, and convey you to the path by which your forbear Tane ascended to the bespaced heavens. Even so shall you enter the precincts of Rangiatea, the abode of Io the Parent, there to be welcomed by celestial maids and whatukura (male attendants).”
The trussing of the body of the dead was a very far-spread custom—indeed, a world-wide one. Among our Maori folk the body was so manipulated immediately after death. The knees were drawn up until they touched the body, then held in that position by means of a cord passed round both. The body was covered with superior garments; the hair was combed, oiled, and arranged, being adorned with plumes. Tufts of snow-white albatross-down were used as ear-ornaments. The face would probably be marked with red paint, and a pendant suspended from the neck. The corpse was then ready for the lying in state—or, rather, it was a sitting position that the trussed body was placed in. The weapons of the deceased would be laid by his side, also any presents brought to show respect for the dead, such presents being known as kopaki. The body would be kept in this condition for days, while the mourning ceremonial was practically continuous, as parties of mourners kept arriving from other parts of the district. Each party as it arrived would march into the village in column and, halting in front of the body, would proceed to tangi for the dead. This procedure consisted of copious weeping, the emitting of mournful wailing sounds, and, with some individuals, swaying movements to accompany the wailing. This latter was termed tangi whakakurepe, and included a curious quivering movement of the hands.
In many cases the body was buried, and every few years a hahunga tupapaku, or exhumation of the dead, took place. On these occasions a number of dead were exhumed—that is to say, the bones were taken up, cleansed, and taken to the village. There they were placed upon an elevated platform, and a considerable amount of ceremonial speech-making and feasting was indulged in. Different sections of a tribe would assemble at such gatherings, which were not occupied with ceremonial affairs alone, for social pleasures also entered into the programme. At such meetings also were discussed any political matters that chanced to be prominent at the time. The hahunga ceremony is referred to by unsympathetic European settlers
as a “bone-scraping match,” in allusion to the custom of cleansing the disinterred bones. As to the final disposal of the bones of the dead, they were conveyed to some cave or chasm far from the haunts of man, or placed in a hollow tree. On several occasions I have come across such remains in hollow pukatea trees. Occasionally bodies of the dead were taken direct to a cave or chasm, both inhumation and exhumation being dispensed with, or perchance forced down into the mud of a swamp. In a few cases bodies of the dead were subjected to a drying process over a fire, and these mummy-like remains were exhibited periodically to the people.
The Maori had ever a keen dread of enemies tampering with his dead. Where bitter enmity existed between two peoples, it was considered a fine thing to obtain bones of the enemy's dead, and from such bones were fashioned fish-hooks, spear-points, &c. One of the easiest and most effective modes of burial was adopted in some cases by coast-dwelling folk. A body was placed at the base of a sand-dune and the loose sand rolled on to it; no burial was easier or more effective.
Objects of value, such as weapons and ornaments, were sometimes placed with the dead. In some cases such objects were recovered, as at the exhuming of bones of the dead. In other cases they were so deposited for ever, and such objects will occasionally be found in these isles for long centuries to come.
The condition of tapu pertaining to death, burial, and exhumation wa intense. Those about to engage in exhuming bones of the dead discarded their garments and immersed their bodies in water, while certain ritual was recited over them. When the task was over a similar ceremony had to be performed.
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In pre-European times the Maori lived in much the same manner as apparently did the neolithic folk of Britain, in communities, the size of which was controlled by the food-supply. His naturally cheerful disposition caused him to enjoy social pleasures, and the lack of written language would mean greater dependence on such pleasures. The want of domestic animals, save an inferior species of dog, was a handicap to advancement, and threw much extra work on the women.
No people had less in the way of furniture than the Maori folk—in fact, save mats, they had none, and the interior of a house or hut was bare and comfortless from our point of view. In the larger houses they lay or sat on floor-mats on either side of a central passage-way. In sitting the men adopt the cross-legged attitude that soon becomes so distressing to us. Women bring both feet to one side and sit sideways, as it were. A common posture when engaged in tasks that permitted of it was that of squatting on the heels. These people used no form of raised seat, and no form of table. A peculiar habit, and a most persistent one, was the covering of the mouth with cloak or cape when seated in company. The attitude of kneeling is seldom adopted. The carriage of the Maori is good as a rule in youth and middle age. In former times women became bent and decrepit-looking, probably on account of the heavy burdens they carried. In carrying such burdens they did so by the use of shoulder-straps, and never used the balance-pole of Polynesia. Girls were taught to walk with a curious swaying movement of the hips that looks awkward to us, though the Maori admired it; they term this loose-jointed walk onioni. The gait of the man differed from ours, as that of all barefooted peoples does; a heavy, plodding step is never acquired by shoeless folk. In travelling the men often adopted a shuffling gait
that was kept up for long distances. As foot-travellers they had not the speed or endurance of the Indians of North America. Women carried their children on their backs, confined by a garment, and occasionally on the hip. Both sexes are excellent swimmers, employing the side stroke; children learn to swim at an early age.
An upward nod of the head is a sign of assent in maoriland. Some of their gestures are peculiar, such as the kapo, in which the arm is raised and the hand closed as though clutching something. This is a silent answer given sometimes to a taunt, or message, and the action means that, though no action is taken at the time, yet will the act be remembered and attended to in future; or it may be simply a token of assent. Applying the projecting middle joint of the bent forefinger to the nose is a gesture that has saved many lives, for it symbolizes the hongi salute, and has meant protection and salvation to many captives. Signalling to a distance was carried on by means of smoke signals, and signs (tohu) by the way-side often imparted important information to wayfarers. The hongi, alluded to above, was the common mode of saluting each other, and consisted of touching or pressing of noses, the common expression “rubbing noses” being misleading.
The ordinary greeting, as to either sex, exists in three forms, singular, dual, and plural, as follows: Tena koe (singular); tena korua (dual); tena koutou (plural). This may be said to mean “You there,” or “There you are,” and does not sound very gracious. In many cases a form of address is added to the greeting, as in “Tena koe, e hoa!” the e hoa being equal to “O friend.”
Other terms of address are—
E pa! To a man.
E koro! To a man.
E ta! To either sex, as in different districts.
E tama! To a youth or man.
E hika! To either sex. In some districts to children only.
E kui! To an elderly woman.
E ko! To a girl.
E hine! To a girl or young woman.
E mara! To a man.
E whae! To a woman.
Yet another mode of address is to mention the name of a person addressed, as “Tena koe, e Para!” or “E Tohu, tena ra koe.”
Chapter VI. The Arts of Life
Miscellaneous arts. Arts of pleasure. Art of war. Art of agriculture. Maori woodcraft. Textiles, clothing, and ornament. Habitations, store-houses, villages, the pa maori. Fishing.
Miscellaneous Arts
Effect of isolation. Primitive arts. Fire-generation. Weaving. Mode of drilling. Mechanical aids. Unique device employed by tree-fellers. Stone adzes. Agricultural tools. Numeration. System of measurement. Time. Maori year. Star-lore. Medicine—why it was not studied. Sickness. Decorative art. Melanesian influence. Pukiore or harapaki work. Wood-carving.
The absence of any form of script doubtless tends to delay the acquisition of knowledge and the development of a people. Thus the Maori had made but little advance in regard to industrial arts and science. Owing to his long period of isolation in New Zealand and Polynesia, the Maori has preserved some extremely primitive forms, not only in his implements, but also in his processes or methods, and in other ways. Not being in a position to acquire and adapt more advanced forms from neighbouring peoples, his ancient methods became, as it were, fossilized in his scattered island homes. We thus find that the Maori practised some remarkably primitive forms of certain arts. For instance, his mode of generating fire is the most primitive of all known methods. The “fire-plough” of Polynesia brings no knowledge of mechanics to aid the operator; the manipulation of the “push-stick” but calls for strenuous and continued effort. A certain amount of practice is necessary in order to acquire proficiency, and that is all that can be said for the “fire-plough.” The requisite paraphernalia consists of two pieces of wood, that of the kaikomako tree (Pennantia corymbosa) being the most suitable for the purpose. It is necessary that the wood should be dry, well seasoned. The under-piece (kauahi and kaunoti) is about 16 in. or 18 in. in length as a rule, 3 in. to 4 in. wide, and about 1½ in. in thickness. When about to be used one end of this piece is placed on the ground and the other supported on a stone or block of wood. The operator kneels at the higher end, and, holding the small rubbing-stick firmly in both hands, rubs it heavily on the under-stick in line with the grain. Ere long a groove
is formed in the lower stick, and at the lower end of the groove is collected the dust-like particles of wood produced by abrasion. It is this dust that is kindled by the heat produced by the energetic use of the rubbing-stick. By the help of a little dry kindling-material a fire is soon obtained. Under favourable conditions an expert will kindle a fire in a very few minutes. The kaurimarima, or rubbing-stick, is 10 in. or 12 in. in length, and fashioned from the same wood as the under-piece.
The native method of weaving is also a peculiarly crude process; indeed, it is not true weaving, but merely a kind of plaiting or tying process, in which vertical threads are enclosed by passing horizontal threads on either side of them.
Yet another simple device was the Maori drill, the same being the cord or thong drill manipulated by means of free cords; no form of cap, head-piece, or other controlling device being employed. This drill was used for boring holes in stone ornaments, weapons, &c., and consisted merely of a spindle to the lower end of which was lashed a pointed piece of hard stone, such as quartzite. To the upper part of the spindle were secured the two cords for manipulation. To work the drill the spindle was revolved so as to cause the cords to twine round it. A little practice enables one to produce the required reciprocal motion of the spindle by alternately pulling and slackening the cords. In order to acquire the necessary impetus a small fly-wheel was attached to the spindle, or two stones were lashed to it. The pump-drill and bow drill were unknown to the Maori in pre-European times.
The Maori understood and utilized the powers of the wedge, the lever, inclined plane, and skid. He employed a rude form of Spanish windlass. But perhaps the most interesting of his few appliances was a form of the old Roman balista, used in connection with tree-felling. This
unique device consisted of a strong but pliant sapling which served as a bow and which was secured by the middle in a horizontal position at one side of the tree near its base. The strong cord secured to either end of the sapling served as a bowstring, and to this bowstring was attached a stout shaft with a heavy chisel-like stone tool lashed to it. This shaft worked on horizontal rails. Several men hauled on it as an archer pulls his bowstring with arrow in position, and then when the shaft had been pulled as far back from the tree as possible it was suddenly released. The strength of the pull resulted in the heavy stone tool being dashed with much force against the trunk of the tree. Two parallel horizontal grooves were thus formed—bruised rather than cut—and the intervening timber was split out with a stone adze. Thus a deep imu, or scarf, was gradually formed in the trunk of the tree. This method was apparently not a general usage, but was certainly employed in the Bay of Plenty district. This unusual adaptation of the principle of the bow is the more remarkable because the Maori did not use the bow either in war or sport.
The woodworking tools of the Maori consisted of stone adzes of great diversity of form and size, also chisels and gouges of the same material. The Polynesians hafted the larger tools as adzes, whereas Australian natives, Indians of America, &c., hafted them as axes. The stone axe was also employed in the western Pacific area. Agricultural tools were of the most primitive type; the principal one was a digging stick (ko) with a detachable foot-rest, and resembling the old Highland spade. Wooden spades (kaheru) were also used, while the pinaki was a small implement in the form of a paddle used in weeding and soil-loosening operations.
The Maori possessed no domestic animal save the dog, an inferior breed which his ancestors brought hither from the isles of Polynesia. His only vehicle of common use was his canoe, though litters (amo) were occasionally used for the carriage of sick or wounded persons.
The native system of enumeration may be termed a compound one, for both the single and binary systems were employed. The word for ten (ngahuru) is a very far-spread one. The word now used to denote ten—namely, tekau—formerly denoted twenty, as in Polynesia. The binary system was in everyday use, and persons were often so counted in “braces.” In former times there was also a system of counting in twenties, apparently the intermediate numbers being given in terms of the binary system. It may thus be said that the decimal, binary, and
vigesimal systems were all employed by the Maori. In counting baskets of produce, game, &c., the binary system seems to have been in common use; but in counting the smaller birds, such as the tui, there is some evidence to show that, in at least some districts, four birds were reckoned as a brace. This method seems to have been practised also in eastern Polynesia.
The Maori had no precise standard of measurement, no universally-employed unit. Inasmuch as the units consisted of various measurements of the human limbs and body, it will be seen how they must have varied—how each person was a standard unto himself. For instance, the maro, or fathom, was a unit commonly employed, and represented a person's arm-span, the distance between the finger-tips of his two hands when the arms were stretched out horizontally in line with the shoulders. Now, the present writer has an armspan of 6½ ft., but another man's span might be a foot less, showing how variable such a standard may be. The same may be said of the other units, all of which were based on the human body, a system common among uncultured peoples. The konui was the
length of the first joint of the thumb; the matikara was the finger-span; and the tuke was the cubit measured from elbow to finger-tips. The hau was half the maro—i.e., the length of the arm plus half of the breadth of the body. The pakihiwi maro was the length of an arm plus the whole width of the body. There was probably another mode of measurement between this and the maro that was occasionally employed: it was the addition of the upper arm to the foregoing, so that it was a cubit less than the maro. The takoto method of measuring was by means of the extended body, the human standard lying down and extending his arm. When measuring the circumference of a tree by means of the maro unit, the natives styled it a pae, as in “Pae toru te rakau na” (“Yon tree is three fathoms”—“in circumference” understood). Several other terms and standards were employed, though perhaps not universally, such as the awanui, which is the width of both hands plus the outstreched thumbs, which are placed together tip to tip.
With regard to measures of capacity, the lack of trade meant that such were not needed: thus, the kete, or basket, was the only thing known in connection with produce—so-many baskets of kumara, &c.
In his division of time the Maori was by no means precise in regard to divisions of the day. He had expressions to signify the dawn, sunrise, morning, midday, sun-ascent, sun-descent, sunset, evening dusk, night, midnight, but had not divided the day into periods of equal length.
Thus absolute precision was impossible, and his terms and phrases denoting “formerly,” “presently,” &c., were about as vague as our own. The Maori had divided the year into lunar months, and each night of the moon had its proper name, so that he could state that a certain event occurred on the ari night of the moon (or month) Akaaka-nui, or the turu night of the moon (or month) Marua-roa. Here the Maori's division of time failed him, and he had no mode of recording the fleeting years. The next unit he employed was the generation, which is but an unstable quantity and suited only for long periods of time. The Maori year was as well defined as that of many other barbaric folk, but he had not evolved any system of chronology, or tale of years. The year began with the first new moon after the heliacal rising of Matariki (the Pleiades), about the middle of June, among the East Coast tribes. Quite possibly the Pleiades year was brought into the Pacific area from southern Asia in past centuries. In some areas, as the far north and the Chatham Islands, the rising of Puanga (Rigel) seems to have marked the advent of the new year.
The Maori of former times had a remarkable knowledge of the stars, and had assigned names to many of them. At the time when he was making deep-sea voyages his study of the heavenly bodies was his salvation. Since his isolation in New Zealand it is quite possible that the study of the heavens has not been continued so diligently, inasmuch as there would be less need of it. At the same time, he derived much more from a study of the stars than we do, for he believed that from their appearance might be known coming weather conditions, the aspect of an approaching season, &c. Also from them were derived omens, signs of future fortune; and they likewise served as time-measures to some extent. As observed above, they marked the commencement of the Maori year, and the appearance (heliacal rising) of certain stars was the signal for the initiation of certain activities, as the planting and gathering of crops. By means of carefully observing the movements of the stars the Maori was enabled to correct his lunar year quite well enough for his purpose. Some of the tohunga, or priestly experts, spent much time in studying the heavenly bodies, and it is interesting to note that a peculiar sentimental regard for them was entertained by the Maori. This feeling apparently sprang from several sources. Those stars he believed to possess much influence over his food-supplies; they were personified and spoken of as ancestors; their warnings often preserved him from
danger. Above all, those stars had looked down upon his remote ancestors in the lost fatherland, and had watched the gallant old sea-rovers explore the vast Pacific in times long passed away. Some of the star-names are known over a wide area, as from New Zealand to the Hawaiian Isles.
Native knowledge of medicine may be described as non-existent in former times. No attempt was made to study it, simply because it was believed that sickness and disease were caused by atua (evil spirits). This formed part of the belief that offences against the gods are punished in this world, not in the spirit-world. As all complaints were so caused, inflicted by the gods, then it would be highly absurd to administer human remedies. And so we see that the superstition-laden religion of the Maori blocked advancement in the science of medicine. The Maori, when ill, was in the truly unhappy position of being in the care of a priest instead of a doctor. He was dosed with charms and incantations and mummery until he died, or recovered in spite of his friends. The priests kept up their absurd practices naturally, as they not only received presents for such services, but were able to retain authority over the people, which has ever been the aim of priesthoods the world over.
The artistic taste of the Maori seems to resemble that of certain peoples of Indonesia, and their decorative art is assuredly a remarkable production. As carvers in wood the Maori accomplished marvellous results with his rude tools. His decorative painting and sinnet work, his textile designs and love of symmetry, are all worthy of study. One of the most noticeable features in Maori decorative art is a keen appreciation of the curved line—that art is essentially curvlinear. This is a remarkable fact when we remember that such art in Polynesia is markedly rectilinear and yet the two peoples are of the same origin. We know that the ancestors of our native folk came hither from those very isles wherein rectilinear decorative art is practised. How and why did the Maori acquire his local knowledge of curvilinear designs? Why also did he become a constructor of heavy earthwork defences and stockades round his villages here in the isles of New Zealand, when he never did so in his former home in eastern Polynesia? How did he acquire the decorative designs of Melanesia, which are unknown in eastern isles? And why did he use the Melanesian gong instead of the Polynesian drum? These and other similar questions are of considerable interest, but no satisfactory answer has been given thereto. Quite possibly these matters are all due to the presence in
New Zealand of a people with Melanesian affinities in pre-Maori days, that folk being the Mouriuri, or Maruiwi, people already alluded to. The Maori employed rectilinear designs only when forced to do so by the methods he practised, as in weaving and plaiting.
Some of the painted designs of the natives, as seen in the decoration of their superior houses and cenotaphs, are very remarkable productions, and carry the mind back to similar work among more advanced folk of Indonesia. A close study of these designs, and an expert description of them, is one of the many tasks that calls for workers in the field of Maori ethnography. Nor have we ever produced a comprehensive account of native wood-carving, which is another striking feature of Maori art. Its singular designs, conventional figures, and grotesque rendering of the human form tend to place the wood-carving of the Maori in a position of its own. It differs much from that of Polynesia, to which place we would naturally turn to look for its origin.
The designs employed by weavers, as seen in the ornamental borders of native cloaks, are of a geometric form, and are largely composed of different dispositions of the triangle. Those seen in baskets, belts, and floormats were also rectilinear.
The Arts of Pleasure
Games and pastimes. Music and song. Rehia an archaic term for pleasure. Games and physical exercises. Personified form of pleasure. Introduced games. Draughts. The whare tapere. Military exercises. Maori amazons. Jumping and running. Ti rakau, a curious stick-throwing game. The sling. Tree-climbing. Swimming. Surf-riding. The kokiri. The moari swing. Canoe races. Jackstones. Dart-throwing. Ti ringa and similar games. Cratch-cradle. The haka, or posture dance. The war-dance. Myth of Tanerore. Fuglemen. The game of poi. Mu torere, a form of draughts. Hawaiian draughts. Story-telling. Kite-flying. Stilts. Toboggan. Top-spinning. Hoops. Hide-and-seek. The topa. The jumping-jack. Maori songs and music. Universal use of song. Importance of singing in Maori life. Musical instruments. Flutes. Trumpets. Maori and European music. Nose-flutes. Gourd instrument. Gongs. The pakuru. Primitive stringed instrument.
Games and Pastimes
The expression rehia is the old Maori term denoting pleasure, and all games and pastimes were alluded to as nga mahi a te rehia (the arts of pleasure). Among a people
possessing no form of written language, the arts of story-telling, singing, and dancing are likely to be carefully conserved, and all games and pastimes are treasured by such a folk, inasmuch as they not only serve as pleasing pastimes during long evenings and other periods, but were also the cause of much social enjoyment. At night the folk of a hamlet would assemble in the most commodious house, and there would spend the evening in these light and cheerful pleasures.
Were this chapter designed to contain details of the various games practised by the Maori in former times it would extend to a great length. All we can expect to do in a small work is to give a brief description of the various games and other recreations practised in pre-European times. These may be placed under different headings as follows:—
Games and exercises viewed as useful elementary training for boys.
Aquatic games and pastimes.
Games requiring manual dexterity and agility.
Games requiring calculation, mental alertness, or memorizing-powers.
Games and pastimes for children.
These divisions certainly overlap somewhat, but will give the reader some idea of the aspect and purport of the various exercises.
Great stress was laid by the Maori on the desirable effects of physical exercises on boys destined to become fighting-men in the future. Thus lads were encouraged to practise games calling for the exercise of agility and dexterity, and such lads sometimes engaged in a kind of sham fight, armed with light reeds as weapons. Quarrels sprang from such contests at times, and these would sometimes lead to the interference of parents and much wordy clamour and bickering.
According to Maori myth, the arts of pleasure originated with, or are personified in, several beings, whose names are Raukatauri, Raukatamea, Marere-o-tonga, and Takatakaputea. The arts of pleasure were in evidence more particularly when the crops had been lifted and stored, when a harvest feast and period of merry-making ensued. This was the Pleiades festival. Nearly the whole of the old-time games were abandoned soon after the arrival of the early missionaries, and both natives and Europeans have accused the missionaries of repressing harmless recreations among the natives. Brown mentions with evident satisfaction the abandonment of singing and dancing “among the missionary natives.” Wilkes, the American voyager, wrote in
1839: “Social amusements are prohibited by severe penalties, although the people are evidently fond of them”; but this sounds somewhat far-fetched.
Of games introduced by Europeans the Maori acquired readily the mysteries of the draught-board, and some are very good players, but the game is not pursued as it formerly was. Chess he never favoured; cards he still plays to some extent; hop, step, and jump is a favourite; football is played, often in conjunction with Europeans. The concertina and mouth-organ are appreciated, and the jew's-harp is a universal favourite; but higher-class instruments do not seem to appeal so much to the Maori, save in the form of a brass band. Of late years the piano has gained in favour.
Any house used as an assembly-place by the people, and in which young folk indulged in amusements, may be referred to as a whare tapere. No special house was erected to serve as a place of amusement; the ordinary communal dwellinghouses were so utilized. Whare rehia, whare matoro, whare ropa, and whare pakimairo are other names applied to houses so utilized, while whare karioi seems to have been an old Polynesian name for similar places. At night these places were lighted by means of one or more fires made in small pits sunk in the floor. Wood of the maire tree was sought after, as giving a good light with the minimum of smoke. On fine summer evenings the village marae, or plaza, would present a lively scene with many young folks disporting themselves thereon.
All athletic games come under the generic term kaipara, while the expressions para whakawai and whakahoro rakau denote training with military weapons, military exercises. From one point of view all these native recreations might be placed under three headings—exercises, games, pastimes; but no dividing-line can be drawn in a number of cases. For instance, swimming, running, &c., may be practised as mere pastimes, but when the element of contest enters into such activities they become games.
Of the games viewed as desirable and beneficial exercises, the training with military weapons was held to be the most important. The younger lads were armed with light reeds, a thrust or blow from which was harmless. The avoidance of such light missiles by means of agile movements and parrying was a constant form of exercise, and known as para, makamaka rakau, taumahekeheke, and other names. Another favoured exercise was wrestling, known as whatoto, nonoke, and mamau. Occasionally young women joined in this recreation, when two would be pitted against
one male; but my worthy old friend Kurawha, of Maungapohatu, was, in her youth, enough for any man to handle. In later days she shouldered a musket and took part in the Mohaka raid; while she and Whaitiri, another Amazon, were two of the most prominent fighters of Te Kooti's rearguard action in his retreat from Rotorua. Wrestlers would recite a charm prior to engaging in a bout of wrestling; at the same time the reciter would expectorate into his hand, and close the hand—presumably for luck.
Different forms of jumping were indulged in occasionally, but apparently this form of exercise was not much practised. Foot-races over short distances we hear little of, but contests over long distances took place, and these called for endurance. The competitors adopted the bent-knee jog-trot peculiar to bare-footed folk.
A peculiar game, termed ti rakau, poi rakau, and tititouretua, consisted of the players tossing light rods from one to another. The Tuhoe folk sat in a circle while playing, and used a short rod, four of them. These were swung up and down in time to a chanted song, while at certain words of such song they were thrown across or round the circle to be caught by others. The game called for considerable dexterity and quick sight. It was considered a desirable exercise for girls and young women, as well as for males.
There is no reliable evidence to show that the natives of New Zealand ever employed the sling to throw stones in war, and the fashioned sling-stones used in northern isles formerly are not found here. The sling proper may have been used here as a toy, but even that much is doubtful. The whip employed in casting spears represents quite a different principle.
Tree-climbing was, of course, a favourite exercise among the young, and fearless tree-climbers the natives were. In bird snaring and spearing operations they ascended the loftiest trees and went out on the branches to pursue their craft. In climbing the smaller trees a foot-loop (toeke, taparenga, and tamaeke) was sometimes employed.
In water exercises the Maori excelled, like his Polynesian brethren of warmer climes, and this was seen in his powers as a swimmer, his dexterity in surf-riding, and his fearlessness in jumping from a height. This so-called diving was really jumping, as the performer simply jumped off the height and entered the water feet first. The Maori practised the side stroke, and looked with dislike upon the
breast stroke. Swimming races (kau whakataetae) naturally formed a pleasing exercise, and children learned to swim at a very early age. Surf-riding was practised both with and without a board, and also in small canoes, both plank and canoe being known by the same name, kopapa. It is interesting to see natives cross swift and deep rivers by means of treading water. Making for the opposite bank in a slanting, down-stream direction, they practically walk across in an upright position. The breastpole (tuwhana) was also used when a number wished to ford a swift, dangerous stream. Native children were encouraged to be fearless in the water. Where a suitable place for diving was not available, a stout pole or ricker was set up in a slanting position and extending out over the water. Performers ran up this beam from the earth, and jumped from its upper end into the water below. These kokiri were supported on a stout post. The moari or morere, our giant stride, was sometimes erected near deep water, so that when a player swung outward he could release his grasp on the rope and plunge into the water. These exercises had simple songs or short jingles peculiar to them, and which were chanted by the players. A curious incident occurred at Rua-tahuna early in last century in connection with this swinging practice. In a local interclan quarrel several persons had been slain, and their relatives, in order to avenge their deaths, erected two moari at Kiritahi. A song was composed, the effect of which was supposed to be a dispelling of their grief, and this song was sung by those who disported themselves on the swing. Truly, the ways of barbaric man are passing strange.
Canoe races (waka hoehoe and whakatere waka) were recreations that appealed to the Maori. In the excitement of a well-contested canoe race, with paddles as the motive power, the Maori would find one of his keenest pleasures.
Some native games required a considerable amount of dexterity and long practice. Thus in the game of koruru (jackstones, knucklebones) much practice was necessary to enable a player to acquire the necessary quickness and precision to carry out the various movements. This game was a favourite with young folk, who would sometimes challenge the players of another hamlet to play a match. Children's hands were sometimes manipulated so that the stones could be readily caught on the back of the hand. This was effected by means of repeatedly pressing the fingers back. At such games as this and matimati, &c., natives become very quick and alert.
Dart-throwing was an old form of recreation that appears to have been one of the first to be abandoned after the arrival of Europeans. This was not the form of dart-throwing that might be viewed as a military exercise or training for spear-throwing. The dart (teka or neti) was merely a light reed, and was cast underhand so as to glance off the smooth surface of a small earthern mound. No mark was aimed at, but the longest cast marked the winner. Dart-throwing contests were sometimes quite large meetings, social gatherings of the people. Prior to casting his dart a player would expectorate upon it and
recite over it a charm to cause it to make a good flight. This dart-throwing game was widely practised in Polynesia.
The game known as ti ringa, matimati, and by several other titles, also requires an extreme of dexterity and much practice. Two players place themselves opposite each other and go through a very rapid series of hand-movements. No. 1 makes a certain movement with his hands and utters the cry “Tahi matimati.” The other player must make the same movement so quickly that the two seem to be simultaneous, and also repeats the above cry. No. 1 rapidly makes a second movement to the cry “Rua matimati,” and No. 2 acts as before—and so on until the digits 1 to 9 have been called out, and then the cry with the last movement is “Piro matimati.” In some districts the cry differs, the word “Ti” being used instead of “matimati,” as “Ti tahi,” then “Ti rua,” and so on to “Ti ngahuru” or ten ti. The game called ku seems to be the same thing, but the word ku is used instead of ti. Hikawai is yet another form. The performance is one highly interesting to watch when played by experts.
The world-wide pastime of cat's-cradle, or cratch-cradle, was a pre-European usage here, and a considerable number of designs was formerly known to most of the people. Many of these designs are much more intricate than those known to us, and some require the services of several players ere they can be completed. The Maori used to use his teeth and toes in manipulating some designs. The ordinary name for cat's-cradle is whai, and a number of simple recitatives have been preserved that were repeated
in connection with certain patterns. All designs had names assigned them, and some were said to illustrate certain activities of mythical heroes of yore, such as the ascent of Tawhaki to the heavens. This recreation was much patronized by young folk in former times, and adults also joined in it.
Another string game, termed patokotoko and panokonoko, was a simple one. Each player was provided with a looped string and endeavoured to catch therein the extended forefinger of his opponent.
Of all forms of amusement indulged in by the Maori in former times perhaps none were so much appreciated as the haka, or posture dance. The haka may be described as a series of rhythmical movements of limbs and body accompanied by a song, or at least by a series of short refrains. This recreation was indulged in frequently and by both sexes. Public feeling often found expression in the form of a haka, and they were organized in connection with a multitude of subjects. Where we write to the papers to ventilate or right some wrong or grievance, the Maori composes a haka directed against his detractor or opponent. Where we sedately shake hands with a party of guests on their arrival, the Maori chanted rhythmic refrains to them, accompanied by vigorous and equally rhythmical action: this as a welcome. These effusions were composed in connection with many matters. In some cases the arms alone were brought into play in time to the words; in others the legs and the whole body were violently exercised. The war-dance itself is really a haka performed with arms in hand, and the turanga a tohu is a war-dance (tutu waewae) performed for purposes of divination.
The most striking features of the haka are the distortions of the features and the excellent sense of time displayed by the performers. The manner in which natives can protrude the tongue and turn the eyes in a fierce glare is surprising, and as a contortionist the Maori has few equals. These things were much practised in former times, with the result that rhythmic movements and facial distortion were universal acquirements. The movements of Europeans in such exercises are extremely stiff and awkward in comparison, and one sees this awkwardness in some half-castes. Old women were often very prominent in these performances, and few uglier sights could be imagined than these old hags when leading a haka or wardance. The deep-chested, guttural sounds emitted by men
in some of these performances, the frenzied appearance and motions of all-but-naked savages—these are features that excite astonishment in strangers to these weird exhibitions. The roaring chorus of some haka, and of the war-dance, may be heard far off.
When about to take part in public performances young folk adorned themselves after the manner Maori, and more especially was this the case when visitors were to be entertained. As to the origin of the haka, we have to delve into the past as it is recorded in Maori folk-lore. Here we find that one Hine-raumati (the Summer Maid), wife of the Sun, had issue one Tane-rore, whose dancing may be seen during the summer months in the quivering appearance of heated air. Hence that phenomenon is known as the haka of Tane-rore. Another version gives Parearohi as the name of the summer dancer.
The peculiar form of haka performed during mourning ceremonial is known as a maimai, and this saltatory exercise is allied to the tangi a Apakura, which is the most ancient of all dirges, for it is the ceaseless moaning of Hine-moa (the Ocean Maid), the ever-restless ocean. In this haka the performers indulged in those swaying motions of arms and body called aroarowhaki. The rapid vibration of the hands is a feature of many haka. In some cases the fugleman called for preliminary action by means of the following long-drawn cry:—
A-a-a-a! He ringa pakia!
Whereupon all performers commence, in perfect time, to clap their hands on their thighs. Again, the cry
A-a-a-a! He waewae takahia!
causes all to commence to stamp their right foot on the ground. The fuglemen then chants on in order to lead up to the first refrain, in which all join in time to the energetic motions of the haka.
The so-called poi (ball) dance is quite an effective exhibition, especially the old method wherein a long-stringed ball was used. The ball was made from a piece of canvaslike fabric stuffed with the soft, light pappus of the bulrush (raupo). These balls were sometimes adorned with long white dog's hair, in which case they were known as poi awe. It is of some interest to note that this ball game is also played by young native women of New Guinea. Many of the modern haka as seen at Rotorua and elsewhere, are pantomimic,
and the movements illustrate the activities of a carpenter, the felling of a tree, rowing, paddling, &c. In no case, however, did the Maori evolve any form of such dancing as practised by us.
A very singular game, known as mu torere, was practised on the East Coast, but, so far as I am aware, was not known in other districts, a curious fact that seems to point to it as a late introduction or evolution. This game resembles draughts, but the board, instead of being divided into a series of squares, has an eight-rayed star marked on it. The central space from which these eight arms radiate is called the putahi, while the arms are termed
kawai. Two persons play as in draughts, each of whom has four stones to serve as perepere, or “men,” and each arranges his men on four of the kawai; the putahi is blank. The moves are much the same as in draughts, the aim being to block one's opponent. I am not convinced that this game obtained in pre-European times, but if based on our draughts, why was not our form of playing-board employed? A game of draughts, called mu and konane, was known at the Hawaiian Isles, and seems to have been practised there when our early Pacific voyagers reached those parts. A great number of “men” were employed in the Hawaiian game, and it was probably introduced by early Spanish voyagers. Draughts is a very ancient game, and seems to have been known in Egypt in remote times. It is just possible that the knowledge of it has been brought from far lands in past times, as doubtless the knowledge of kites and tops was carried, but I have no knowledge as to its having been preserved in other parts of the Pacific area.
A number of pastimes seem to have been included in the term kai, such as riddles, puzzles, and others requiring skill and concentration. Our game of draughts is sometimes styled kai mu.
As we have seen, story-telling was a much-favoured pastime among our native folk, as it always is among an unlettered people. Children had their own simple stories and fables with which they entertained each other. Youths and young women learned and recited folk-tales, myths, and historical traditions, many of the latter being encrusted with myth. Their elders listened to such recitals and corrected errors or supplied omissions. Entertaining tales came into the category of korero purakau. Some of these widely known stories told of the origin of man and of many natural objects—the popular fireside version of such; the esoteric version was never heard at such gatherings. A number of the tales were instructive, as illustrating the advantages of industry, courage, and other virtues, or the dread effects of transgressing the laws of tapu.
The far-spread pastime of kite-flying was an old institution in Maoridom. Not only was it practised by children, but men also took part in it, and the larger and finer specimens of kites were made and flown by adults. Kites were known by several names, as manu, pakau, and kahu. The superior ones were made by covering a light framework with bark cloth—that is, the manufactured bark of the aute tree. Inferior ones were made from more easily procured materials, as Mariscus ustulatus (a sedge) and raupo (a bulrush). Kites were often made in the form of birds (manu), but other shapes were also used, more especially perhaps by children. Charms were recited in order to cause the kites to rise in a satisfactory manner. The triangular form known as manu taratahi was flown with its narrow end upward. The style termed manu patiki is of an oval or diamond shape. Another form was that of a squat short-armed cross. Feathers were often
used to adorn these kites. Some forms resembled those made by natives of the Cook Group. Kite-flying contests were held by our Maori folk in former days, and great interest was taken in such exhibitions.
Another well-known pastime was stilt-walking, the stilts used being as a rule saplings of mako (Aristotelia), a light wood when dry. The foot-rest might be an attached piece or the base of a branch. Stilts were known as pou toti, pou koki, and pou turu. Certain contests were held by youths and young men on these waewae rakau (wooden legs), such as races, the crossing of rivers or ponds, and even a form of wrestling or overthrowing each other.
Yet again we meet with a well-known form of recreation in the reti or horua, a simple form of toboggan much patronized by young native folk in former times. A short piece of hewn plank served as a reti, having two projections to accommodate the feet, which were placed one behind the other. The slide was a steep hillside. Children used very simple substitutes for a board in some cases, one such being the head of a cabbage-tree (Cordyline), and another a fan of flax (Phormium) leaves. Hawaiian children also used the close-set leaf branches of Cordyline as a coasting board.
The tarere, or bush swing, was simply a natural one, being any aka (stem of climbing-plant) that was suitable for the purpose and occupied a desirable swinging-ground, which would mean any place where the performers could swing out over a gully or slope. These aka stems would be cut near the ground and utilized as swing-ropes, their upper parts having a firm grip on the branches far above. The limber branch of a fallen tree sometimes furnished young folk with an excellent substitute for seesaw.
Skipping, termed piu, was practised, though not by single performers. In connection with this and many other games and pastimes certain short songs and jingles were repeated by performers.
The Maori boy possessed both the whip-top and humming-top, the former being the kind in common use; the peg-top was unknown. The generic term for tops is potaka. In top-spinning contests the performers had sometimes to whip their tops over hurdles consisting of small
ridges of earth. Some of the humming-tops were made of small ripe gourds, into which a spindle was inserted. In former times the Maori employed humming-tops in a very singular manner—viz., in mourning for the dead; and ceremonial top-spinning has also been noted in other lands, European and Asiatic.
The children of Maoriland did not trundle hoops as we do by means of a stick, but threw them. They seem to have been smaller than those made by us, and were formed by bending a piece of pliant aka (stem of climbing-plant) and lashing the two ends together.
The game of taupunipuni seems to have been the same as our hide-and-seek, and that known as wi is our “tag,” of which there were two different forms. A childish pastime was that called tatau manawa, which consisted of the repetition of apparently meaningless jingles in one breath; to take a breath during the recitation was to fail.
In another game boys stood on their heads while reciting such effusions.
A child's pastime, known as topa, koke, and niu, consisted of casting a broad leaf across a space, such as from bank to bank of a stream. The leaf was made to balance by inserting a grass culm in the midrib. Even this trivial pastime had its own special charms to cause the leaf to float well forward. Among the Ngati-Porou folk the topa
was employed in divination, for the Maori resorted to curiously puerile acts in his endeavours to peer into the future. The name of niu applied to this pastime is the Polynesian word niu (coconut). The coconut was much used in divinatory acts by the Polynesian. The Maori has preserved the name but has forgotten its origin. The skipping of flat stones along the surface of water—our “ducks and drakes”—and other such pastimes appealed to native children as they do to ours. Toy canoes for racing were made from Phormium leaves. Boys were interested in constructing small models of fortified villages.
Young folk had a peculiar toy of the jumping-jack type, and called a karetao and karari. This was a small carved figure in human form, about 15 in. in height. Its lower end merged into a short shaft that served as a hand-grip. The arms of the figure were loosely attached by means of two cords, and by pulling these with one hand and shaking the figure with the other it was supposed to go through the motions of a haka. This toy was manipulated the while a time-song was sung. Some of these toys were
very well carved, the designs of face tattooing being well executed.
A number of simple games and pastimes practised by children scarcely call for special remark.
Maori Songs and Music
The Maori had a marked fondness for song, and relied on it to a considerable extent for the purpose of expressing his feelings. Not possessing any form of script in which to conserve knowledge, our Maori included much of his history and myths in his songs, especially in laments for the dead and in songs sung to children. These latter caused children to become acquainted with incidents in tribal history, in connection with which they often sought further information in after-years. The Maori folk composed songs on many different occasions when we would never think of doing so. If a woman was accused of indolence, or some other fault, by her husband, she would in many cases retaliate, or ease her mind, by composing and singing a song pertaining to the subject. In the event of a person being insulted or slighted in any way, he was likely to act in a similar way. Songs were composed for the purpose of greeting visitors, of imparting information, of asking for assistance in war, and many other purposes of an unusual nature from our point of view. Singing entered largely into the social and ceremonial life of the people, and in making a speech the Maori breaks readily into song.
Although our Maori knew naught of rhyme, yet he had the greatest appreciation of rhythm. His singing in most cases is monotonous, and by no means pleasing to European ears, however melodious to his. It has been compared to Arab singing. In some cases, as in war-songs and haka, also the derisive songs termed ngeri, a fierce energy was introduced into the rendering, and it was in such effusions as these that rhythm was most noticeable. In singing a Maori does not, in many cases, trouble to end a line when taking breath. He may take breath in the middle of a line, but he does not commit the error of dropping his voice at such a juncture. Nor does he often take breath—his lung-powers are remarkable; and this was especially noticeable in the priestly experts of former generations, who had to recite long ritual chants without any break in the rendering. This was done by means of relays, as it were. One man would carry on the ritual, or rather intoning, as far as he could, and then stop abruptly, perhaps in the
middle of a word. With great precision and marvellous celerity his companion carried on the chant with no perceptible break or pause. Any pronounced break in the delivery of ritual formulae had a very serious effect on their efficacy, in native belief.
Maori orators, when addressing an assembly of people, often broke into song, in which case those members of his clansman who were acquainted with the song would arise and join in the singing. Many of the native songs are marked by pathos and sadness; others by hatred, contempt, and other emotions; but the humorous song was not a common Maori production. A few short effusions of the umere type betokened joy and satisfaction, though such feelings were not expressed in the words in manner European. Euphony was ever sought by song-makers, and was sometimes acquired by lengthening or shortening words, by long-drawn vowel sounds, and suchlike alterations. Many songs contain so many brief allusions to events in tribal history, to myths, beliefs, superstitions, ritual observances, &c., that in order to understand them one needs to be acquainted with a vast amount of tribal lore. In Maori songs we meet with most interesting concepts and idioms, with quaint mythopoetic ideas, and pathetic farewell directions to the spirits of departed friends.
One of the most peculiar songs ever composed by natives was a lament for a defunct pig that died many years ago in an East Coast hamlet. It was the first pig acquired in those parts, and so was made much of; its death was mourned by a wide circle of friends, and a special dirge was composed in its honour. Another native song on record bewails the loss of an eel-pot; another the grief of a fisherman who had lost his fish-hook; and yet another voices the plaint of a man afflicted by skin-disease. No occurrence was too trivial, apparently, to claim recognition in song. At the present time many of the songs composed, such as laments for the dead, consist largely of extracts from old songs.
Many songs commence with some reference to the heavenly bodies, as in following examples:—
Yonder the Evening Star rises.Descend, O Sun! Sink into the abyss.
In connection with time-songs, chants calling for united action, such as hauling a canoe, as also songs accompanying certain posture dances, the fugleman was much in evidence.
It is a peculiar and interesting fact that barbaric man utilizes song much more than does civilized man, and anthropologists tell us that poetry was the natural utterance of any strong emotion among such folk as the Maori, and even others occupying lower stages of culture. We know that in former times the Maori was wont to intone his remarks under circumstances wherein we employ the most matter - of - fact tones. Thus prose and poetry were not divided, as with us; they coalesced, as it were.
The musical instruments possessed by the Maori were but simple types, consisting of two short forms of flute, one of which was used as a nose-flute, and a longer instrument termed a pu torino. Concerning the latter instrument we have but little information, but the short mouth-flute, termed a koauau, is better known. The Maori had not evolved any string instrument, unless the ku was a genuine native instrument. His wind instruments were the ones already mentioned and two rude forms of trumpet. One of these was made by attaching a mouthpiece to a Triton shell, which are occasionally found in the northern part of the North Island. These shell trumpets are known as pu tatara; while the pu kaea is a long wooden trumpet made in two pieces and neatly bound with pliable stems of a climbing-plant. These two forms of trumpet produce a doleful and unmelodious hooting sound; they were used for signalling purposes, as in time of war.
The Maori has not shown any desire to adopt even the simpler forms of our stringed instruments, and his attention has been principally confined to the jew's-harp, concertina, accordion, and mouth-organ. He can appreciate a brass band, more especially, perhaps, the booming of the drum, and several native bands have been formed. Interest seems, however, to flag, and in a few years a band dwindles away and is no more. Sustained effort in such activities is scarcely a Maori virtue. Earle, an early writer on the Maori, states that natives disliked the sound of the violin, although some natives of Tikopia were much excited by it. Natives seen at Dusky Sound by Cook in 1773 took no notice of the bagpipes and fife, but seemed to take some interest in the drum.
The koauau flute was not infrequently fashioned from the thigh-bone of a tribal enemy, and the owner would derive much satisfaction from playing upon such an instrument. Mr. John White has stated that flutes were occasionally fashioned from the bones of defunct relatives, and that such specimens were used in a very peculiar manner. If a child of the family chanced to be ill, then the instrument was played over it, and this was supposed to have a beneficial effect. A similar act was performed over a woman in cases of difficult parturition—a singular usage that reappears in New Guinea.
A peculiar kind of whistle (whio) made in the form of a tongue is said to have been used in former times, though specimens do not seem to have been preserved. Some of the smaller bone instruments might be described as whistles.
The nguru is a curious form of nose-flute, of which specimens in stone, wood, and ivory (whale's tooth) have been preserved. These are but three or four inches in length, and have one end curved. The curved end is much smaller than the other, and the instrument was hollowed out by means of drilling a hole from either end, a tedious task with the old-time cord drill.
A form of horn or trumpet was made by attaching a mouthpiece to a gourd, the sound produced resembling that of the pu tatara, or shell trumpet, described by Forster as “a hideous bellowing.”
The rude instrument generally termed a “bull-roarer” was used in at least one district in a curious ceremony performed in order to cause rain to fall. The pahu, a form of gong, was in some cases merely a large plank of such resonant wood as matai suspended from two posts, and struck with a wooden mallet. Such rude instruments were often suspended on the elevated platform whereon watchmen
were stationed in native fortified villages. Another form of gong was in the form of a canoe, the opening of which was a narrow slit, inside which was a much wider hollow. This method of hollowing out wooden gongs was a Melanesian peculiarity. The true drum was unknown in New Zealand, though employed in Polynesia. The pakuru, or pakakau, was a very simple instrument, consisting of a piece of wood about 15 in. in length. One end of this was held lightly in the left hand, and the other end placed between the teeth, while with his right hand the operator tapped out an accompaniment to his song. The tapper used was a small wooden one. A rude form of jew's-harp, merely a piece of resonant wood scraped thin, seems to have been used in pre-European times.
In some lists of names of old-time instruments we find those of ku, to, and torehe. Concerning the two latter names I have gained no information, but the late Canon Stack stated that the ku was a primitive stringed instrument, consisting of a bone-shaped piece of wood and a single string. This string was not “picked,” as in the case of a banjo, but was tapped with a stick. No further information concerning this simple form has been collected. Evidently it was an extremely primitive instrument, and the Maori can scarcely be said to have possessed stringed instruments.
The Art of War
War-gods. Women as fighters. Spirit of revenge. Omens. Tapu. War-god mediums. Methods of fighting. Weapons. War ceremonial. War-dance. The mawe rite. Peace-making. Fortified villages. Effect of firearms.
War was an important institution in Maoriland, and all able-bodied men were liable for military duty when necessity arose. It was on this account, presumably, that Tu, who represents war, was one of the most important of the departmental gods, or tutelary beings. Tu was the patron of war, and it was his tapu that pertained to ceremonial and persons connected with war. All other war-gods, so called, occupied a lower plane. These latter, however, were the beings actually “employed,” as one may say, by those who conducted the art of war; they were, in some cases at least, personifications of natural phenomena. Thus, Uenuku represented the rainbow, Tunui probably the comet, Rongomai apparently a meteorite, Maru some form of glow in the heavens, and so on. Those phenomena are the aria, or visible forms, of the beings named. These beings were placated, but never really worshipped; they were supposed to warn their followers of dangers, and protect them generally, so long as they were properly placated. I have never learned what would be the result if two opposing parties were under the same atua or war-god. Each of these atua had its human medium in different districts, and such a thing might occur at any time. Presumably it would have about as much effect as it does in our present-day wars when both sides beseech a Supreme Being to grant them a victory.
The so-called war-god Te Rehu o Tainui was represented by a lizard, but its origin was as an atua kahu. This name denotes a malignant spirit that emanates from a
still-born child. Aitupawa seems to have been a personification of thunder, and a large number of other mythical beings relied on by the Maori for help and protection show how barbaric man turned to supernatural beings for help in the crises of life.
A remarkable feature of Maori life was the fact that women accompanied warlike raids, and in a few cases are said to have been energetic fighters.
The spirit of revenge was very strong in the native character, and this, combined with the fact that they were very prone to take offence, meant that fighting between tribes, and even different divisions of the same tribe, might break out at any time. To avenge a wrong was held as a sacred duty. Should a community consider itself too weak to attack an enemy in order to avenge some insult or other wrong, then several courses were open to them. They might seek armed assistance from another tribe or clan; they might wait patiently for a generation or two until strong enough in numbers to gain their object; or they might practise one of the extraordinary substitutes for vigorous action that we often encounter in studying native traditions and customs. Thus they might compose a bitterly worded song reviling their enemies, and sing it as a ngeri, or haka, before such enemies. Or they might endeavour to seriously injure their enemies by means of magic arts.
When a party of avengers went forth to seek blood vengeance for a grievous injury, the first person met was slain, be he foe or friend. To spare such a person would be an extremely unlucky act. Such a party was excessively tapu, and had to be very careful in its behaviour while under the aegis of the war-god. Unlucky acts and occurrences, evil omens, in connection with war are very numerous. To neglect any of the ceremonial observances pertaining to war is unluckly, as it is to neglect signs and warnings of supernatural powers. The cry of the owl under certain circumstances was deemed ominous. To make any error in performing the war-dance was unlucky, as also was the act of eating in a standing position, or with a weapon in the hand. Omens were derived from the heavenly bodies, from the cries and movements of animals, from land-slips, from sounds heard at night, from natural phenomena, and many other things. Maori life seems to have been burdened by evil signs and unlucky tokens innumerable, while good omens were apparently much less numerous. Much faith was placed in dreams, and in divinatory acts performed by priestly experts of a shamanistic
type. A person under the tapu of the war-god had to be extremely careful in his demeanour and actions. Should he commit any act that polluted his tapu condition, then he was placed in a very dangerous position. The protection of the gods was withdrawn from him, and he became exposed to a multitude of evil influences and dangers. His only hope to retain life and welfare lay in regaining the favour of the gods.
The position of the priestly expert accompanying an armed force on a raid was widely different from that of our army chaplains; he might even have command of all the fighting operations. He would be the medium of a certain war-god, who was supposed to warn him of coming danger and acquaint him with any special duty or act it was necessary to perform ere success could be attained. Thus in many stories of prophecy or second-sight concerning war we learn that a force about to attack was told that it was necessary that a certain thing or person should be seen, or captured, or slain ere success could be secured. These superstitious practices have provided us with some very singular stories. Oracular utterances were often communicated to the people in the form of a song composed by the priest.
The Maori was much given to employing stratagem, decoy manoeuvres, ambuscades, and similar activities. A fight must have been a series of single combats, and no fight lasted long: one side would soon give way, and woe betide those who were overtaken by the pursuers!
The two-handed weapons employed by the Maoris in pre-European days were remarkable for their lightness, and in some cases for their slenderness. They are, as a rule, very much lighter and handier than Melanesian weapons. The Maori disliked heavy or clumsy weapons such as those used by the natives of Fiji. He relied principally upon his agility in mortal combat, and he was trained from childhood, one may say, in the art of avoiding blow and thrust. The nimbleness of a person so trained is very remarkable. Native weapons consisted of striking and thrusting implements, as spears and short striking-weapons. Others were a form of halbert or quarter-staff, and with these the Maori was given much to thrust-feinting with the point and delivering a blow with the butt end. The rapidity with which an expert could recover arms, reverse, and deliver a blow was truly surprising. The materials employed in the manufacture of weapons were wood, stone, and bone. Such hard woods as maire, ake, and manuka were employed
for the purpose. The spear, taiaha, pouwhenua, and tewhatewha were but slightly made implements, and a hard, tough and strong wood was a necessity. Spears were from 6 ft. to 18 ft. or so in length. The most valued weapon was the greenstone mere, or patu, a short striking-weapon manufactured from the highly prized nephrite. A weapon of similar but more symmetrical form was made from greywacke or other stone. The hoeroa, a double-handed weapon of very singular form, the material being whale's bone, was less common than other weapons. Its curious reverse - curve form has puzzled collectors as to the mode of using it. The generic term for weapons is rakau.
Missile weapons were but little employed by the Maori, and those used were of the rudest form. The bow and arrow he knew not, though his ancestors must have known it in their ocean wanderings. Fig. 63 shows a wooden bow found in a swamp at Mangapai—an interesting discovery, inasmuch as the Maori did not use the bow and arrow. Throwing - spears were evidently not favourite weapons. The whip - thrown spear was a native weapon, but by no means a prominent or much-favoured one. Stones were cast by hand from points of vantage, such as elevated platforms, but the sling of Polynesia seems to have been abandoned by the Maori when he landed on these shores. Possibly he discarded both sling and balance-pole on account of their not being suitable to local conditions. We are told that the curious hoeroa was used as a projectile weapon at close quarters, the manipulator recovering it by means of a cord secured to its end. It was a firm belief
that all weapons were rendered much more effective by reciting certain charms over them.
A peculiar ceremony termed tohi was performed over fighting-men about to lift the war-trail. It included a form of baptism, and it brought those men under the tapu of the war-god. Another, known as the tira ora, was a form of absolution. This purified the men from the effects of any offences, however slight, committed against the gods, and so saved them from any disabilities the gods might have inflicted on them.
The war-dance of the Maori is perhaps the most strenuous and startling affair of the kind to be seen anywhere, and the roar of the war-song as delivered by hundreds of performers is a sound not easily forgotten. Great care was necessary in its execution, for any error was looked upon as a serious omen by the superstitious Maori. In like manner the conduct of a raid called for extremely careful management, not only to avoid unlucky acts, &c., but also to retain the favour of the war-gods in other ways. The first slain of the enemy was utilized as an offering to the war-god, and the killing of such first man was looked upon as a desirable achievement. When the fight was won the priestly expert accompanying the winning force would proceed to take the mawe of the won field, and this was usually a lock of hair from the head of a slain enemy. Over this was performed a certain ceremony to prevent the enemy obtaining revenge, to retain the supremacy here gained, and the courage of the fighters; also to affect injuriously the courage, confidence, &c., of the enemy. The Maori was ever performing magic acts or reciting charms in order to affect the mentality of people and disturb their nervous systems.
Peace and peace-making are matters that come under the supervision of Rongo, one of the primal offspring. There were many ceremonial usages connected with peace-ratifying functions. The tatau pounamu, or “jade door,” was a name for a firm peace, and rongo is the ordinary word denoting peace.
In pre-European times the natives of these isles lived for the most part in small fortified villages situated on hills and headlands. In
some cases people were enabled to live in unfortified hamlets, but if such were situated in open country, then as a rule there was a stronghold or a forest near by to which the people could retire when enemies approached. In a few districts such as the Auckland Isthmus and certain areas of the far north, remains of very extensive fortified villages of former times are seen. Some of these must have sheltered thousands of persons. In all cases this was only made possible by careful cultivation of fertile lands immediately surrounding the village community. Such districts provided, in return for labour, the greatest and most steady supply of food, hence the abundant population, hence also greater comfort and superior conditions generally. In regard to the defences of such villages, there were several methods by which they were protected. In some cases stockades only were employed; in others, earthworks consisting of ramparts and fosses supplemented by stockades. In some defences the earthern ramparts supported no stockade, but were wide enough on top to allow of the defenders being stationed on them. Such ramparts were often close together, so that if enemies made their way into the narrow fosse they were unable to use their long spears against the defenders, who, however, could lunge downward with good effect.
Another style of pa, as such fortified places were termed, was the terraced hill, such as are seen in numbers in the northern peninsula. All these terraces were residential areas, but along their outer edges lines of stockades would be erected. These terraced hill forts are quite different to the more southern type showing fosse and rampart, and the origin of the two methods is an interesting subject, but
buried in the past. The Maori did not live in this manner in his former home in eastern Polynesia. Did he evolve the pa system after he settled here, or did he borrow it from former inhabitants? These pa, be it said, closely resembled the hill forts of Fiji.
After the acquisition of firearms changes were made in the construction of the pa maori, or native fort. The earthern ramparts were much reduced in height and thickness, while the heavy timber stockades gave way to lighter fences. Casemates, flanking-angles, traverses, and other European features were introduced, and the picturesque old Maori village soon passed away. The so-called model pa at Rotorua is a restoration of the modern gunfighters' pa, not the real thing of the days of yore.
The Art of Agriculture
Agriculture an old Polynesian industry. Food plants introduced into New Zealand. Range of agriculture here. The ari. Economic plants carried by Polynesian voyagers. Suitable soil, &c., for cultivation of kumara induced a dense population. Taiamai district. General aspect of agriculture. Agricultural tools. Moon was tutelary being of agriculture, as in Babylonia. Ceremonial observances. Belief in life-principle of plants. Mythical origin of kumara. The mare tautane. Planting crops. So-called kumara gods. Human skulls as producing agents. Crop-lifting. Invocation to stars. Storage pits. The yam. The taro. The gourd. The cultivation of Cordyline. Introduction of European food plants.
It seems clear that the ancestors of the Polynesian folk were acquainted with the art of agriculture ere they reached the eastern Pacific and settled in its many isles. Otherwise the cultivation of food products would not have been so
widely practised; it may be said to have been universal, save in small islets where agriculture was impossible. The few cultivated products known to these islanders were carried by them to all parts of Polynesia. In the case of New Zealand, the immigrants from northern islands succeeded in introducing the kumara (I pomoea batatas); the taro (Colocasia antiquorum); the uhi or uwhi (Dioscorea sp.), or yam; and the hue, or gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris). Of these the yam seems to have called for the most care and to have had the most constricted range. Its cultivation seems to have been confined to the northern half of the North Island, and it disappeared soon after the arrival of Europeans. The kumara, or sweet potato, was grown as far south as Banks Peninsula, but the taro and hue did not, apparently, extend so far south. A number of the food plants of his Polynesian home, such as the breadfruit and coconut, had to be discarded by the Maori when he settled in New Zealand. Those that were successfully introduced also called for a greater amount of care and labour in culture in these southern lands. In high-lying and cold districts their culture was impossible or precarious, and other sources of food-supply had to be relied on. Thus the Maori came to rely largely on the edible rhizome of the common bracken (Pteris aquilina).
As to what food plants were cultivated in the original homeland of the Maori (wherever that may have been) it is impossible to say. Of the few names of such plants as have been preserved that of ari is the most interesting; it is the Dravidian word for rice. The only description of it preserved is that it was a small seed and a “bloodless food.” In India sap was known as the blood of trees. The breadfruit, coconut, and some other economic plants have been carried by man to the isles of Polynesia from the west.
A few districts of the North Island possessed conditions of soil, altitude, and climate suitable to the growth of the sweet potato—such districts as Taranaki, the Auckland Isthmus, parts of the Bay of Plenty, Taiamai, Oruru, &c. In such places only was the Maori enabled to produce food in sufficient quantity to enable him to live in large communities. The Auckland Isthmus, for example, must, at some time in the past have supported a large population. For instance, when all the artificial residential terraces of One Tree Hill were occupied, that old fortified village must have contained five thousand people or thereabouts. When Williams first visited the Pouerua pa, Taiamai district, he found 1,400 natives living on the eastern
terraces alone of that picturesque cone, the rest of the terraced area being deserted, on account of lessening population. It was in such communities as these that the life of the Maori was marked by a steady food-supply and more comfortable conditions than could have been known in less favoured localities. There is clear evidence to
show that large areas have been under crop in the northern peninsula and elsewhere in former times.
Early visitors to these shores remarked on the careful tending of crops performed by the natives, and the extremely neat appearance of the fields, in which weeds were carefully eradicated. From Cook downwards they emphasize the peculiar regularity of the sweet-potato fields, with each plant occupying a small mound, and the mounds arranged carefully and precisely in quincunx order. These labours were deemed to be of great importance, and the growing crops were rendered tapu and placed under the protection of the gods. When the season arrived for the preparation of the ground for planting, then all the people of a village turned to work with a will. Chief, commoner, and slave, men and women, all joined in the work, which moved briskly until the ground was ready for planting. In pre-European times there were no predatory animals in the land, no quadruped that had to be fenced against; but in some places light barriers were put round the crops to protect them from the meddlesome pukeko, or swamphen. The introduction of the pig greatly increased the labours of the Maori husbandman, for that creature keenly appreciated kumara and was most persistent in his attempts to reach them.
Different kinds of soil could be described by Maori terms, as he was provided with about fifty soil-names, and he was naturally a good judge of soils. Much care was displayed in selecting ground for cultivation, inasmuch as certain stiff, unkindly soils called for much extra labour. This consisted of carrying, perchance for a considerable distance, great quantities of gravel to be placed round the plants of kumara. In some districts are seen pits of great size from which gravel has been taken for kumara crops.
The agricultural implements employed by the Maori were of a remarkably crude nature, and here, as in the working of timber, the absence of metals was a disadvantage. The principal tool was the ko, which much resembled the old Highland spade in form, and was used in a similar manner. The blade was but about 3 in. wide, the lower end pointed, and the whole implement formed of one piece, save the foot-rest, and often 10 ft. in length. Its extreme upper end was often fashioned into a crescent form. This crescent is called the whakamarama (cf. marama = the moon), and it is evidently connected with the moon. This is of some interest when we remember that all crops were placed under the protection of the
moon-god by the Maori. The crescent-shaped upper part of the ko was adorned with pendent feathers when the tool was being used in breaking up land for a crop. It was on this part of a ko that Maui, the culture hero, alighted when he had assumed the form of a bird. In Maori myth Maui is the brother of Hina, while in Hawaiian story he is the son of Hina, and Hina is the personified form of the moon. The Hawaiian version also has it that Hina later assumed the name of Lonomoko (Rongo-motu in the New Zealand dialect).
This turning to the moon-god as the patron of agriculture is a puzzling usage, and difficult to understand. Inasmuch as the Maori recognized full well that the sun is the fertilizer of the earth, why did he so often appeal to Rongo in his agricultural ritual? A precisely similar custom prevailed in Babylonia, where the moon-god was the patron or deity of agriculture, and not the sun-god. Some stone figures that represented Rongo seem to have been double figures, in which case they may possibly have represented the dual Rongo-ma-Tane.
The ko was employed for loosening soil, not for turning it over as we do with a spade. The latter was not an old native process. A form of wide - bladed wooden spade
called a kaheru was used in cultivation grounds, and for other purposes, but only in soil already loosened by the ko. A small paddle-shaped implement, known by several names, as pinaki, ketu, and wauwau, was used in cultivating. A form of wooden spade with a triangular blade has been described by Waikato and East Coast natives. A kind of wooden grubber, called a tima, timo, and timo-timo, was also used in former times. The ko was provided with a foot-rest that was detachable, being lashed on to the shaft; this teka, or rest, being used when the operator was forcing the implement into the ground. A few specimens of the ko have been found in which the foot-rest and shaft are of one piece, and the foot-rest was sometimes adorned with carved designs. There were two forms of this implement, the smaller one being employed in cultivating a crop.
When breaking up new ground a number of men, working in a row, drove their ko into the ground, and, using them as levers, turned over a long mass of earth. This mass was broken up, pulverized with wooden clubs, and all roots picked out and thrown away. Women entered largely into this latter task.
Among all peoples of neolithic culture, and even others of a higher plane, the cultivation of food products has been connected with ceremonial observances, or what may be termed religious ceremonies. Such ceremonial, as a rule, pertains to the most important of the food-producing plants of a people, be it wheat, rice, maize, or any other cereal or root crop. In the case of the Maori of New Zealand the kumara, or sweet potato, was by far the most useful and highly valued of cultivated foods, hence nearly all the ritual and ceremonious
procedure was connected with that tuber. As Indonesian folk assigned to rice an indwelling spirit, so did the Maori credit the sweet potato with the possession of a mauri. The object of the various formulae and observances was to protect this life-principle of the plant, and to cause it to produce a bountiful crop.
An old myth explains the origin of this tuber by teaching that it was obtained from Whanui by his younger brother Rongo-maui, who brought it to earth, where one Pani-tinaku, wife of Rongo-maui, became its guardian or tutelary being. Whanui is the star Vega, the heliacal rising of which marked the commencement of the harvesting season. This Rongo-maui may be the same as Rongo the patron of agriculture. One version has it that Pani was the wife of Maui-whare-kino, and we may note how these names Rongo and Maui are connected with the moon.
Prior to the planting of the crop in former times the priestly experts prepared a small plot of ground, and planted therein a few tubers. Each hamlet brought a seed-tuber to be planted in the mara tautane, as it was called, so that every crop in the district was represented. Over these representative plants the tohunga (priests) performed the ceremonial, or recited formulae, that was believed to influence the gods in their favour, and to secure a healthy and bounteous crop.
The Maori tells us that the planting season was marked by the stars Puanga (Rigel), Atutahi (Canopus), Tautoru (Orion's Belt), and Whakaahu. According to place and season, the time differed, but we may say that crops were planted from September to November. An old folk-tale has it that Mahuru (personified form of spring) sends the cuckoo hither from Hawaiki to tell the Maori people when to plant the kumara. Natives say that of old the
tuber was planted at certain phases only of the moon: on certain days. Three of these were the Ari, Otane, and Orongonui (11th, 27th, 28th), the two last phases being named after Tane and Rongo. These fancies and superstitions probably differed among the various tribes. The task of planting the tuber was a very tapu one, and no woman was allowed to take part in it on the east coast. Taranaki natives differed somewhat in their customs to those of the opposite coast. Accounts also differ as to the way in which the digging of the field was done, or rather the forming of the small mounds in which the tubers were planted. The whole field was not dug up, nor was the soil turned over as with us. In breaking up fern land it was desirable to loosen the whole and pick
out the fern-roots (rhizomes); but scrub or bush land, or fallow land, was not so worked—only the little patches where mounds were formed was loosened. These little mounds, about 20 in. in diameter, were made by thrusting the ko well down into the soil, and then forcing the shaft downward. This leverage loosened and raised the soil to some extent. The tool was withdrawn and thrust in twice more with the same action; these three thrusts and accompanying upheavals of soil were from different points, as ∵. The next process was to break up the clods and work the loosened earth to a good tilth. Judging from various accounts of this work, it would appear that different methods were adopted as to the position of the diggers and their mode of progression. Archdeacon Walsh says that they commenced in one corner and walked back diagonally across the field, each man forming a row of tupuke, as the little hillocks were called. An East Coast native explained that the diggers walked straight ahead, but in echelon formation, which would give the row of delvers a diagonal aspect. This peculiar formation was evidently adopted in order to facilitate the work of forming the mounds in exactly the right places. Each digger formed his hillock opposite that made by his companion, thus: No. 1 forms his first two mounds and commences his third; then No. 2 forms his first. When No. 1 has finished his third and begins his fourth, then No. 2 commences his second. When he finishes it, then No. 3 commences his first; and so on. When No. 1 finishes his tahu row, as it is termed, he awaits the completion of No. 3 row. Then No. 3 turns and works back on the fourth row to the side of the field they commenced at. No. 2 wheels outside of No. 3 and takes row 5; No. 1 takes row 6. This singular countermarching is continued until the field is finished so far as the digging is concerned. In some districts the mounds of the second row were not formed opposite or in line with those of the first row, as shown in fig. 73, but midway between.
When a large field was cropped it would be divided so that each family group had a certain portion (wakawaka) of it. During the planting, tending, and disposal of the kumara crop great care had to be taken to preserve the tapu of the life-principle of the tuber, or disaster would follow. Working songs or chants, termed tewha, were sung while the men were digging the field, and a number of religious ceremonies and charms were employed in connection with agriculture. Strangers were not allowed
to enter cultivations, and they would probably be slain if they did so; tapu is not a condition to treat lightly.
There were really four processes in connection with the planting of a crop—viz., the digging or loosening of the soil, then the pulverizing of the earth and formation of the mounds, then the distribution of the seed-tubers at the mounds, while the kairumaki, or planters, attended to the actual planting.
When it was seen that a poor crop was to be the result, then it was known that the gods were punishing
the people for some wrong act, or desecration of tapu, or error in the performance of ritual. There were different methods of placating the gods and endeavouring to have the disability removed. One of the strangest acts performed in connection with this rite was to obtain some bones of dead forbears and recite certain charms over them. Skulls of enemies seem to have been utilized in the same way, and in some unexplained way such ceremonial was supposed to be very effective. Here we note a survival of human sacrifice.
As a means of protecting the crop and causing it to be a plentiful one, certain stone mediums were employed in some cases. These were stones carved into a very rude resemblance to the human figure. Such figures are termed “kumara gods” by us, but it is not a happy name. The Maori views them as taumata atua, or mediums representing the gods of agriculture—resting-places or shrines in one sense. Offerings of firstfruits were made at these rude images, which were kept at the head of the field. Rongo was represented by such crude stone forms.
Weeding of crops was not a heavy task here in former times, for no very persistent weed was known—nothing like our dock, sorrel, &c. The ground was kept loosened round plants until the growth of runners stopped such work. A large caterpillar called awheto was a pest that infested the kumara and called for vigilance.
When the star Poutu-te-rangi marked the coming of the tenth month of the Maori year preparations were made for the harvest. Much ceremonial, tapu, and superstition pertained to the lifting and storing of the crop. The storage of the kumara was a matter that called for very great care, for that tuber cannot be treated in the manner in which we handle our potato (Solanum). The least bruise or abrasion causes decay, which quickly affects the rest of the stored crop. The baskets of tubers were carried on the back to the storage pits, and counted in braces—as ngahuru pu = twenty; hokorua pu = forty.
After the crop was stored a sort of harvest-home festival occurred and continued for some days. In a special steam-oven, called the umu tuapora, was cooked food for ceremonial purposes. Some of this was “waved” toward the gods. Pani seems to have received offerings as well as Rongo, for both are closely connected with the kumara. The stars were also viewed as being concerned with the food-supply, and firstfruits ceremonial included an appeal to the principal stars. This is a very old and very singular chant; it calls upon the stars to send a
bountiful food-supply. The wording is peculiar, as seen in these two lines:—
Whanui atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa eWhangainga iho ki te mata o te tau e roa e.
The semi-subterranean storage pits used by the natives are known as rua taranga, rua tahuhu, &c.; the well-like pit stores are termed rua kopiha. Crops were stored in such pits, not in the elevated store huts called pataka and whata.
The yam, known to the Maori as uwhi and uwhikaho, was cultivated to some extent in the northern peninsula and on the east coast. Cook mentions seeing them, as also does Banks. Evidently its cultivation was restricted in area, and was given up soon after arrival of Europeans.
The taro (Colocasia antiquorum) was apparently grown in many parts of the North Island. Its cultivation has now almost ceased, but the small crops occasionally seen are of the introduced kind. The sweet potato we see in shops is not the old kumara of yore. The taro may be seen growing wild by and in streams in the far north, but apparently it was not grown in water here as a crop, as it was elsewhere. A goodly amount of gravel was used in cultivating this product; in fact, it is said that it will grow well in pure gravel if not too dry. The old taro here grown was much less hardy than the introduced variety. Cook gave us a good account of the irrigated taro fields of New Caledonia; here it was a dry-land crop.
The hue, or gourd-plant (Lagenaria vulgaris), cultivated by the Maori, served two useful purposes. The fruit in early stages of its growth provided a dish much like our vegetable marrow, while the matured fruit provided him with his water-vessels, as also bowls and jar-like vessels for containing food-supplies. Of the taro we hear nothing in Maori myth, or but little, but we have a personified form of the gourd, or gourd-plant, in one Putehue, whose name was repeated in a charm recited over the seeds when planted. In the South Island the gourd-plant would not flourish, hence seaweed and bark vessels were much used there.
The fruit of the gourd-plant was made to assume different forms by means of constriction. Seeds were planted at the full of the moon.
The cultivation of the Cordyline by the Maori simply amounted to his occasionally planting it in his cultivated fields or at the village home. This was done with the two species, C. terminalis and the unnamed one known to natives as ti-para, ti-tawhiti, and ti-kowhiti. The species
C. australis, also used as a food-supply, was a much commoner and hardier plant; it flourished in both Islands. The ti-para seems to have been confined to the North Island, and C. terminalis to the far north. The long taproots of these plants contain a considerable amount of fecula, especially the last two mentioned. C. terminalis is apparently extinct here save in a few gardens; quite possibly it was introduced by man from Polynesia in past centuries. As to the ti-para, I cannot ascertain that it ever grew wild, but it was certainly cultivated. I have never seen a flowering specimen. The large roots were dried for winter use in some districts, and, after a process of pounding and long-continued steaming, produced a sweetish granular substance that possessed a secondary taste of some bitterness. Colenso seems to show that the mauku
(C. pumilio) tap-root was also eaten, but I have never heard that that of the toi (C. indivisa) or that of C. Banksii was eaten. Taylor, however, says that the tap-root of the toi was eaten; probably he is correct. South Island natives used C. australis as a food product to a considerable extent, especially in the Canterbury area, and termed the product kauru. Here at least the trunk was utilized, as well as the tap-root. Only young plants with stems of 4 ft. or so were used for food purposes. There was always a very large proportion of fibrous refuse. The South Island natives applied the name of ti-para to C. australis, but it is not the plant known by that name in the North Island. The word para denotes the edible fecula contained in the fibrous matter.
The expression rua ti denotes a store-pit in which supplies of ti are kept for future use. It has come to be employed as denoting a person possessing a goodly store of food-supplies generally; hence the saying, Ka tu te rua ti o te tangata, ka kiia he tangata (When a man possesses a rua ti he is deemed a person of importance). This is a Whanganui expression.
The introduction of European food-producing plants, notably the potato, had a very important effect on Maori life. The prolific potato, so much hardier than the kumara, reduced necessary labour by a very important percentage. The effect of this reduction in his period of manual labour was by no means beneficial to the Maori, who is no longer the hard, virile man his forbears were. He now runs to soft flesh and fat.
Maize and swede turnips were also appreciated by the Maori, but many of our vegetables he has little liking for. Pumpkins and water-melons they approve of, and they will eat fruit, but take very little trouble in the way of growing fruit-trees.
Maori Woodcraft
The art of the fowler. The mauri of a forest. The kakapo. The whare mata. Bird-snaring. Flock-names. The tui taught to talk. The kiore, or native rat. Tree-climbing. The institution of rahui. Superstitious beliefs. Curious practices. Uruuru whenua. Firstfruits. Vegetable oils. Tutu berries. Uncultivated food products.
The food-supplies of the Maori in former times differed to some extent according to districts. The inhabitants of fertile lands such as those of the Auckland Isthmus, and certain parts of the Bay of Plenty, the northern peninsula, Taranaki, &c., were the most fortunate. They were able
to produce large crops of kumara, taro, and, to a lesser extent, yams, and these formed an important part of the food-supply of the people. If adjacent to the sea, then fish would be another important item. The proximity of forests would mean a supply of game. In most parts, however, either soil or climate was against the growth of large quantities of cultivated food products, and so greater reliance had to be placed on game, fish, and uncultivated products. The following pages tell of the forest lore of the Maori, of his woodcraft, of how he captured game, and collected the food-supplies provided by the forest.
Commodore Wilkes, the American voyager, wrote to the effect that he had made inquiries as to the Maori methods for taking birds prior to the introduction of firearms, and came to the conclusion that the natives had no method of taking birds in former times. This amazing statement shows us how unreliable may be the evidence of travellers as to the arts and customs of barbaric folk. Polack, a gentleman of Semitic descent, and an early trader in New Zealand, gives us an equally absurd story concerning the native method of taking the pigeon. It seems that the Maori used to attract it with a call leaf, until it came quite close to the fowler, who then, by similar sounds, caused the bird to put its head under its wing and go to sleep. It was, says the entertaining writer, “then easily killed by a pointed stick of hard wood being thrown at it.”
Any extent of forest containing a goodly proportion of such trees as provide much food for birds, as miro, kahika, &c., is known as a whenua pua (fruitful forest land). The term uruora bears a similar meaning, while high-lying, sterile country is called hunua. The possession of forest lands much resorted to by birds was an important matter in olden days.
The art of the fowler was a very important one in many districts. The absence of any animal larger than the rat meant that birds, rats, and fish were much desired as a supplement to the sweet potato, or the starchy rhizome of the fern or bracken. Owing to his superstition the Maori went to a great deal of unnecessary trouble in many of his industries. He took great pains to retain birds in his tribal forests, to prevent them leaving it and migrating elsewhere, and also to attract birds from extra-tribal lands. He believed that he could endow a certain object, such as a stone, with such powers that it acted as a talisman. This talisman, we are told, protected the vitality of a forest, its fruitfulness, and the fecundity of its fur and feather folk. It also protected the forest land from shafts of black magic,
as when an enemy tried to impair or destroy its products. Such a talisman is called a mauri, and its powers are derived from certain spirit-gods that are, as it were, implanted in it. To call or attract birds from other lands to your own is another magic art, and the act is called tiepa.
There is some evidence to show that, even prior to the advent of Europeans, birds were becoming less plentiful in these Islands. For instance, the kakapo, formerly common in the North Island, had disappeared except from one area. Some other species seem to have been very easily pushed off the stage.
Prior to the opening of the fowling season an expert would enter and examine carefully the forest to ascertain the quantity and condition of bird-life, and the numbers of the different species of game birds. In a tau hawere, or prolific season, trees fruit abundantly. During a tau maro natural products are scarce. When berries are in scant supply, then birds cannot be numerous.
The whare mata, or whare takaha, was a house set aside for the storage of implements connected with the art of the fowler and kindred pursuits, and where new snares or traps were made when the snaring season opened. Bird-snares were made of narrow strips of the leaves of a young Cordyline australis, and hung in the smoke of a fire made by burning leaves of Veronica, Solanum, and Piper excelsum. They are then very durable and keep their form well. Women were not allowed to enter such a house, because there was a certain amount of tapu pertaining to it, and women are very apt to destroy tapu.
There are a number of different modes of snaring birds. Loop snares, running nooses, are set for pigeons and some other species; but no such snare would hold the combative kaka, who must be speared, or caught by the legs on a snare perch, and quickly killed. Snares were set in the runways or paths of flightless birds, just above the surface of the water for ducks, and on trees for forest-birds. Cool-headed and courageous fowlers ascended the tallest of forest-trees, the kahikatea, and set their pigeon-snares far out on its widespread branches. It was a dangerous pursuit, and many a man has perished by falling from such trees; hence an old and well-worn aphorism, He toa piki rakau, he kai na te pakiaka (A tree-climbing expert is food for roots).
In taking birds in tree-tops by means of spear or perch snare, a platform was constructed on the branches to accommodate the operator. The bird-spears used were
from 18 ft. to 30 ft. in length, and made with great care. The pigeon was often taken with the spear, but when feeding on the berries of the miro it was often taken by setting snares round the nearest water. If this was a stream, then the waters thereof were covered with large fern-fronds, leaving a few open spaces of water, round which many snares were set. Having feasted on miro berries, the birds greatly desire water. In some districts wooden troughs were elevated on posts, filled with water, and surrounded with snares. It was scarcely possible for a bird to obtain water without being caught. The kaka parrot was often taken by using a decoy bird, as also was the parrakeet.
A strong feeling against trespassing by fowlers was common, and many a fray has been caused by such offences. Hence, if a person in wandering through the forest chanced upon a set of snares containing birds, he would break off a branchlet and place it at the base of the tree or in some conspicuous place to catch the eye of the snare-owner. The latter, on seeing the tohu, or sign, would at once know how and why it had been placed there.
In the tahei method snares were set on the outer extremities of branches, and such a tree was called a taumatua, or rakau taeke. A tree on which birds were taken by means of the mutu, or tuke, a loop snare arranged on a perch, was termed a tutu. Trees on which birds were speared, as rata, &c., were alluded to as kaihua. Charms were repeated by fowlers when setting snares, in order to secure a good bag. When about to go forth and examine snares and traps the Maori did not employ certain expressions of everyday speech, lest the game, birds, &c., should hear him and escape the snares. Also, it is
extremely unlucky to talk about the game you mean to slay: the creatures will be affected by a condition termed pahunu—they will become apprehensive, nervous, wary. When the first bird taken has the taumaha charm repeated over it in a proper manner, then abundance of game will be taken later. Certain trees were resorted to by birds every year when their berries were ripe, and the more famous of such trees received proper names. At least some of such trees were rendered tapu by experts, and in some cases its hau (vitality, productiveness) was protected by means of a mauri, or talisman. Thus if an enemy
attempted to destroy the tree by means of black magic, or to prevent birds resorting to it, such foul attempts would be foiled. The power of the gods located in the mauri would protect the tree. A favourite feeding-tree of birds was a prized possession; hence such sayings as, He kaihua ki uta, he toka hapuku ki te moana, meaning that a kaihua tree on land and a codbank of rock at sea are both famed for providing food for man. Birds were taken by snare on both trees and shrubs—from the lowly poporo (Solanum) to the lofty kahika (Podocarpus). The kaka was taken by means of the spear on the tawari, rata, and kowhai trees. They become very plump and fat when feeding on the fruit of the tawari; hence the saying, He kaka tawari ki Hikurangi, he moki ki te moana. Herein the fatness of such birds is likened to that of the sea-fish moki. These birds are also much attracted by the wai kaihua, or nectar, contained in the blossoms of the rata. A flock of kaka is called a pokai kaka; one of pigeons a tipapa kereru; one of koko (tui) a wiri koko; one of whiteheads a ta tataeto; and one of ducks a kawai parera.
East Coast native assert that kaka and pigeons used occasionally to be seen flying in landward by persons fishing from canoes out at sea. The latter sometimes settled on a canoe at sea, seemingly much exhausted. If not interfered with, they would, after a rest, resume their flight to land. The kaka never attempted so to rest. One can only suppose that these comparatively short-flight birds had flown seaward, possibly in search of a feeding-ground, and were returning; or they may have been blown seaward. O kaka, o manapou, and manatawa are names applied to
reddish stones that are said to be found in the crops of kaka that have flown hither from Hawaiki—that is, from the isle of Polynesia. Here we enter the realm of myth.
An old saying of the Maori folk is, He wahine ki te kainga, he kaka ki te ngahere (A woman at home, a parrot in the forest)—illustrating the two noisiest creatures known to the Maori.
The tui, or koko, was occasionally trained to talk by the Maori in former times. They were taught to repeat a kind of welcoming speech to visitors. The male bird only was so taught, and such a talking-bird was much prized in former times. The kiwi was caught by means of dogs, and sometimes lured by the fowler; the parrakeet by means of a decoy and a slip-noose; the tui by means of spear, snare, and mutu. This mutu, tumu, or tuke comprises a loop snare arranged on a portable perch. On cold, frosty
nights the tui was sometimes taken by hand, owing to its benumbed condition.
Birds and rats were preserved for future use; they were boned, cooked, and placed in gourds and similar vessels, and covered with their own melted fat. They constituted a very highly prized food-supply among a people possessing so little animal food.
The native rat was a frugivorous creature, and its flesh was considered a delicacy. They were trapped principally in high-lying country, on the summits of ranges and spurs, along which in their nocturnal wanderings they formed little padded paths. Along these paths the rat-traps termed tawhiti were set, and great numbers of these little creatures were so taken. The trap was a spring one, and was baited only when set away from an ara kiore, or rat-path. This animal seems to be now extinct, though this is denied by some; certainly the dark-hued introduced rat is often mistaken for the native rat. Some natives assert that there were two varieties of kiore maori, or native rat, but it is now impossible to say whether there were or not. The rat became very fat, we are told, in winter, when feeding on beech mast and other berries. Apparently this rat was introduced from Polynesia by the Maori.
Another method of taking rats was by means of a pit (torea, kopiha), and a bait was used in this case. The natives say that the rat is credited with having crossed the ocean by swimming when it came to these shores.
Those residing about Waikare-moana assert that in former times, on misty nights, rats have been known to swim out into the lake in great numbers until exhausted, and so drowned.
When engaged in fowling operations natives would camp in the woods, as they often lived for some time on the coast when engaged in sea fishing. On returning to the village home from fowling-camp certain ceremonial chants were sung and curious old customs kept up.
The foot-loop (toeke, taparenga) was used by tree-climbers on trees of suitable size, but in fowling operations the trees ascended were too large to be “swarmed” up. In these cases poles were lashed to the trunk and secured to it by means of vines passed right round the trunk, and so a rough form of ladder was formed. This was known as a rou.
The products of forest and stream were sometimes protected by an institution known as rahui, a form of tapu that was more effective than our game laws. The kapu or whatu of a rahui is an object that equals the material mauri of a forest, as explained before. It is the kernel of the effectiveness of the restriction, and if polluted such effectiveness would disappear.
Persons engaged in taking birds in the forest were very careful not to carry any cooked food about with them, or to cook food anywhere but in camp, for such acts would pollute the mauri or life-principle of the forest, and birds would then leave it. If fowlers left any feathers scattered about a forest the birds would probably desert that forest. It was a very unlucky act, and old men were ever warning young folk to conceal all loose feathers, so that birds should not see them. The faith in the pahunu probably is connected with this peculiar superstition—that, unless great care is displayed, game, fish, &c., will become what is called pawera (nervous, suspicious, apprehensive), and so probably escape.
Another institution connected with forest craft was the tuapa. A post was set up at some place adjacent to the village, and this “luck-post” served as a focus for simple ceremonies and charms designed to bring good luck to fowlers, trappers, and fishermen. A person setting forth to snare birds would touch his implements with a branchlet, which he then cast down at the base of the post. At the same time he repeated some simple form of charm, such as “Ill luck and thwarting desires of the indolent, lie ye there! Banish bad luck and cause man to acquire!”
Another peculiar custom was that known as tuputupu and uruuru whenua. This was a peculiar act performed at certain places whereat a tree or rock was utilized as a medium, and to which travellers made offerings of branchlets or a handful of herbage. These offerings were made to the spirits of the land in order to placate them. Charms accompanied all such acts as these.
Firstfruits offerings wre common in Maoriland. The first birds and fish caught were offered to the gods, as also the first-lifted portion of a crop. The first growth of herbage in the spring was collected and offered to the stars, which were believed to have much influence on the food-supplies. A prolific season was described as a tau hawere, tau kai, tau hua, or tau horahora; a poor season for food-supplies is termed a tau matao, tau maro, &c.
A prized oil was extracted from the seeds of the berries of the titoki tree in former times. The ripe berries were placed in baskets, which were placed in water, and the berries trampled on in order to separate the pulp from the hard seed. The cleaned seeds were then placed in a wooden vessel and pounded with a tuki, or pestle, until crushed, and then poured into a strong closely woven bag termed a ngehingehi or kopa. The two ends of this elongated bag were twisted with much force in opposite directions; thus the oil was expressed from the crushed seeds and flowed into a vessel placed to receive it. It was rendered fragrant by adding to it certain vegetable products, and used as what may be termed a toilet article.
The ripe berries of the tutu were treated in a somewhat similar manner in order to express all juice from them. A plaited bag, or basket of conical form, was lined with the plumes or panicles of the toetoe, and the berries were placed within this primitive strainer, which is said to have retained all the poisonous seeds of the fruit. This form of bag was not twisted as in the former case; while the fruit-juice thickened into a form of jelly that was appreciated in pre-European times.
The seed of the raupo, a bulrush, was sometimes collected, separated from its pappus, and cooked as an article of food. It was appreciated as such, but the process was a tedious one. Berries of the tawa tree were freed from their pulp, then the kernels were steamed for many hours, and dried for future use. In the case of the fruit of the hinau tree the hard stone was discarded, and the mealy matter covering it was formed into cakes and cooked by steaming. It is an unpleasant article of food to Europeans.
Textiles, Clothing, and Ornaments
The art of weaving. Moon-goddess and her functions. Bark cloth. Maori method of weaving. The whare pora. Phormium fibre. Maori garments. Dyes. Varieties of Phormium. Decorative designs. Cordyline and Freycinetia fibres utilized. Belts Baskets. Mats. Cordage. Superstitions connected with weaving. Personal adornment. Hair-dressing. Combs. Chaplets. Plumes. Novel nose-ornament. Nose-flattening. Anklets. Ear-pendants. Greenstone pendants. Sharks' teeth as pendants. Human teeth as pendants. The koropepe. The human ear as substitute for a pocket. The heitiki. Neck-pendants. The pekapeka. Stone spools of unknown use. Scents. Oil. Face any body paints. Tattooing. Mythical origin of tattooing. Tattooing of women.
Lest our readers should think that Maori clothing may be classified with the famous snakes of Ireland, we hasten to assure them that the Maori was acquainted with a rude form of weaving, and wore garments when such did not interfere with his activities. The art of weaving is said in native myth to have originated with, or to be under the patronage of, one Hine-te-iwaiawa, also known as Hina, who is a personification of the moon. This identification of the so-called moon-goddess with the art of weaving is also noted among the beliefs of ancient Egypt. Another old Maori myth is to the effect that when Mataora visited the spirit-world he brought back with him to this world the knowledge of the art of tattooing, and also a famous cloak and belt, known as Te Rangi-haupapa and Te Ruruku-o-te-rangi. These two prized possessions were utilized as pattern garments by the women of this world, who have ever since continued to weave garments in a similar manner.
The style of weaving employed by the Maori may possibly have been introduced; information as to its existence elsewhere is not available to the writer. The same process was employed by the pre-Columbian dwellers in the Mississippi valley. It cannot be termed true weaving, but has been described as a plaiting or tying process. The clothing of the Maori in his former home in eastern Polynesia consisted of bark cloth (tapa) manufactured from the bark of the aute, or paper-mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). This tree he imported into New Zealand, but it did not flourish in this climate, and could only be grown to a limited extent by the display of much care. Thus its bark did not furnish clothing here, but merely strips of fibrous material employed in dressing the long hair of the men. Very few specimens of this tree were seen by Cook and his companions. Nor would
tapa have proved a suitable clothing material in this climate. At one time the Taranaki natives manufactured some kind of bark cloth from the whauwhi, or ribbonwood-tree. After his arrival here the Maori must soon have cast about for a substitute for the tapa of Polynesia. This he found in the fibre of the Phormium (“flax,” as we term it), a fibre that could not be beaten or pounded into a wearable fabric, hence it had to be dressed, spun, and woven. It would be of interest to know whether the settlers from eastern Polynesia invented the rude local method of weaving, or acquired it from the Mouriuri aborigines.
The so-called weaving process termed whatu by the Maori was performed without loom or shuttle; the threads were manipulated by the unaided fingers only. The only aid employed, a very crude one, consisted of two sticks or pegs inserted in an upright position in the earth (in some cases four pegs were used). When about to weave a garment a strong thread was fastened tautly in a horizontal position to the two uprights. To this thread, called the tawhiu, were attached the upper ends of the io, the warp or vertical threads that are arranged close together. The process consists of working in cross-threads from left to right, these woof threads being known as aho; they
are about half an inch apart. The closer these threads are together the better the garment, for the closer is its texture. In weaving the coloured borders of a cloak, as also the pauku cape used as a defence against spears, the cross-threads are quite close together, making a close, strong, fabric like coarse canvas. In the case of fine garments four threads are employed in the forming of each aho. The operator passes two of these threads on either side of the first io, or vertical thread, thus enclosing it. In continuing the process the two pairs of threads are reversed; those that passed behind the first vertical thread would be brought in front of the next one, then behind the next, and so on. Thus each of the down threads was enclosed between two or four cross-threads every half-inch or so. This process is an extremely tedious one, and the making of a fine cloak occupied a woman for many months. The threads used consist of dressed Phormium fibre twisted by a rolling process, generally performed on the bare leg. The same rolling added to the length when required. This rolled thread is called a takerekere (east coast), the miro being a two-strand
twine formed of two takerekere rolled together. The word whiri is used to denote twisting or plaiting several strands together with the fingers. Plaiting, as in mat or basket making, is raranga.
The teaching of the art of weaving the finer garments was one to which a certain amount of tapu pertained. Such accomplishments are called the art of the whare pora. When a beginner commenced to weave her “pattern piece,” one expert was present to conduct certain ceremonial and to recite charms over the pupil. One of these was to render the pupil quick to grasp the lesson received, while another was to fix the lesson in her memory. After the lesson concluded, the tapu was lifted from the participants and the proceedings.
Fibre of the Phormium was carefully hand-dressed, then bleached, and in some cases dyed. That intended for the vertical threads was softened by beating it with a stone pounder, a carefully fashioned smooth-faced implement. Fibre to be used for cross-threads was not so treated. In order to cause a cloak or cape to fit over a person's shoulders a number of short aho, or cross-threads, are woven into it. These cross-threads are not continued to the edges of the garment.
The Maori wore but two garments, and these were of the same fashion for both sexes. One was a kilt-like garment worn round the waist, and secured by a belt; it descended to about the knees. The other was a rectangular garment worn over the shoulders. This latter might be a rough cape-like garment, the ordinary everyday style, or a long cloak-like garment, usually of a finer quality, as worn by superior folk; slaves and common folk would possess none of these. No form of sleeved garment had been evolved by the natives, and the upper
garment was cast aside when a man was engaged in any work. Women or girls occasionally wore a kind of apron—some triangular (maro kopua), others rectangular (maro waiapu). Cook seems to have seen such garments adorned with shells.
Cloaks and capes were often worn to meet on the right side, so as to tie on the right shoulder, but sometimes so as to meet in front, or passed under the left arm and tied over the right shoulder. Women found it convenient to wear such garments so as to meet in front. Children wore no clothing until about ten years of age, save under unusual conditions. Truly the Maori of old was a hardy creature! No form of hat was worn, the tipare being but a chaplet or band to retain plumes; the potae also was a mere circlet—it had no top. It was the usual thing to go barefooted, sandals being used only in very cold or rough places.
The dyes employed by the Maori in former times may be said to have been both vegetable and mineral, but mostly the former. The colour black was obtained by first steeping fibre in water in which crushed hinau bark had been soaked, and then burying it in dark-coloured mud. It is left in such mud for about twenty-four hours, then taken out and washed, when it is found to be of a deep black hue, and this black dye does not fade. When the fibre is taken from the wai hinau, or bark decoction, it is by no means black, but is of a light-brown colour; the black colour is imparted to it by the mud. Quite possibly the water, affected by the bark, acts as a mordant. Not only is this dyeing process employed for the dressed fibre of the Phormium, but also for the raw leaf, strips of which are dyed and used in the manufacture of baskets and sleeping-mats. The barks of tawai (Fagus) and of tawhero (Weinmannia) are used for the above purpose in some cases, as when hinau (Elaeocarpus) is not procurable.
The reddish-brown dye formerly used was obtained from the bark of the tanekaha (Phyllocladus). The bark was pounded to break it up, then placed in a wooden trough into which water was poured, and then the fibre to be dyed was immersed in the water. Stones heated in an adjacent fire were then put in the water, this process being repeated for some time. This stone-boiling process was slow but effective, and brought out the colouring-matter contained in the bark. In late times iron vessels have been employed for this heating purpose. I have seen native women take this dyed fibre and place it among hot,
clean ashes from a wood-fire for a while. This is said to prevent the colour fading.
A blue-black dye is said to have been occasionally obtained from the tupakihi, whawhakou, and mako trees (Coriaria, Eugenia, and Aristotelia). A yellow dye was gained from the raurekau (Coprosma), though not widely used. Mr. White tells us that bark of the puriri (Vitex lucens) was sometimes mixed with that of the tanekaha to obtain a brownish-yellow dye. Another dye he mentions is a yellow one obtained from a mixture of tanekaha bark with a small plant called kakariki. This plant is not known to us.
Natives recognize a number of varieties of Phormium, each of which has its special name. The quality of the fibre of these varieties differs widely, and the leaves (wha) differ in form and colour. The Tuhoe folk give names of nine such varieties, of which oue is the best. Whanganui natives also give nine names of varieties, only two of which are the same as the Tuhoe terms. In neither list does the name tihore appear, this being the name of the best variety in some districts. In former times the superior kinds were often cultivated at places adjacent to a village, and such a pa harakeke was carefully tended by the women, each pu (flax clump) being kept free of dead leaves, and cut in a judicious manner. In some districts no good variety was found indigenous, and all desired superior fibre had to be cultivated.
The superior fibre only was employed in the manufacture of fine or superior cloaks and capes, such as the aronui and paepaeroa. Some of these were adorned with coloured borders (white, red, and black) worked in geometric patterns, the triangle being much in evidence. Such borders were attached after the weaving of the body of the cloak had been completed. Mr. S. Percy Smith tells us that these designs are also seen on the garments worn by the natives of Pleasant Island. Some of these Maori capes consisted of a body or groundwork to which feathers or strips of dog-skin were fastened. The feather-covered garments were exceedingly tedious to make, each feather being arranged and secured separately during the process of weaving the groundwork. Those covered with the red feathers of the kaka parrot were very showy, and highly prized.
Superior cloaks were often fastened with cloak-pins formed of bone, ivory, or shell, some straight, but many were curved; these latter are known as aurei—autui being a generic term.
When the natives first acquired European garments they utilized them in a very singular manner in many cases. They had been accustomed to plain rectangular garments that were simply wrapped round the body, and the intricacies of European clothing, with the different garments for the two sexes, were too puzzling to be readily grasped. Thus the most absurd and grotesque sights were seen by early travellers and visitors to these shores. Coats and trousers were often worn back to front. Shirts did duty as kilts, even as trousers, the wearer's legs being thrust through the sleeves. One burly native was detected in a vain attempt to force his legs through the sleeves of a coat. Polack mentions seeing a man wearing a black stocking on one arm and a white sock on the other; also, his nether garments faced the wrong way. The Rev. Mr. Yate speaks of a man walking into church wearing the sleeves of a gown as stockings, while two small baskets were fastened on his feet as shoes. He had a wealth of
female gowns, and had donned one after another so that a portion of each one was visible. This choice custume was completed by a pair of trousers tied round the neck. In 1850 a Rotorua native came to greet Sir George Grey with a stocking on one leg, a broken Wellington boot on the other, a striped shirt worn as a kilt, and a soldier's bearskin shako much the worse for wear.
The strong, fibrous leaves of Cordyline and of Freycinetia were utilized to a very much less extent than the so-called flax. Those of the toi (C. indivisa) were employed in the manufacture of strong, coarse, rainproof shoulder-capes that were much more durable than those made of Phormium.
Belts (tatua) were usually made from the same material as garments, the far-spread Phormium; but occasionally other materials were used, such as Freycinetia and pingao,
a seaside plant with yellow-red leaves. Flax belts were often plaited in patterns with black and white stripes. These belts tied with a string. Women often wore a belt composed of many strands of plaited fibre, or of the fragrant leaves of the karetu (Hierochloe redolens). The tatua pupara, a form of belt worn by men, was made double by folding, and this belt was often used as a pocket, a receptacle for small objects.
Baskets were a very important article in a native household. They were plaited from Phormium strips as a rule; occasionally other materials were used. Coarse ones were used for domestic and field work; finer ones, worked in varied designs of black and white, were employed for other purposes. Some were made with a flap, and these were much used to keep small articles in, and were often carried by travellers for that purpose. A pocketless garment is a great drawback, and the basket replaced pockets among the Maori folk.
Floor-mats were made by the same plaiting process as that employed in belt-making. Coarse mats, called tuwhara and whariki, were used for laying on fern-fronds or Lycopodium spread on a hut-floor, and finer, closely woven mats, termed takapau, were placed over them. These latter were often fine white fabrics made from bleached strips of the kiekie, or Freycinetia. Large mats were made in several widths (papa) or sections, which were joined together.
It was considered unlucky to weave a superior garment in the open air, or to do such work after sunset; but, at the same time, it was unlucky to leave a woof thread incomplete. Exception was taken to strangers seeing the weaving operations of a family, and such work would be put away when strange folk were about. Many superstitions, prejudices, and queer conceits exist in connection with Maori weaving, as with all other native activities.
A considerable variety of cordage, rope, and twine was manufactured by natives. Round, flat, and square plaits were used. The following are some of the names used:—
Tawai, tamarua—a twist of two strands.
Paraharaha—a flat plait of three strands.
Kawe—a plait of three strands.
Tuapuku, iwituna—a round plait of four strands.
Puku—a plait of four strands.
Tuamaka, tamaka—a round plait of five strands.
Tari karakia, whiri o Raukatauri—a square plait of eight strands.
Pekapeka—a flat plait of nine strands.
Whiri taura kaka—a square plait of ten strands.
Personal Adornment
As is the case with most people of the barbaric culture stage, the Maori was much given to personal adornment, albeit it was confined in most cases to special occasions, as social meetings and functions of divers kinds. As a people our native folk cannot be said to have been a cleanly race; a colder climate doubtless had its effect in restricting bathing as compared with the Polynesian area. The practice of smearing the body and head with a mixture of ochre and oil was in itself an offensive one. The observation of tapu often made for dirtiness and a slovenly appearance. When about to adorn himself for some function, however, the Maori might indulge in a partial bath. He would then repair to the nearest creek, for, like our own folk of a few decades ago, he did not possess the luxury of a bathroom. Allowing that he did so wash himself, the next operation was the adornment of his head, and this process was often a lengthy one, probably performed by his wife.
In former times the Maori reversed our mode of tending the hair; as a rule the men wore their hair long, and the women cut theirs short, or comparatively so. Occasionally women seem to have worn their hair long, and to have arranged it on the head as men did. In such cases it would be difficult to distinguish between the sexes at a little distance. Men tied their long hair on the top of the head in a knob, and in this knot they might place feathers or a head-comb. These combs were made from bone or hard wood, and the bone ones were sometimes adorned with
small counter-sunk pieces of Haliotis shell and carved designs. In many cases the long hair was drawn up on the top of the head and a tie secured round it; this clump was called a putiki. The loose ends were then brought down and again tied. In some cases the hair was passed through a small wooden hoop, then brought down outside the hoop so as to cover it, and secured under it with a tie. Again, the hair seems to have been plaited and tied up on the head. In other cases a man's hair was gathered and tied in several bunches. To cut the hair off close to the head, except a long lock on the side, was a token of mourning. Sharp-edged flakes of obsidian were employed wherewith to cut hair. Crozet tells us that natives of the
Bay of Islands tied up their long hair on top of their heads and cut it off above the tie, leaving a brush-like top-knot. Parkinson states that a shark's tooth was used in cutting hair or shaving the head. Of the Maori mode of dressing hair he remarks, “Some of them had their hair most curiously brought up to their crowns, rolled round, and knotted.” Of others, seen near Palliser Bay, he tells us that their hair was knotted up on the crown in two bunches, one of which was plaited. Banks says that sometimes they had one knot on each side, and pointed forward, presenting a disagreeable appearance. He also remarks that the women seldom decorated their heads.
Prized ornaments, such as plumes and valuable greenstone pendants, were kept in small boxes called waka huia and waka kautuku. These boxes were often adorned with carved designs exceedingly well executed.
A tipare or pare (chaplet or fillet) was sometimes worn, as during functions of a social character. These often served to contain or retain plumes worn as a head-dress. Strips of tapa, of the inner bark of the ribbonwood-tree, and of leaves of Celmisia were used in hair-dressing as ties, &c. The white-tipped feathers of the huia were highly prized for head-decoration, as also were certain feathers of the white heron, the tropic-bird, and a few others in lesser degree. A very curious form of decoration was that termed by early voyagers the “spritsail-yard.” It consists of two long plumes (wing or tail feathers) thrust through the septum of the nose, and projecting horizontally on either side of the face—a truly grotesque sight. The writer has seen men so adorned, but Dr. Thomson tells us that the custom was also practised among women.
Yate, Taylor, and some other early writers have told us that native mothers were in the habit of pressing the noses of babes in order to flatten them. Presumably this custom was inherited from olden times, when the straight - nosed Polynesian immigrants mated with the flat-nosed aboriginal women.
Anklets, termed tauri komore, were occasionally worn by women. These were formed of a woven band of Phormium fibre, adorned with coloured patterns (taniko) in some cases. Others were of plaited grass, or strings of shells. Sometimes a young woman would have bands of tattooing to resemble anklets. There is some evidence to show that simple forms of bracelets were occasionally
worn, but apparently not often. The hangaroa with which anklets and belts for young women were adorned were probably Dentalium shells.
Ear-pendants.—The generic term for ear-pendants is mau taringa. It is not assured that whakakai is a precise synonym, but it certainly includes all ear-pendants of stone. The kope, or turuki, is an ear-ornament of aute. Pohoi are bunches of feathers suspended from the ears, often composed of soft, white down obtained from sea-birds, such as that of the albatross (awe toroa). Kahu raurekau, a thin, film-like white tissue stripped from leaves of Coprosma grandifolia, was also used as an ear-ornament.
Greenstone ear-pendants were the most highly prized ones; but that name, also the native term pounamu, includes several different kinds of stone, as nephrite, bowenite, serpentine, malachite, &c. The kuru mahora is a straight stone pendant; the kuru kapeu, or kapeu, or tautau, has a curve at its lower extremity; the kuru papa is a flattened form. Kuru tongarerewa simply implies a
pendant fashioned from the kind of greenstone called tongarerewa. Koko has a similar meaning to that of kuru, apparently, as we see in koko tangiwai, a bowenite pendant. The tara pounamu is another form of greenstone pendant; the poria, whakarupe, pau, pirori, and motoi are yet others.
Another highly prized ear-pendant was the shark's tooth—the tooth of the porbeagle shark (Lamna cornubica), called mako by the Maori; it is also known as ngutukao. A few greenstone ear-pendants made in the form of these sharks' teeth have been seen. Human teeth—those of relatives—were sometimes worn as ear-pendants. Inasmuch as the garments of the Maori lacked pockets, it was quite a common practice to carry small implements suspended from the ears; thus small stone chisels were often so carried, and if that chisel were a greenstone one, then the pendant was viewed as a desirable decoration apart from its usefulness. A peculiar pendant, of which but few have been seen, is the koropepe, made in the form of a coiled
snake; several specimens made from greenstone (nephrite) are known.
In modern times the Maori has been much in the habit of carrying his pipe in his ear, the stem thrust through its aperture. When early traders brought many articles unknown to the Maori, such items as were small were often carried by natives in their ears, apparently on account of their novelty. Thus, as Thomson says, gun-swivels, coins, and small bottles were used as ear-pendants; also buttons, buckles, and all sorts of odd things. Nicholas remarks that the hippocampus was dried and worn as an ear-pendant by natives. Banks tells us that when the voyagers gave them nails the natives often thrust them into their ears, and so carried them. Missionary Yate wrote: “I have frequently seen dead birds with the head squeezed through the hole made in a person's ear, where it has remained until it rotted off; and I have seen live birds served in the same way, and allowed to hang there and flap their wings and struggle till they were dead.”
Neck-pendants.—In neck-pendants we do not find so wide a range. The most highly prized of such decorations was the tiki, or heitiki. This odd-looking, grotesque object has been the subject of much speculation and some erroneous statements. It is a rudely fashioned figure intended to represent the human embryo, and it was viewed as a fertilizing agent, hence it was properly worn by women only. The tiki is a phallic symbol. In native myth we note that the first tiki (which is, properly speaking, the correct name of the pendant) was made for
one Hine-te-iwaiwa, or Hina, who is the being presiding over women's handicrafts, and also childbirth. Hina is the personified form of the moon. The prefixed word hei simply denotes a neck-pendant, and tiki was a very old sacerdotal term for the phallus. Most tiki were fashioned from greenstone, but a few were of ivory and bone. The variety of greenstone called kahurangi was the most highly prized, inanga taking second place in native estimation. The fashioning of these figures from a stone somewhat harder than steel was an extremely slow task, and was effected principally by grinding processes.
The heitiki appearing on page 217 is said to have been obtained by one of Cook's officers. It is now (1915) in the possession of Mr. John Baillie. Its length is 6¾ in. (Photo supplied by Mr. A. T. Bates.)
The pekapeka, or kapakapa, was another peculiar form of neck-pendant; some fine greenstone ones have been preserved, but it was not so common as the tiki. Early voyagers tell us of necklaces of shark's teeth, of bones cut into lengths, and of shell. Forster tells us that green and red ornaments, such as beads, were preferred in
New Zealand, black ones at Tonga, and white at Tahiti. The same writer saw necklaces of human teeth among the Maoris. Fossil shells of Dentalium were used for necklaces, and imitation teeth fashioned from shell, found in middens, &c., were probably used in the same manner. The triangular teeth of the great blue shark were possibly formed into necklaces, as they are found in a perforated condition, and trimmed as though for being placed side by side.
An article of unknown use is a cylindrical object of black stone with projecting rims. These outstanding rims are from two to five in number, and are usually serracted. One side of the spool-like object is usually flattened, as though intended to lie on or against a flat surface, and all are pierced longitudinally by a hole that has cost much time to bore. Such boring was done from both ends. They are most carefully made, extremely symmetrical, and have been found from the North Cape to Invercargill. Some curiously unlikely theories as to their use have been evolved by enthusiasts. One that sees in it a form of drill-control is one of the most improbable. Some well-fashioned bone objects of somewhat similar form, but without the high rims and flattened side, have probably been strung together; they were found all together at an old village site.
Flowers were not often employed as personal decorations in former times. A number of odd articles were occasionally used as ornaments, but the above-mentioned articles give a fair idea of native objects of adornment.
Clear pools of water were utilized as mirrors by persons engaged in decorating themselves in the manner Maori. Such pools were called wai whakaata and wai rakaia. Rakai and rakei mean “to adorn”; and the word hakari has a similar meaning.
A kind of sachet containing fragrant leaves was sometimes worn suspended from the neck, also occasionally a bird-skin that had been saturated in scented oil and rolled up. Oil obtained from the seeds of the titoki was made fragrant by means of various herbs, &c., and used for oiling the hair. Leaves of koareare (Panax Edgerleyi), of heketara (Olearia Cunninghamii), of tarata (Pittosporum eugenioides), &c., and a moss called kopuru were so used; also the gum of tarata and of taramea (Aciphylla) were so employed.
Oil obtained from the livers of certain species of sharks was used in mixing paints for personal use, or for painting canoes, houses, &c. It usually possessed a highly objectionable odour—at least, to Europeans; natives did
not mind the smell. The Maori was much given to bedaubing himself with red ochre (kokowai, horu) mixed with oil. Occasionally a blue paint was made from pukepoto, a blue earth; also black, or which charcoal formed the basis, and white made from taioma, a white clay. If sufficient paint were available a man would smear himself all over with it. The Rev. R. Taylor remarks that the oil and ochre served as a protection against mosquitoes, and also against cold. The different designs painted on a person's face were known as tuhi kohuru, tuhi mareikura, &c. The mythical origin of the red ochreous earth is that it is the result of the blood of the Sky Parent Rangi that soaked into the body of the Earth Mother. When their unruly offspring separated the primal parents, Rangi clung so fast to the Earth Mother that it was found necessary to cut off his arms, hence the flow of blood.
Tattooing.—The art of tattooing, so widely practised throughout the world, was universally known in these isles, where it was practised by both sexes. Women invariably had the lips and chin tattooed, sometimes a small design on the forehead, and, rarely, the ngu or nose design. Some had short straight lines marked on the legs. Shortland mentions a woman of the South Island who had one half of her face (only) tatooed all over as that of a man. D'Urville saw, in the same region, a woman with her face wholly tattooed. Bidwill saw a woman with her buttocks tattooed like those of a man. Of natives seen in the vicinity of Bream Head, Parkinson says they lacked spiral designs on their faces, the style being different to anything seen before. This unusual form is probably that illustrated in his work.
Dr. Savage speaks of a semicircular figure over each eyebrow as a part of a woman's tattoo, but this has not come down to our time; it may have been a merely local usage. Crozet says that the Bay of Islands natives had the figure S tattooed on their hands—again probably a local practice. Taylor speaks of women having a little curl at the corner of the eye.
A fully tattooed man had his face covered with designs of varied form; also his buttocks and thighs were so adorned. Curiously enough, the breasts and arms were not tattooed. Occasionally, perhaps, some man might have a design marked on his breast; early writers seem to have seen such things. Mr. John White speaks of men having a large design of a fern-leaf tattooed on the back; but corroboration seems to be lacking. The Maori did not, so far as we know, copy such natural objects in his artistic work.
Many brief accounts of Maori tattooing have been published, and these do not agree as to the method employed. Some say that the instrument was dipped into prepared pigment for each insertion; others that the pigment was rubbed into the cut, or that a wisp of tow saturated in the pigment was drawn across the incision when made. The first-mentioned method is the one I have seen employed by natives, though possibly details differed in
different districts. The pigment was made from soot obtained from the burning of resinous wood or the gum of the kauri pine. The Tuhoe folk burned the curious object known as vegetating or vegetable caterpillar in order to use the residue for black pigment. Such soot was mixed with water or the juice of berries of the mahoe tree, formed into lumps and so kept for years. In this condition it was called kauri. The design was first traced, and then the operator dipped his little uhi, or adze-shaped implement, into the pigment, placed it on the traced line, and struck it a sharp tap with a piece of wood held in his right hand. This process was continued, but, being very severe, little could be done at one time.
Description: Fig. 105.—Maori tattooing
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The instrument used, the uhi, was usually made from a piece of albatross-bone, ground flat, thin and pointed, and with a cutting-edge of varying width, up to a quarter of an inch. It was hafted as is an adze—i.e., at a right angle to the handle—and the cutting-edge of the blade also at a
right angle to the same. A few men made a profession of this art of tattooing, and were paid for their services in such articles as garments, objects of adornment, and implements. In order to be well adorned with finely-executed designs we are told that it was necessary to pay the artist a good price, otherwise the work would be performed in a hasty and careless manner.
The art of tattooing is said in native myth to have been introduced by one Mataora, previous to which man was adorned with painted patterns only. Mataora is said to have visited Rarohenga, the subterranean spirit-world, and to have acquired there the art of ta moko, which he brought back to this world. Some see in this myth a perverted remembrance of a voyage made by some old-time Polynesian ancestor to a land where tattooing was practised.
We are told that, originally, the only designs tattooed on women were a cross on each cheek, and one on the forehead. As a matter of fact, we do not find these Maori tattoo designs in Polynesia.
The act of tattooing a person of importance had a considerable amount of tapu pertaining to it, inasmuch as the process meant the shedding of blood. It was thus performed out-of-doors, perhaps under a rude temporary shelter. The conclusion of the ordeal was often marked by a social function, a meeting of the neighbouring peoples, and a ceremonial feast. When a girl of position had her lips tattooed the function was sometimes marked by a form of human sacrifice. Such person, however, was not slain as an offering to the gods, or for any truly ritual purpose, but simply to add éclat to the occasion, and to provide a prized dish at the feast. When such a girl had passed through the ordeal, she was adorned with fine garments, with pendants, albatross plumes (kaiwharawhara), and other decorations, then exhibited to the people.
Some unusual forms of tattoo occurred in the South Island, but, unfortunately, intelligent and interested observers were lacking in that district, and so no ethnographical data were there collected. Colenso was of the opinion that the curious face designs illustrated by Parkinson represented a southern practice. He himself had seen a few persons so tattooed, but does not tell us in what district he saw them. Tattooing on the tongue, practised by the Hawaiians, does not seem to have been favoured here, though an east coast tradition makes some reference to it. Men occasionally had the penis tattooed; among women the tara whakairo was rare.
Habitations, Storehouses, Villages, the Pa Maori
Dwellinghouses. The pihanga. Dimensions of houses. Whare puni. Whare whakanoho. Construction of houses. Thatching. Carved houses. Carving designs. The manaia. The scroll. The lizard. Tapu of new houses. Painted designs. Decorative panels. Pukiore or harapaki. Roof-pitch. Fuel-supply in house. Log-splitting. Log and canoe hauling. Cooking-sheds. Villages. Hill forts. Storehouses. Tree dwellings. Storage platforms. Storage pits.
The dwellings and storehouses of our native folk are interesting chiefly because of the decorative work that pertained to the better ones. By no stretch of the imagination can the whare maori, or native house, be viewed as a comfortable place. The term “house” comes naturally to the point of the pen, but in many cases native habitations can only be described as “huts.” The Maori strove to make his hut a warm retreat in winter on account of his lack of kaka moe (sleeping-garments), but comfort in other ways he never evolved; the native hut was a cheerless abode. The lack of a chimney meant that merely a small fire could be kept burning, and that the smoke from such fire was a source of great discomfort—or as least it would be to us. In some cases charcoal fires wre employed, but the effect of such fires in a half-buried hut lacking any ventilation, and filled with natives, may be imagined. The air in such a place is abominably foul and close. Early writers have told us that in summer-time the natives often gave up using their winter quarters, and slept in light, open structures, or in the open.
In Parkinson's Journal we meet with a few statements concerning native huts. Of those seen where the town of Gisborne now stands he remarks: “We went into some of their houses, which were very meanly thatched, having a hole in the centre of the roof to let out the smoke.” Now, this feature of a smoke-hole in the roof is unknown to us save in a few references by early writers. It cannot have been a common practice, and was probably but little known. The Rev. Mr. Taylor wrote: “Another window is placed in the roof, a kind of trap-door, termed a pihanga.” This seems to have been a sort of louvre or dormer window; though it would admit but very little light, if any, it would serve as an excellent smoke-escape. Angas depicts such a roof-opening apparently in one of his sketches, but does not mention it in his work. It may have been an occasional usage, but certainly was not universal or common, and Taylor admits that in his time it was no longer seen.
However, Angas seems to have seen it at Aotea in the “forties.”
Forster tells us that some of the “houses and cottages” of the New-Zealanders had an appearance of neatness. Crozet speaks of the natives using plank beds covered with grass or ferns—in which he was apparently wrong. Nicholas (1815) gives the average size of native huts as about 14 ft. by 8 ft., but many were smaller than that. He also says that these huts were very badly constructed, which they certainly were not, as a rule. Possibly he was referring to temporary huts of a summer encampment. Marshall speaks of the huts of Taranaki as having walls and roof made of mud and clay. This again is improbable: he saw huts of the whare puni type, with thatched walls and roof, or possibly bark-covered, with earth heaped against the walls and also on the low roof. His statement that the occupants slept in such places as we do in a bell-tent, with heads together “like the radii of a circle,” is also doubtful. Marshall also seems to have seen huts having the porch half enclosed, a wall extending across the front thereof. We do not know this form of porch; it may have been a local usage. These huts were used as storage-places for implements. He also saw elevated huts of the pataka type, but with one end open, that were used for storing fuel in. Of the huts seen in the Whangaroa and Bay of Islands districts he remarks that they were very small, “the merest loop-hole serving for an entrance,” and inferior to those of Taranaki. An account of the huts of the natives of the Wellington district, written in 1843, is to the effect that they were 10 ft. or 12 ft. long and 4 ft. or 5 ft. high. The occupants crawled into them, “where, covered with vermin, they smoked away a great part of their time.” The site of an old native village, exposed by the shifting of a sandhill, near Katikati, showed many hut-sites that were about 8 ft. by 10 ft. to 8 ft. by 12 ft. in size. Marsden relates that he had to divest himself of his coat ere he could crawl through the doorway of a 10 ft. by 14 ft. hut that he wished to enter.
Occasionally a type of house called whare kopae was seen in some districts; it was marked by having the doorway at the side instead of the end. Most early writers note the difference between the huts of the common folk and the superior dwellings of the men of importance, and it is these differences that call for some explanation.
The huts occupied as dwelling-places by the great majority of the people may be arranged under two heads—the
whare puni, or general sleeping-house, and the small hut from 10 ft. to 12 ft. or so in length. The former was a house so constructed as to exclude fresh air and induce warmth; these were the favoured sleeping-apartments in winter. In size they might be anything from 14 ft. to 30 ft. or more in length. The walls were low, sometimes not more than about 2 ft., and the roof-pitch by no means a steep one. In many cases the site was excavated to a depth of perhaps 1 ft.; in others the earthing-up of the walls imparted to it a kind of semi-subterranean appearance. The packing of earth against the walls on the outside, and sometimes on the roof itself, was an excellent preventive of ventilation. When a fire was kindled in such a place, the little door and window-shutter slid to, and a party of unwashed natives in possession, then the result was an atmosphere such as only a Maori could endure. When charcoal fires were used, cases of the inhabitants of one of these dormitories being overcome by the fumes were not uncommon. In such cases the cause of such visitation was thought to be a certain supernatural folk called Patupaiarehe.
The first part of a house-plan marked off was the tuarongo, or back wall, and the rest was squared from that by means of measuring diagonals with the taura tieke, or measuring-cord. The terms koha and hau denote the slight increase in width of the front wall, and its equally slight increase in height—about a hand's breadth.
In the case of a large house the raising of the three great posts to support the huge ridge-pole was no light task. The rear post (pou tuarongo) and that at the front wall, the pou tahu, were erected first; then the central post, the pou tokomanawa. The butt end of the post was placed over the hole, and, as the head was raised, the butt slid down a beam placed vertically in the hole. The head was lifted a certain distance by man-handling, then ropes were used, in conjunction with a form of horse or trestle. Snubbing-posts enabled the rope-haulers to hold their gains.
The lifting of the huge, massive ridge-pole of a large house was another heavy task. The rangitapu method of raising the tahu, or ridge-pole, was as follows: It was hauled into position at the base of the posts; two tall, stout rickers were set upright, one on either side of the rear post. These were somewhat higher than the post, and had a cross-piece lashed across them above the top of the post.
The same was done at the front post. Stout ropes were attached to either end of the tahu and passed over the cross-pieces above the post-heads. These ropes were brought down and passed under similar cross-pieces at the bases of the posts. The men hauling had thus two substitutes for pulleys, and were enabled to lift the ridge-pole into position. The cross-pieces were freshly barked pieces of round houhou, having a smooth glairy surface. If this was a pre-European usage it was an ingenious device.
These sleeping-houses, and all superior houses, were whare whakanoho—proper framed houses constructed of wrought timber; whereas many of the smaller ordinary huts were built with a frame of round saplings. In these latter the walls were composed of sapling uprights fixed in the ground, to the outer sides of which were lashed small, horizontal rods, to which the wall-thatch was tied in small bundles about 6 in. wide. The roof-frame was composed of similar round poles and rods employed as rafters and battens, to which overlapping layers of thatch were secured. The whole erection was fastened together by lashings composed of strips of the green leaf of Phormium, or “flax” as it is commonly but erroneously termed by us. In these huts the wall-posts and those that supported the ridge-pole were all well sunk in the ground, and so equally tended to support the roof.
In the whare whakanoho the central posts and the ridge-pole may be said to support the house. The side posts, or rather slabs or planks, were not deeply inserted in the earth, and were not intended to resist both the weight of the roof and the thrust of the rafters. The ridge-pole supported the rafters, and so the outward thrust on the walls was not great. In place of compact round, or square, wall-posts, wide planks were used, with intervals of 2 ft. between them. These planks were about 3 in. in thickness. The upper ends were mortised to receive the lower end of the rafter, and in some cases each had outside it a form of buttress or brace. The rafters were hewn timbers, the upper ends of which rested on the upper surface of the ridge-pole, but underneath was a shoulder that fitted against the ridge-pole. No form of lashing, trunnel, or nail secured the rafters to ridge-pole or poupou, as the vertical planks used as wall-posts were termed. Nor were the horizontal battens of this type of house lashed to the rafters, as in the case of the inferior huts. Such battens simply lay on top of the
rafters. To hold them in place a strong rope, a flattened five-strand plait of the tough, durable leaves of the Cordyline, was passed over the ridge-pole and two turns taken round each of the battens in position. This rope is known as a tauwhenua, and one such is provided for each rafter. As it passes along the upper side of the rafter it is invisible to any person inside the house. One end of this rope was secured to the outer bracing-post, or poumatua, that backs the poupou, or plank wall-post. The other end, after passing round the last roof-batten on the other side of the roof, was conducted down to the poumatua of that side. And now took place a tightening process that locked the house together. A stout pole was employed as a lever, and to this the free end of the rope was secured. A number of men manipulating this long lever put a heavy strain on the rope. This strain came primarily on the rope, but also on the two uprights, or poupou, on either side of the house. These were drawn inward by such strain so as to cause the two rafters affected to be jammed tightly in position between poupou and ridge-pole. One can hear the creak of straining timbers as the rafters are jammed home.
In this mimiro process, as it was called, the rope was not attached directly to the lever, but by means of a short length of rope that was an appendage to the tauwhenua. This left the end of the main rope free, and this was secured to the poumatua by the help of a wooden peg inserted in it, and which served as a belaying-pin.
The poupou or wall-planks acting as posts were not quite vertical, but leaned inward a trifle. No wall-plate of any strength was employed, but only a thin plank about 6 in. wide that was secured to the top of the poupou on the outside. This is the kaho paetara. The covering of the walls consisted of thatch. In common huts but one thickness of wall-thatch was known; but in these better-class building two layers were put on. The inner layer of this tupuni, or wall-thatch, was usually raupo (a bulrush), and the outer one was composed of some more durable material, such as toetoe or rushes. In many cases bark of totara or manuka was used—sometimes as a lining for roof or wall, and sometimes it formed the only roof-covering. The first layer of thatch on the roof of a superior house was a close-packed covering of even surface, not lapped rows of thatch. Such a first covering is called the tuahuri, and is usually of raupo (bulrush). It is the same process as thatching a wall. Along the upper surface of this layer, along the ties that secure it to the roof, supplejacks were laid and lashed; these karapi, as they are termed, serve as battens to which the next layer of thatch is tied. Over the tauhuri comes the true thatch, arranged in the whakaheke manner, horizontal rows each overlapping the one below it. This is composed of the most durable material obtainable. When finished, poles were often placed lengthwise on the roof and secured at the ends in order to keep the thatch down and prevent disarrangement by wind.
The end walls of the house were built much as were the side walls, with the same wide plank-like posts. The type of house just described would have the side walls and roof prolonged perhaps 8 ft. or 10 ft., and this porch, or roro, would serve as a lounging-place. Its outer limit was defined by a wide slab, the paepae-kai-awha, placed on edge. The floor of the house consisted of the bare earth, which would be covered wth bracken or some such material where used as a sleeping-place. The door and window were but wooden slabs that slid into position. No form of chimney was employed. The fireplace was merely a small, shallow, rectangular pit lined with stones. A few carved timbers may be seen on such houses.
The above description represents many of the whare puni type of house, but a superior type was the whare whakairo, or carved house. Here we have the house adorned more or less with carvings and painted designs. Such houses were occupied by men of standing, or used as guest-houses. Of late years there has been a revival of the custom of building these decorated houses. Some of them are of considerable size, as much as 70 ft. in length; a few are somewhat longer. All are of the same form, the usual rectangular parallelogram of the whare maori, or native house. No matter how large a native house is made, however, it is never partitioned off into rooms. The front wall is, in large houses, set well back so as to provide a deep porch. These houses are constructed as are the whare puni already described, but many of the timbers are adorned with carved designs or painted patterns, while the spaces between uprights are occupied by decorative panels or neat reed-work. The roof also is lined with the long slim reeds known as kakaho, the culms of the toetoe (Arundo conspicua). This type of house is not “earthed up.”
In the erection of whare whakairo, or houses adorned with carved timbers, no set rule obtains as to the amount of such decoration employed. It depends upon the ability, industry, or financial standing of the owners. In many cases a hamlet could not produce any person skilled in decorative art, hence experts of other clans had to be asked to undertake the work, and these would have to be paid
for their services. Thus a house may have decorative carvings on its central post, ridge-pole, wall-posts, door and window frames, barge-boards and their upright supports, and the deep plank placed across the entrance to the porch. Occasionally carvings are also seen on the door, the window-shutter, and the rafters. The latter are usually, however, adorned with painted designs, not carvings. On the other hand, one sees houses of the whare puni type with, in some cases, one lone piece of carved work, a human head fixed over the junction of the barge-boards at the apex of the roof. A house of the whare whakanoho type—i.e., constructed of wrought timber—might be provided with carvings in any quantity between these two extremes.
Banks, in his account of Cook's first voyage, makes a few remarks on Maori carving, and speaks of two materially different styles: “One was entirely formed of a number of spirals differently connected; the other was in much more wild taste, and I may truly say was like nothing but itself. The truth with which the lines were drawn was surprising, but even more so was their method
of connecting several spirals into one piece, inimitably well, intermingling the ends in so dexterous a manner that it was next to impossible for the eye to trace the connections.” When Polack visited the east coast in the “thirties” of last century he was much struck by the superiority of the wood-carving of that region to what he had seen in the Bay of Islands district. Parkinson expressed surprise at the remarkably fine execution in the carving of spiral designs, and notes that no imitations of nature were seen in native designs.
The wood-carving designs of the Maori are unlike those of Polynesia, and we have to turn to Melanesia to find anything analogous to them, as in New Guinea. The peculiar design often carved on the lower ends of barge-boards in New Zealand is found, in a cruder form, on houses in New Ireland, as also is the double manaia. The latter is, with the Maori, a much conventionalized figure; a grotesque human figure has on either side of it a weird-looking creature with a head resembling that of a bird. These two creatures face the central figure, and each has its beak(?) close to or touching the head of that figure, often against its ears. Evidently a symbolical meaning has been attached to this peculiar design, though now long forgotten by the Maori. A similar design, much less conventional, is employed in Melanesia, as also is the scroll pattern. Dr. Newman sees in the double manaia design a form found in Indian sculpture, where it represents Vishnu the Preserver flanked by the spirits of Good and Evil. The much-favoured scroll or spiral design was not employed in Polynesia, but is in New Guinea and Indonesia. The double-spiral form has been employed in decorative art in many lands from Polynesia to Ireland. A favoured design for the barge-boards of
buildings is that known as the pakake, or whale. The body of the whale is quite plain, but the head is resolved into a scroll form. Birds are not depicted in the carvings of the Maori, though the Moriori folk of the Chatham Isles employed that design occasionally. The only animal that appears frequently in native carvings is the lizard; this was and is quite common, a fact that has caused much speculation as to its symbolical meaning. We are told that the lizard represents Whiro, who is the personified form of evil and death, and some superstition may have led to its being carved on house-timbers. Moko is the general name for lizards here, though in parts of Melanesia the crocodile is so called. In both Asia and Africa we encounter the belief that the lizard brought death into the world. The Maori believed that death is often caused by it, and that a wizard can cause a lizard to devour his victim's entrails and so cause his death. The lizard appears in carvings and other decorative work in many parts of the world, especially in Polynesia and Melanesia. These designs, symbolical and otherwise, were probably all introduced here, and are not a local production.
Wood-carving was a tedious task in the Stone Age, and the carvings of a superior house or canoe might represent a labour of ten years. The reticulated carving seen on the prow of a war-canoe was a work that called for much skill, patience, and time.
When about to build a house, the site was levelled, and the dimensions of the building marked with four corner pegs. Squaring was effected by means of measuring the diagonals. To line the uprights of side and end walls a cord was carried right round the four corner pegs and stretched taut. The men engaged in building a superior house were under tapu, and that meant many restrictions. Artisans, carvers, hewers, &c., were under the aegis of the gods, and of Rua. This Rua is the personified form of knowledge, and he has many names; as the patron of artisans, or at least of house-builders and canoe-makers, he is called Rua i te whaihanga. The tapu of a new superior house was a serious matter, until such tapu was removed by means of a singular ceremony, in which a woman was the first person to step across the threshold of the new building. Other ceremonial of a very strange nature was intended to protect the welfare of the house—that is to say, of its inmates. This was done by means of a material mauri, a form of talisman already described.
As to decorative work other than carving, we may mention painted designs on rafters and battens, occassionally elsewhere; also the effective decorative panel-work between the wall-posts, and the neat reed-work lining seen in roof-work, and occasionally on walls. The remarkable designs seen painted on the rafters of superior houses form an interesting study when one considers that they were the work of barbaric and cannibal folk. We note nothing like them in Polynesia, but find patterns of house-paintings in New Guinea that resemble them. The symmetrical arrangement of these designs is very striking. The many convolutions and arrangements of curved lines are totally distinct from Polynesian decorative designs. The colours used were red, black, and white. Ochre furnished the first, charcoal the second, and a white clay the thrid, these substances being mixed with oil. Such painted designs are generally called tuhituhi, and each of the many different designs has its distinctive name.
Occasionally walls were lined in a very neat manner with the stalks (stipes) of the common bracken, and these brown reed-like stalks were secured to the frame by means of fine ties, the general effect being a pleasing one. The matured yellow culms of the toetoe kakaho (Arundo conspicua) were often used as a lining-material for the roof and walls. As arranged up and down on a roof they are certainly very effective. In some cases the wall-spaces between the upright planks (poupou) were lined with these reeds arranged vertically. The more elaborate method, however, was that known as pukiore, harapaki, and tukutuku. In this work the reeds were used as a background, and then small, thin, flat battens of light wood were placed across them horizontally a little distance apart. In some cases the horizontal laths are placed close together, so that the reeds behind them are unseen. These laths were about ¾ in. in width, and coloured black or red. These decorative panels were not built into the wall, but were completed as separate pieces and then fitted into the wall-spaces. In making them the laths were arranged first, each one being confined at each end in a turn of a suspended cord. The reeds were then tied on to the laths separately, and this work was performed by two persons, one being stationed on either side of the suspended panel. By this arrangement the work was performed with facility, as the operators passed the ties to each other through the spaces between the laths. The strips of fibrous material employed in the
basket-like laced work were of three materials—harakeke (Phormium tenax), kiekie (Freycinetia Banksii), and pingao (Scirpus frondosus). These strips are of different colours, and so lend themselves to the formation of coloured designs. The flax is a green colour, unless blackened artificially, which was sometimes done; the kiekie a light grey, and the pingao an orange colour. The kiekie was sometimes rendered white by a bleaching process. In manipulating these ties the different coloured strips employed in securing the reeds to the laths were so arranged as to form geometric designs and patterns, each of which has its proper name. When neatly executed with carefully prepared materials this pukiore work presents a very ornate and pleasing appearance. A house having its walls so decorated is called a whare pukiore in some parts.
When the yellow culms of the toetoe alone were employed in house-decoration they were sometimes adorned with a spiral pattern. This was effected by means of winding a strip of green Phormium leaf round the reed in a spiral manner, leaving an open space between the turns. The reed was then held in the flame of a fire for a while, which blackened the exposed spiral, but on the covering-strip being removed the spiral under it was still of its bright-yellow colour.
The front end of a carefully constructed house was so made as to be slightly higher than the tuarongo, or rear end. The effect of this is said to be that the smoke draws forward to the upper part of the front wall and so escapes through the koropihanga or aumanga, a small aperture just below the ridge-pole at the front wall.
The term hoa implies pitch, as of a roof (tuanui). A house with a steep-pitched roof is called a whare apiti. The words haeora, haeoratu, hoka, and rongomaioro also denote a steep-pitched roof, while hora, kaupaparu, kurupapa, pora matanui, and others are applied to a low-pitched roof; kuramatanui denotes a medium pitch. The eaves of a house have a considerable projection, and are termed peru, heu, ikuiku, hiku, and tarahau. The central space down the interior of a house is the ihonui, kauwhanga, riuroa, or awarua. On either side of it the sleeping-places are separated from the central passage by means of a thick plank called a patakitaki or pa uruhanga. People lie with their heads to the side walls (pakitara), and feet to the
central passage. As you enter a house, the right side, near the window, is the place of honour, where the principal people are found. The opposite corner, on the left side, the kopaiti or taraiti, is a place of no account.
In whare puni firewood was sometimes kept stacked in a kind of sling apparatus on the rear wall. This was termed an apaapa wahie. A loose heap of firewood, a disordered heap, is called a haupu wahie or whakaputu; the word apaapa denotes a carefully arranged stack. The verb is whakaapaapa (to stack). Kotutu wahie and whakatutu wahie are applied to the conical stacks of fuel timber often seen in former times.
Totara was the most highly prized wood for house-building purposes, and matai was much used in some districts. The splitting of logs into slabs for hewing into plank was an arduous task on account of the lack of metal tools. Wooden wedges and beetles were used, the former fashioned from manuka wood the hardened in fire. The chief difficulty would be with the small entering-wedges, termed pipi. Possibly the Maori adopted the same plan that the Tahitians employed, who kept a fierce fire burning for some time near the end of the log to be split. The heat, acting on the green wood, caused it to dry and check, such cracks being taken advantage of in entering the small wedges. Large bursting-wedges are known as kaunuku. Ora and matakahi are generic terms for such splitting-wedges. The maul or beetle used was simply a ponderous and heavy wooden club, called a ta or pao; maire being a favoured timber for this implement.
The labour of hauling from the forest heavy house-timbers, canoes, &c., was severe, but was a most impressive sight to view. Ropes were attached to the balk, and a large number of men “tailed on” to them. A fugleman chanted certain lines of the hauling-song, and the haulers roared out the chorus as they strained at the ropes.
The rough places used as cookhouses (kauta, kamuri) were in some cases constructed without walls, but stacks of neatly piled firewood took the place thereof. Walls of such places were also made with trunks of the wheki, a tree-fern (Dicksonia). The name of whare tirawa is applied to a hut with such walls. Native women preferred to cook out in the open in fine weather. Rude sheds, temporary shelters, termed wharau, were sometimes erected by travellers, but only in bad weather.
Native villages in former times were of two kinds. The pa was a fortified village, while the kainga was an unfortified village. The fortified places were, in most cases, built in commanding situations on hills, bluffs, and terraces. Near such places there might, however, be an open village situated, wherein many of the people would live, except in times of danger. Villages were subdivided into areas of differing sizes by means of light palisading, each area being occupied by a family group. In most cases a clear space was reserved at some part of the village. This was termed the marae, and here visitors were received, open-air meetings were held, and people often assembled here on summer evenings, the young folk engaging in games and pastimes. As a rule this public place and also the small open spaces in front of the dwelling-huts were kept neat and clean, leading men often taking a prominent part in such work. The large house in which meetings took place and parties of visitors were accommodated would face the village marae. A public latrine was found in each village, often situated at some steep slope or bluff. In warm weather the people often lived a kind of gipsy life at their cultivation grounds, or elsewhere, wherever they might be engaged in some industry. Thus one might visit a village at such times and find it deserted, save for a few decrepit old persons.
Villages that were protected merely by stockades, as in the Wellington district, have passed away and left but few signs of the former habitations of man. In D'Urville's time a Maori pa existed on the bluff head at the eastern headland of Lyall Bay, but no tokens of that hamlet are now seen, less than a century later. The remains of old-time earthwork defences and terraced hills are, however, seen in many hundreds in other parts of the North Island. Such remains are not found in Polynesia, those of Rapa Island being of a different type. The hill forts of Viti Levu, Fiji Group, must have resembled the pa maori of New Zealand, especially with regard to the earthworks, stockades, and elevated fighting-platforms. The peculiar upward sloping stages (kotaretare) employed in defensive works by the Maori were also used in stockaded villages in eastern New Guinea. Stockaded villages resembling those of New Zealand were also known in Borneo and Sumatra.
An important building in a native village was the storehouse. These were elevated huts used for the storage of food-supplies, such as dried products, and many other things. These stores were of varying sizes, from small box-like places 2 ft. or 3 ft. long, to large, roomy structures
of 20 ft. in length. In finish they differed as widley, from rough thatched huts to carefully built specimens of hewn timber adorned with abundance of carved designs. In many cases the finest carved work seen in a village was that of the show elevated store of the place. These stores were supported, according to size, on one, two, four, or more supporting-posts. The larger ones are called pataka and whata; the small ones are known as purangi, kawiu, whatarangi, &c. No carved work is ever seen inside such structures, save in the porch, but in a few cases the outside of the plank walls were covered with elaborately carved designs. In most cases the carved adornments were confined to the front of the pataka, the threshold plank, the verge-boards and their vertical supporting planks, together with the interior of the porch. It must be understood that the elaborately adorned specimens of such places seen in our museums were by no means common in former times. Most pataka merely had a few carved timbers in front, and many had no such decorative work at all. The same can be said of dwellinghouses. These storehouses were elevated about 4 ft. from the ground, access to them being
gained by means of a notched beam used as a step-ladder. This was not stationary, and was placed in position only when a person wished to enter the store. The main object of elevation was to prevent rats entering the place, and various devices were employed in order to prevent them ascending the posts. In late times a very effective method of blocking the ingress of rats has been adopted, a tin milk-pan being placed in an inverted position on the top of each supporting post, and on top of these the plates are laid.
Elevated storage-places are employed in various regions of the Pacific, and such erections are common in Indonesia. A few cases are recorded in Maori tradition of tree dwellings having been employed by the Maori. Such a tree house was occupied by natives at Te Whakahoro, near Manukau, early in last century, until gun-armed raiders from the north discouraged that mode of life. The Rev. R. Taylor mentions a case in which certain fugitives lived in a tree hut on the slopes of Mount Egmont. This occurred long generations ago. Polack mentions another case at Opotiki.
In addition to elevated huts the Maori was much given to the use of elevated platforms as storage-places. These were elevated on posts or constructed among the branches of trees. The small pataka, some of which were diminutive box-like objects elevated on a single tall post, were used as places in which to keep prized articles, tapu food, and in some cases bones of the dead.
Pits and semi-subterranean storage-places, for which rua is a generic term, were also used, principally for the preservation of the kumara, or sweet potato, that was the principal cultivated food product of the people. The semi-subterranean stores, called rua tahuhu, were often lined with slabs of the trunks of tree-ferns in order to exclude rats; such slabs being known as pairi ponga and turihunga. The species Dicksonia fibrosa is the most highly prized for this purpose. The well-like, wholly subterranean storage pits are called rua kopiha. Both kinds are still in use among natives.
Fishing
Lack of animal food. The Maori an expert fisherman. Fish-nets. Huge seines used. Names of nets. Funnel-shaped nets. Manufacture of nets. New nets and tapu. Rites and superstitions connected with new nets, &c. Details of fishing-apparatus. Mauri of fish. Fish-hooks. Fresh-water fish. Eel-weirs. Eel-pots. Lamprey-weirs. Crayfish-pots. The koumu fish-trap. The taking of small fresh-water fish.
The Maori of New Zealand was but indifferently supplied by nature with animal food. He possessed the dog and the rat, both introduced from Polynesia. The former was certainly eaten, but such food was always in short supply, and can only be viewed as a luxury but occasionally enjoyed. The rat certainly furnished a more important food-supply, but yet was viewed as a choice dish—by no means an everyday article of diet. Thus it was that the Maori looked upon bird-snaring and fishing as highly important activities. Where folk of other lands became hunters of wild animals, the Maori became a bird-trapper. Fortunately he found the seas surrounding these isles teeming with fish, and so coast-dwelling tribes became expert fishermen. Inland tribes were less fortunate, but still these, in many places, found a considerable food-supply in the eels that are found in most of the rivers and lakes, which grow to a great size, and were sometimes taken in great quantities. They also took several species of smaller
fish—the grayling, kokopu, whitebait, panoko, &c. Fresh-water crayfish formed quite an important food-supply in the Rotorua district. Shell-fish were much used by dwellers on the coast, and old shell middens are in evidence in many places. A fresh-water mussel was found in lake and stream, but was by no means an important food product in most parts.
Fishing-nets.—Early voyagers to New Zealand were much struck with the great size of some of the nets used by the Maori in sea fishing, and also of those that were set in tidal rivers. Dr. Thomson tells us that some of these nets were 1,000 yards long, and required five hundred people to draw them properly. The Rev. James Buller wrote: “They made nets which were even 1,000 yards in length.” Polack speaks of seines being “several thousand feet in length,” and states that such nets were owned by the community. Nicholas, the companion of Marsden in 1814–15, refers several times to the immense size of some of the nets, and remarks that they were much larger than any nets made use of in Europe. Captain Cook wrote of a net seen by him, “It was five fathoms deep, and by the room it took up could not be less than three or four hundred fathoms long.” Banks remarks that the natives laughed at the “King's seine” used by the ship's company. Captain Gilbert Mair described a huge net made in late times by the Ngati-Pikiao folk of the Bay of Plenty. This monstrous net was measured by Captain Turner and others, and found to be 95 chains (2,090 yards) in length. The hauling of that new net, and the catch of fish made, are said to have been sights for gods and men.
These huge seines or drag-nets were termed kaharoa. Other net names are as follows:—
Atata—a small circular net on framework; sunk in the sea.
Auparu—an oval-frame net for river use.
Kaka—a small drag-net.
Kape—a hand-net worked on a frame, for small fish.
Koko—a small hand-net.
Karapa—a landing-net, or scoop-net.
Kotutu—a hand-net.
Kupenga—generic term for nets.
Kupenga titoko—a small scoop-net.
Ngehingehi—a net for taking eels.
Ahuriri—a funnel net for river use; often of great size.
Pahao—a hand-net.
Poha—a net used at eel-weirs.
Porohe—a small net.
Pouraka—(1) a net or trap for taking crayfish; (2) a trap for taking kokopu.
Pukoro—a net for taking eels.
Rangatahi—a drag-net about 10 fathoms in length.
Riritai—same as ahuriri.
Rohe—a hand-net; a leading-net.
Tarawa—a funnel-shaped net.
Tata—a small hand-net.
Tawiri (syn. purangi)—a funnel-shaped net.
Toemi; toere—a small hand-net.
Whakapuru—a shrimp-net.
“Our seine,” wrote Lieutenant Cruise (1820), “though of the same size with others served out to King's ships, was contemptible when compared with those of the New-Zealanders.” Crozet (1772) speaks of nets 500 ft. in length.
The funnel-shaped net called a tarawa was lowered into the sea by means of a rope. A specimen in the Dominion Museum has an opening of about 12 ft., and it is about 14 ft. in length. The entrance of this specimen is not circular, but has one side straight, which gives one the impression that it was meant to be dragged along the bottom. The matarau was a funnel-shaped net, a hoop-net of considerable size. The upper and larger part of this net is said to have been made of twine, or small cord, of dressed Phormium fibre, while the lower part was made of strips of the green leaf of that plant. The variety of Phormium termed wharanui is said to have been used for the latter purpose. A form described by Parkinson, as seen at Queen Charlotte Sound, was remarkable for having several hoops at the bottom and being contracted at the top. Cook states that the bait was secured in the middle of the net, and that the net was hauled up very gently, by which means a large number was often caught. The Ngati-Porou people called this form a tarawa. Its great hoop was formed of stems of climbing-plants. Across its mouth extended stout cords to which the lowering-rope was attached, as also the bait. Stone sinkers were attached to the hoop and to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped net. These nets were
made of cords of dressed Phormium fibre, and reinforced with strips of the green leaf. A net made from the latter might be broken by the ururoa shark, but not so one made from fibre cordage. This bag net, being baited, was lowered into the sea, and when fish congregated round the bait the net was hauled up quickly by several men. By this means the fish were forced downwards to the bottom of the net by the resistance of the water. When the hoop appeared above water it was turned round several times, which act twisted the net and so brought the bottom of it nearer to the surface. A rope secured to the bottom was now brought to the surface by means of a hooked stick, the bottom part of the net was hauled up into the canoe, a certain part of the lower end was unfastened, and the fish emptied into the vessel.
Banks describes a small form of the above net seen at Queen Charlotte Sound. He does not state that it was funnel-shaped, but it may be assumed that it was. He remarks that it was circular, 7 ft. or 8 ft. in diameter, and 2 ft. or 3 ft. deep—apparently a shallow form. It was extended by two or three hoops, and open at the top for nearly, but not quite, its whole extent. On the bottom was fastened the bait, a small basket containing the entrails of fish and sea-ears. In this case the top or opening of the net seems to have been partially covered, presumably to prevent fish escaping.
The small round hoop-net termed a toemi has a portion of the netted fabric projecting above the hoop, and a cord is attached to it. When fish enter the net the operator pulls the cord and so closes the mouth of the net.
The net called ahuriri and riritai was a very large funnel-shaped net set at the mouth of a tidal river. Early settlers speak of specimens 70 ft. in length, with an opening of 25 ft. Colonel McDonnell speaks of a huge basket-like fabric attached to the small end. All such set-nets, as also eel-pots and bird-snares, are alluded to as te kawau moe roa (the long-slumbering cormorant)—a bird that, though remaining motionless for a long period, is yet keenly alive to its peculiar business. Net, pot, and snare “sleep” calmly, but do their duty effectively: hence an old-time expression. “ou mahi, e te kawau mae roa!” (“Thy doings, O thou long-slumbering cormorant!”).
As may be imagined, the manufacture of nets was an important industry among coast-dwelling folk, though some coast-lines were much more suitable for net-hauling than others. With regard to net-making, the task of making one of the huge kaharoa seines alluded to was not only a serious business, it was also a peculiarly tapu one. These great nets were made in sections; each family of a
community, of several villages in some cases, would make a certain length of net, then all these parts would be assembled and fastened together. The knot employed in net-making is the same as our own. In some cases a mesh-gauge (papa kupenga, kaupapa) was used, but in many cases the net-maker formed the meshes over his fingers without using a wooden gauge. The mesh (mata, raumata) is known as a mata haere if a wide one, and mata kutikuti if a small one, though other terms are employed in some districts, such as mata tatahi and mata puputu. The word ta means “to net.”
In commencing netting operations, termed ta kupenga, a strong plaited cord, the ngakau, is doubled, and tied to a peg stuck in the ground, at a height convenient to the netters (kaita), who sit down to work. On this looped cord the first line of meshes is made, the ngakau running free through each mesh. As the work proceeds, the workman does not leave the formed meshes correctly spaced, but pushes them to the left along the ngakau. As each mesh is made, the operator (if he uses a mesh-gauge) passes the mesh-gauge through it, with its end projecting therefrom, then passes the loose strip with which he is forming the meshes over the gauge and hitches it to the mesh on the
upper row; the size of the mesh is regulated by the width of the gauge. When the net, or section of a net, is finished, the ngakau is withdrawn. This ngakau cord is not stretched taut between two pegs. As the netter faces it the left-hand end only is secured to the peg; the rest trails free on the ground. When making a net of dressed-fibre twine, however, a cord is stretched taut and secured to a peg at each end to serve as a ngakau. The twine is wound into a ball, which is passed through the mesh and so manipulated as to form the hitch, which is afterwards drawn tight. In the first process described above the material used is composed of narrow strips of green Phormium leaf, succeeding strips being tied on when necessary.
When a new net was about to be made the expert would proceed to the place where the flax was to be provided, and there he would pull two of the young central leaves of a flax-plant until they broke off at the base. As he pulled out each leaf he repeated the words “Tangaroa whitia, Hui—e! Taiki—e!” The first blade so pulled represented the men of the community, and the second represented the women. If a screeching sound was heard as the leaves were torn out the omen was a good one—the net would be an efficient food-provider. If no such sound was heard, then the net would not be a lucky one. Should the butts of the plucked leaves be jagged it was said that the spirits of the fish yet to be caught in the net had nibbled them.
In some districts the first day's work in cutting and preparing material was done by the men, and the second day's work by the women. When the net was finished, two ropes were made for it; but these were not used: they were taken to the ahu, a tapu place whereat ceremonies were performed, by the tohunga, who deposited them there. Two more were then made and attached to the net. In some cases the extremely tough stringy bark of the houhere tree (Hoheria populnea) was used for the manufacture of these ropes, and also the strong, durable leaves of Cordyline australis, and of C. Banksii.
When watching Tauria Papanui, of Whanganui, as he was making a net without the use of a gauge, I noticed that he formed the mesh over one or more fingers, according to the size required. When making a small netted receptacle for fish to be placed in a fishing-canoe, he inserted one finger of his left hand in the last mesh formed, pressing it downward in order to render it taut. He then formed
the next mesh over the next finger; and, as the mesh was much bigger than that finger, regularity was really preserved by the eye.
Early writers have described the rigid tapu that obtained at any place where a net was being made or a new net was being used for the first time. No person other than the makers or manipulators were allowed to approach the place. Travellers were compelled to turn back or make a detour to avoid the spot. Any canoe appearing on the adjacent waters was seized, and, in some cases, trespassers were slain. The gods cannot be flouted with impunity, and their assistance was highly necessary in these undertakings; their tapu lay heavy on the proceedings.
A considerable amount of ceremony pertained to the first hauling of a new net. Such observances differed in different districts, as will be noted in the following illustrations.
One of the first lot of fish taken in a new net was taken by the priestly expert to the tapu place of the village and there deposited. As he deposited the fish he repeated a charm to ensure good draughts of fish in the new net in the future.
When the first hauling of a new net was made, a ceremonial feast was held. Two sacred fires, termed ahi parapara, were kindled, at one of which were cooked fish for the more important tapu men, and at the other for the influential women. Food for the bulk of the people was cooked elsewhere. A ceremonial lifting or abolishing of the tapu was performed, and the food of the ahi parapara partaken of, after which the rest of the people might eat.
It needed two large canoes to take out a large seine for hauling; in many cases a taurua, or double canoe, was employed for the purpose; such vessels would be from 50 ft. to 70 ft. in length. The new net was inspected by the tohunga, who proceeded to cut off the loose, protruding ends of all splices where knots had been made in adding lengths of material, which loose ends the net-makers were not allowed to cut off.
These severed ends he conveyed to the ahu, or tapu place, and there deposited them, saying as he did so—
He ata whiwhia, he ata rawea, he ata kai taongoKa whiwhi ringa o aitu, ka rawe ringa o tangata.
This charm brought good luck to the fishermen.
In conveying the new net to the canoe it was not folded up, but, as it lay full length on the ground, the bearers took their places on the western side of the net, about two fathoms apart. When all were ready, the controller, or tohunga, called out “Hapainga!” (“Lift it!”), whereupon each man grasped the net, with the left hand first, and placed it on his left shoulder. The tohunga, who had been standing on the east side of the net, now preceded the line of men as they carried the net to the canoe. On reaching it, two men, one on each side of the vessel, proceeded to stow the net, the upper part of which was laid on the right-hand side of the vessel and the bottom on the left side. As each man was relieved of his part of the burden he turned to the right and preceeded to the east side of the vessel; any other procedure was deemed unlucky.
The next act was to push the canoe off until she floated freely, at a right angle to the shore. The tohunga then stepped aboard at the stern, putting his left foot in first. The vessel was then swung round until she lay parallel with the shore, right side on to the beach, whereupon the crew got in, each man stepping on board with his left foot first. They then proceeded to the fishing-ground, where the net was payed out, the officiating tohunga, or expert, repeating a charm as the work proceeded. When the net was drawn, the expert seized one of the fish in the net with his left hand, and, holding it with its head under water, he said “Haere mai, haere ki tai nui no Whiro ki te whakataka mai i to tini, i to mano.” He then liberated the fish outside the net. The words repeated called upon the fish to go out to the great ocean, assemble its kind, and conduct them hither.
When the catch of fish was taken from the net the expert selected two fish and carried them to the tuahu, or sacred place of rites, and there suspended them on two rods on the eastern side of the spot. As he thrust the rods into the earth and attached the fish he recited a certain formula. No fish of the catch might be cooked until these proceedings were over. A ceremonial feast followed, at which the food for important persons and participators in any ceremony was cooked in separate ovens.
In some districts, when the tohunga took the first fish from the net he plucked a hair from his head and placed it in the mouth of the fish. He then faced to the east, held
the fish out at arm's length, waved it to and fro, and repeated his charm ere releasing it. In some cases the principal owner of a net would, on its being drawn for the first time, stand before his youngest son, and, waving his hands to and fro, he would say, “You are the tauira of my net.” He then did the same thing before the youngest daughter. If childless, he performed this curious act before a nephew and niece. Failing these, he fashioned two rude wooden images and went through the ceremony before them. The act of using a net for the first time was called whakainu. In some places all fish taken in the first hauling of a new net were liberated with the exception of the few required for ceremonial purposes. A rigid form of tapu prevailed over the beach where a new net was being hauled, as also over the adjacent part of the sea. Trespassers at such a time were somewhat severely dealt with.
The following form of haka, a song of rejoicing termed umere, was sung by women when fishermen returned with a good haul of fish:—
He koa kai! He koa kai!He papa teretere! He papa teretere!Ei … e … e … i.
Net-floats were made from the extremely light wood of the houama (syn. whau—Entelea arborescens); sometimes dry leaves of raupo (a bulrush—Typha augustifolia) were so used, also gourds. Floats were termed poito, pouto, and korewa. Sinkers (karihi) were simply smooth, water-worn stones, often of elongated from; they were often enclosed in a network sheath running along the bottom of the net, the kahararo, or lower rope. The following names pertain to the kaharoa, or seine:—
Kahararo—lower rope of seine (syn. paeraro).
Kaharunga—upper rope of seine (syn. paerunga).
Kahatu—upper edge of seine.
Kauangaroa—outer sections of seine.
Ngake or takapu—middle sections of seine.
Matakeke—sections on either side of ngake.
Pourakau—pole used as a spreader at ends.
Uru—part of net first placed in water.
Nets were apparently often smoke-dried in order render the material more durable. Watchmen stationed on a hill or cliff-head often served a useful purpose in signalling to net fishers the approach of a shoal of fish.
Nets were dried on long racks, and, when not in use, folded up and stowed on stages roofed over for protection.
Line fishing was much practised by the Maori, and some stretches of coast-line were quite unsuited for net-hauling. When a man used a new fishing-line (aho, nape) for the first time in fishing (hi = to fish; usually as hi ika, the latter word meaning “fish”) he went through a strange performance. Amid the silence of his brother craftsmen he tied a sinker (mahe) on his new line, and then the hooks, beginning with the lower one. He then baited the hooks, not forgetting to expectorate on each bait as he tied it. He then coiled up the line and passed it under his left thigh, after which the line was passed over the left side of the canoe in its first wetting. When the line was out he lifted it a little if the sinker had touched the bottom, held it in his left hand, and with his right hand, dipped up a little water and threw it against the line. When he caught his first fish he deposited it in the stern of the canoe, after which his companions were allowed to commence fishing. When the party returned to land, the owner of the new line took his first-caught fish and the fern or bulrush leaves he had used as a seat, and returned home. There he generated a fire by friction and burned the fern, and at that fire he roasted a portion of the gills of the fish taken from the right side. He then took the gills in his left hand, lifted it up and waved it to and fro, at the same time calling to his dead male relatives that here was food for them: it was an offering to the spirits of those defunct relatives. He did the same with the portion of gills from the left side of the fish: this was an offering to the spirits of his deceased female relatives. The fish he deposited at the tuahu.
All line fishermen were acquainted with at least one charm for recital when fishing. When fishing from the shore, a curious custom obtained with regard to procedure when a fish was caught. Instead of hauling the line in as we do, the fisherman remaining stationary, the Maori turned and walked up the beach, towing the fish after him. Quite possibly this was a mere local custom. What that fisherman would do if cramped for room, as when fishing from a rock, or at the base of a cliff, has not been explained. When going out to sea on a fishing trip no food was allowed to be taken, and when hauling a fish in care was taken to prevent it touching the gunwale of the canoe. The fish
must be deposited lengthwise in the vessel. If laid crosswise and any person stepped over it, then some misfortune would assail him.
Cook remarked of Maori fishing-gear, “Their cordage of fishing-lines is equal, in strength and evenness, to that made by us, and their nets not at all inferior.” He marvelled as to how fish could be caught with the odd native hooks, but admits that the Maori was a much more successful fisherman than the seamen. Of the natives of Queen Charlotte Sound he remarked, “We were by no means such expert fishers as they are; nor were any of our methods of fishing equal to theirs.” Among the Atiawa Tribe the first fish caught was liberated, but with a piece of Phormium leaf threaded through its nose. It was styled the ika whakataki, and its mission was to attract other fish to the place. There would assuredly be some form of charm connected with the above act.
Each clan had its own fishing-grounds, and any trespass thereon led to trouble. They were assigned special names, and when folk went out afishing they located the taunga ika, or fishing-ground, by lining objects on land, hill-peaks, promontories, trees, &c. Two of such lines were utilized, the intersection of which marked the location of the ground. People living inland, if they possessed fishing rights, would periodically move out to the coast and devote some time to fishing and drying the product for future use. Natives had great faith in the fish mauri, a talisman that was believed to attract fish to its vicinity, such objects being a kind of symbol or shrine in which certain spirit-gods were located by means of charms and ceremonial performances.
A cord on which fish were strung is termed kaui and takiaho. The bodkin-like implement of wood or bone attached to it to facilitate the threading of fish is an autui, auika, and auwai. In fishing-canoes a netted receptacle supported by four vertical rods was often employed, each man having one in which to deposit his catch. These fish-baskets were fixtures in the canoe. Fish-baskets carried on the person were called puwai and tauremu. Fishing-rods, termed matira, manana, &c., were not used to any great extent, save in bobbing for eels and small fresh-water species. A curious form was the tautara, a rod attached to a canoe, to which a fisherman would attach an extra line; the tugging of a hooked fish caused certain suspended shells to rattle, and so the fisherman was warned of his catch. Bligh and Ellis describe a somewhat similar apparatus used by the natives of Tahiti. In some cases a man held one
fishing-line in his hand, while he placed another under his foot; this latter line was known as an aho tararo. The word mangoingoi describes fishing at night from the shore.
Fish-hooks were of many different sizes and shapes. Some were formed in one piece, of bone or wood; some were formed of a shank of bone, wood, stone, or shell, to which a bone barb was attached. Rarely a greenstone (nephrite) shank or barb was used. Bones of many kinds were used in the manufacture of hooks, including those of the moa and of human beings. Fish-hooks are called matau, and matika, matikara, noni, &c. Those formed from a piece of paua (Haliotis) shell, usually with a wooden back,
were known as pa; they were used without bait, as in trolling for kahawai (Arripis salar). The hook employed in taking barracouta is called okooko and pohau. The barb of a hook is the niwha, or kaniwha. The pekapeka is a spreader for hooks. Bait is termed mounu; ground-bait is taruru; a pu toke is a small bait-pot used in connection with eel-pots, &c. The string used to tie bait on is pakaikai and takerekere; that employed in securing a hook is taka and taukaea. The whakamira of a fishing-line is its lower end near the hook, where it is seized with fine twine. The upper part of a hook-shank is its koreke; its lower end, the curved part, is the kotore. The shank of a shell-lined hook to which a point is lashed is called the kauawhi. Fishing-lines of excellent quality were made from dressed Phormium fibre. Mr. R. H. Matthews tells us that a gum that exudes from a small tree called pukapuka was smeared over the seizing of shark-lines; this gum is termed kouaha in the north. A large, much-curved shark-hook in the Buller collection measures 20½ in. in length round the circumference.
Feathers were attached to the baitless hooks used in trolling, those of the kiwi (Apteryx) being preferred for kahawai hooks. Those of the king-fisher were also used. A tough-natured marine plant termed totara moana was formerly used for making fish-hooks. Branches of the tauhinu (Pomaderris) were also used for the purpose.
Our Maori folk used the spear in taking fish to but a limited extent as compared with his brethren of Polynesia. It was mostly used in taking such fish as flounders, the spear being furnished with a barbed bone point after the style of a bird-spear. The matarau, a many-tined, short-hafted spear, was employed in taking eels. The tara waharua was a two-pointed fish-spear. Torches were used when spearing fish at night.
In the taking of fresh-water fish the Maori was assuredly an expert, and of such fish the eel furnished by far the most important food-supply. They were taken in eel-pots set at a weir or, in some cases, in lake and river, without any form of guide, but bait would be placed inside the pot, sometimes enclosed in a bait-pot. Earthworms were usually sought as bait, but spiders are said to be even better for the purpose. Eels were also taken with a bob, net, and spear; also they were often taken by hand.
Eel-weirs, termed pa tuna, pa tauremu, pa rauwiri, &c., were constructed across rivers—in zigzag form, as a rule; in a smaller stream but two wing fences were erected, converging towards each other down-stream. In the broad and rapid Whanganui River the pa auroa style was employed. In this the weir consisted of one or more detached fences, erected not across the river, but at a slight angle to the current. The eel-pots were set at the lower end of the fence or weir. In the V-shaped weirs they are, of course, set in the narrow space left where the two fences converge. These eel-pots (hinaki) are set with the entrance up-stream, as eels are caught when coming down-stream to the sea at these weirs. The weirs are formed by driving a line of stakes into the bed of the stream with a heavy wooden maul (ta), and pliant brush, such as manuka, interwoven with these stakes formed a wattled fence that caused the descending fish to turn and follow the fence, whereby they entered the net attached to the mouth of the eel-pot. Passing down the funnel-shaped net, they entered the funnel-shaped entrance of the pot, from the interior of which no eel might return. The wing fences of a weir are called paihau and
pakipaki; the narrow exit between the converging fences is the tuki; while the whakareinga, or whakatakapau, is the layer of brush or bracken pegged down on the bed of the stream between the wing fences to prevent scouring. The act of taking eels in a net at a weir without the use of an eel-pot is described by the term whakaheke. When a number of eels are taken many are often kept alive by placing them in a corf—wicker-work vessels called korotete, hinaki whakatiko and punga whakatikotiko.
Eel-pots are termed hinaki, pohea, panga, punga, and pongenge. The recurved entrance to the pot is called the akura, tohe, toine, puarero, pamarangai, and parakai, as in different districts; kuao seems to be a Whanganui form. In some cases a small net, termed the rohe, or naha, is fixed to the
inner end of the funnel entrance in order to prevent the eels escaping. The same object is sometimes attained by allowing the slight rods of the fabric to project at the inner end. A small trap at the other end, or at the side, of a pot is used in taking out the catch; the loop handles are taupopoia; the small end of the pot is the tou.
Elvers are taken by placing bundles of fern in the river, in which they assemble in large numbers. These primitive traps are known as taruke and koere. As may be imagined, great numbers of eels pass down-stream, no matter how carefully weirs are constructed, especially where the pa auroa form is used. Freshets often interfere with such operations. I have seen a man working at a weir on a dry shingle-bed, over which the next day 7 ft. of flood-waters were rolling. The old saying, “Ko Tangaroa ara rau,” is an allusion to the wily and slippery eel and his “many ways” of escape. The papanoko, a small fish, is often taken in eel-pots, as also a few other species.
In many districts eel-pots are made by lacing together small longitudinal rods or wands of manuka with the tough, pliable stems of climbing-plants. Those of the mangemange (Lygodium) were the most highly prized, so pliable, resilient, and durable are they. Other materials were also used, and, for temporary purposes, eel-pots were sometimes made from green Phormium leaves. The guiding-net of a weir that conducts the guileful eel into the eel-pot is termed a purangi, poha, or rohe. Eels were taken in many thousands at such weirs; and these fish are not a small species—a 10 lb. eel is by no means a very large one. The bob used in fishing for eels was generally made by tying a number of earthworms together with the fibres of the Phormium leaf; it was called tui toke, tari, and herehere tuna.
A form of weir used in taking lampreys (piharau) in the Whanganui River is called utu piharau. These are short, straight fences running out from the river-bank into the water at right angles. The lamprey is taken as it ascends the river, when it keeps near the bank; but the eel is taken as it descends the river in the autumn, when it appears to keep out in the middle of the river. The lamprey-weir is built much as the large weir is to actual construction, save that the spaces for the passage of the water are merely rectangular openings in the wattlework fence. These openings are called ngutu. A lamprey-weir
examined at Hiruharama, on the Whanganui River, was 35 ft. in length, and had five ngutu. The fence was 5 ft. in height, the stakes lashed to two stout rails. It was braced by means of two rows of noko—strong poles placed in a slanting position on the down-stream side, and lashed to the two rails. The layer of manuka brush pegged down to the river-bed to prevent scouring was here styled the whariki, and the poles laid across it on top are the karapi. These were secured by means of crossed stakes driven well down, and lashed together with split cane (pirita, karewao). To these pegs, also, on the up-river side were lashed the lower ends of the kumekume, or holding-braces, the upper ends of which were lashed to the fence at about 3 ft. from the ground. The whariki extended 25 ft. up-stream from the fence, and 6 ft. or 7 ft. on its down-stream side. The two rails (huahua) of the weir were stout manuka saplings fully 4 in. in thickness. The manuka brush wattled in between the stakes is called the pawai; the outermost post of the fence is the kaiau.
A small form of hinaki is used at a lamprey-weir. Those seen were about 30 in. in length. The whiti, or hoops, that formed the frames thereof were of aka tea—stems
of a climbing-plant (Metrosideros scandens). In some the longitudinal wands were manuka and the binding-material the aerial roots termed aka kiekie (Freycinetia Banksii); in others all parts except the hoops were of the latter material. These small rootlets were first denuded of bark by being drawn through the cleft of a split supplejack cane; then split down the middle with remarkable exactitude. A few pots were seen in which the hoops and longitudinals were of aka tororaro. The making of a hinaki is commenced at the inner or small end of the entrance funnel.
Although lampreys are taken when proceeding upstream, yet the pots set at the utu, or weir, are set with the entrance up-stream. Two stout stakes are driven in just below each ngutu, or entrance of the weir, through which the water rushes; these stakes are set a little distance below the fence, so as to leave space for the fish to pass between them and the fence. To these stakes is secured a funnel-shaped net called a poha, and the lower and smaller end of this is inserted in the mouth of the hinaki, or pot. Now, the lampreys, coming up-stream, pass between the two stakes and the fence in order to get through the ngutu and so continue their passage up-stream. As they encounter the strong rush of water through the ngutu they are swept back down-stream into the poha net, and so into the hinaki. Their career as free fish is then over, and doubtless they recognize the truth of the old aphorism, Ko te Po to hokia a Taiao (The realm of death, from which none return to the world of life).
On inquiring as to the takings of lampreys at the weir at Hiruharama in after-days I was informed that they were very poor owing to the fact that no mouri (syn. mauri) was located thereat. This talisman has already been explained. The mauri of a weir is sometimes termed the iho, and it was often concealed near a waterfall or cascade lest it should hear the charms of any ill-disposed person who, by magic arts, sought to destroy its powers.
The term whakaparu piharau was applied to a form of weir constructed of stones and lined with fern or other material for the purpose of taking lampreys. They were also taken by means of a crude form of trap called a whakapua, or taruke, which was nothing more than a bundle of bracken-fronds.
Lobster-pots for taking crayfish are known as taruke and tukutuku. The pouraka was a form of hoop-net used for same purpose, while a bundle of fern used as a crayfish-trap is called a tau, and also whakaweku, occasionally taruke. The tauhuroa was a piece of wood with side arms (pekapeka) to which bundles of fern were attached. It was employed in the Rotorua district for taking the small fresh-water crayfish, as the single bunches of fern also were. These small koura are excellent eating. Bait for crayfish is termed kaweru.The paepae was a form of dredge for taking them. A dredge used for taking fresh-water mussels (kakahi) is known as a manga, mangakino, heki, and heki-kapu. The terms karau, marau, and hao were also applied to dredges used in taking shell-fish. The kawhiu was a form of basket for containing shell-fish.
The upokororo, or gralying, was taken by means of a hoop-net. The mouth of this net was of oval form, the hoop being formed of a forest vine; a cross-piece was lashed on as a brace. It was set with its mouth up-stream in a free space between two converging walls of stone. The fishers entered the stream some distance above the weir and drove the fish down-stream, beating the water, as they advanced, with green branchlets or bundles of fern-fronds, which implement was known as a raupoto. This method
of taking this fish is termed tuki upokororo. In some cases an umu, or koumu, was made. This was a channel or ditch excavated in a sand-bank or low-lying land at the stream-side. One native says that it was made on the lower side of a sand-bank, or gravel-bank, or low point extending out into a stream. Persons advancing up-stream drove the fish before them; others, stationed just above the umu, prevented the fish going up-stream and herded them into the umu, the entrance to which was then blocked and the fish taken. This was from a Bay of Plenty native. Manihera Waititi, of Raukokore, gives another description in which the umu seems to have been made in a slanting manner, inclining down-stream. A wall of stones, termed a pakau, probably also diagonal, caused the water to rise somewhat and flood the umu. Meanwhile persons up-stream, by holding nets across the river, prevented fish breaking away; they now came down-stream, beating the water with raupoto, and so driving the fish into the umu, the mouth of which was blocked with loose stones. The pakau was then opened and the released waters flowed freely again, thus causing the water in the umu to flow out, when the stranded fish were secured.
The inanga, or whitebait, was taken in nets, both hooped scoop-nets and another form held by two persons, and into which the fish were driven. There were certain ceremonial performances pertaining to the taking of the first inanga of the season. The kokopu, a small fresh-water fish, was taken in two forms of hand-nets called kupenga titoko and kape.
Envoi
In the foregoing sketch of the customs, arts, usages, institutions, and beliefs of the Maori as he was in pre-European days detailed accounts and descriptions have in many cases been omitted. Thus a very large amount of interesting data could not be included. The aim has been to turn out a small and handy work that will meet a want often felt—viz., a brief account of Maori life and customs as in pre-European times.
At the present time the Maori is slowly becoming Europeanized in some ways, but he will never become truly one with us, save by intermarriage; the pure-blooded race will pass away, and the European strain will then become stronger with advancing time. In days that lie before we shall know the Maori only according to what we now put on record concerning him, and the place-names he will leave behind him.
In the mist-laden days of the remote past the ancestors of the Maori left their hidden homeland beneath the setting sun, and fared forth upon the Great Ocean of Kiwa in search of new homes. With sublime courage and self-reliance they forced their way through hordes of hostile peoples, and with grim tenacity held for unknown generations to their quest of the rising sun. They opened up the sea roads athwart the vast Pacific, and lifted many strange stars on far horizons. For century after century they followed the rolling water trails to the lure of Hine-moana, they explored the farthest island groups, they settled and resettled every land that flecks the Many-isled Sea. The Maori has fulfilled the task allotted to him in the scheme of human development; he now steps aside from the old, old path he has trodden for so many centuries. Never again will he feel the leaping rush of his lean prau, never again hear the plaint of distressed outriggers hard buffeted by Hine-moana, or see afar off the loom of new lands where the sky hangs down. Ka to he ra, ka ura he ra! (A sun sets, a sun rises!)
List of Authorities Quoted
Allen, Grant: Author of Evolution of the Idea of God.
Angas, G. F.: Author of Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand. 1847.
Avebury, Lord (Sir John Lubbock): Author of The Origin of Civilization. Seventh edition, 1912.
Banks, Sir Joseph: Author of Journal during Captain Cook's First Voyage. 1896.
Bidwill, J. C.: Author of Rambles in New Zealand. 1841.
Buck, Dr. P.: Author of papers on “Maori Somatology,” published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 32.
Buller, Rev. J.: Author of Forty Years in New Zealand. 1878, &c.
Colenso, W.: Author of “An Essay on the Maori Races of New Zealand,” published in Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. 1; also of many other papers published in the same journal.
Cook, Captain James. Cook's Voyages contains a great amount of interesting data concerning the natives of the Pacific isles.
Crozet, Lieutenant: Author of an account of Marion du Fresne's voyage, entitled A Voyage to Tasmania, New Zealand, &c. English translation by H. Ling Roth. 1891.
Cruise, Captain R. A.: Author of
Journal of a Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand. 1823.
D'Urville, M. J. Dumont. The Voyage of the Astrolabe contains much interesting matter about New Zealand.
Earle, A.: Author of A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827. 1832.
Ellis, W.: Author of Polynesian Researches. Second edition, 1831.
Forster, G.: Author of an account of Cook's second voyage, published in 1777.
Hewitt, J. F.: Author of Primitive Traditional History. 1907. Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vols. 1 to 30.
Mackenzie,—: Author of a work on Babylonian mythology.
Mair, Captain G.: Contributor of MS. data.
Manihera Waititi: One of the innumerable bands of natives who, in past years, provided the bulk of the matter in this work.
Marsden, Rev. S. The Journal of the reverend gentleman contains many interesting passages dispersed throughout the missionary matter.
Marshall, Dr. W. B.: Author of A Personal Narrative of Two Visits to New Zealand. 1836.
Matthews, R. H.: Author of “Reminiscences of Maori Life Fifty Years Ago,” published in Vol. 43 of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.
McDonnell, Colonel T.: Author of “Incidents of the War,” &c., published in Gudgeon's Defenders of New Zealand. 1887.
Montgomery, J. A.: Author of Religions of the Past and Present. 1918.
Newman, Dr. A. K.: Author of Who are the Maoris? Also of several papers on Maori subjects in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.
Nicholas, J. L.: Author of Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand in 1814–15. 1817.
Parkinson, S.: Author of a Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas (an account of Cook's first voyage). 1773.
Polack, J. S.: Author of Manners and Customs of the New-Zealanders (1840), &c.
Rienzi, G. L. D.: This writer's work on Oceania contains two hundred pages devoted to New Zealand.
Savage, Dr. J.: Author of Some Account of New Zealand. 1807.
Scott, Dr. J. H.: Author of “Osteology of Aborigines of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands,” published in Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. 26.
Shortland, Dr. E.: Author of The Southern Districts of New Zealand (1851); Traditions and Superstitions of the New-Zealanders (1854); Maori Religion and Mythology (1882).
Smith, S. P.: Author of Hawaiki (fourth edition, 1922) and of other works on the Maori.
Stack, Canon J.: Author of South Island Maoris. 1898.
Taylor, Rev. R.: Author of Te Ika a Maui. Second edition, 1870.
Thomson, Dr. A. S.: Author of The Story of the New Zealand. 1859.
Walsh, Ven. P.: Author of “Cultivation and Treatment of the Kumara,” published in Vol. 35 of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.
Westervelt, Rev. W. D.: Author of Maui; also of Legends of Old Honolulu (1915), &c.
White, John: Author of the Ancient History of the Maori. 6 vols. 1887–1890.
Wilkes, Commodore: Author of Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition. 1845.
Yate, Rev. W.: Author of An Account of New Zealand. 1835.
Index
Aborigines, 22.
Absolution, 62, 73. (See also Confession.)
Adultery, 103.
Agriculture, 165. (See also Cordyline; Crops; Gourd; Sweet potato; Taro; Yam.)
Agriculture rites, 171, 172, 176.
Ahu, Maui, Hawaiki, Isles of, 18.
Albinism, 55.
Alphabet, Maori, 10.
Ancestor - worship, 68. (See also Gods, fourth class.)
Ancestral spirits, 66; conciliated, 67.
Anklets, 211.
Anthropometrical work, 1.
Aokehu, the Dragon-slayer, 52. (See also Taniwha.)
Ao Marama, The, 36.
Aotea and Aotearoa, 22.
“Aotea” canoe to New Zealand, 27. (See also Canoes.)
Ara whanui a Tane, the spirit-path, 82.
“Arawa” canoe reaches New Zealand, 27. (See also Canoes.)
Ari, a food product of homeland, 14, 17. (See also Vrihi; Rice.)
Ari, the Dravidian word for rice, 17. (See also Vrihi; Rice.)
Ariki, 88. (See also Primogeniture.)
Artistic sense of Maori, 126.
Arts of life, 116.
Arts of pleasure, 127; origin of, 128. (See also Games.)
Astronomical knowledge of Maori, 125. (See also Moon; Stars; Sun.)
Atahu rite, 102 (See also Courtship.)
Atua Kahu, cacodemons, 64. (See also Gods.)
Atua, the term a widely embracing one, 67. (See also Gods.)
Awarua o Porirua, a taniwha, 53. (See also Taniwha.)
Awe, the refined soul of man, 80. (See also Soul; Wairua.)
Babylonian myths, 43, 65, 66. (See also Sin; Sina.)
Bait, fishing, 257. (See also Fishing.)
Balista employed in tree-felling, 119, 120.
Baptismal rite, 101. (See also Tohi.)
Bark cloth, 192; made in New Zealand, 193.
Baskets, 205.
Baskets of knowledge, 37, 38. (See also Tane; Knowledge.)
Belts, 201.
Berries and seeds eaten, 191.
Betrothal, 101. (See also Courtship; Marriage.)
Bird-snares, 182.
Birds employed in rites, 84, 102.
Birds, how taken, 181.
Birth customs, 99. (See also Baptismal rite; Tohi.)
Bull-roarer, 153.
Burdens, how carried, 112.
Burial, 108; trussed burial, 107. (See also Exhumation.)
Caesarian operation, 52. (See also Birth.)
Cannibalism, 89, 103.
Canoe-lashing methods, 28.
Canoe-sails, 30.
Canoes. (See also Outrigger)—
Mouriuri immigrants, 22.New Zealand, 30.Polynesian voyagers, 28.To New Zealand. (See also “Aotea”; “Arawa”; “Kahutara”; “Kurahaupo”; “Matahorua”; “Matatua”; “Tainui”; “Takitumu”; “Taikoria”; “Okoki”; “Tawirirangi.”)
Carving. (See also Wood-carving.)
Cat's-cradle, 133.
Character of Maori, 8, 9, 10, 58, 96. (See also Fatalism.)
Charms pertained to all activities, 72.
Chatham Islands, discovery of, 25.
Chiefs, influence of, 90.
Childless women nursed dolls, 100.
Children dedicated to Supreme Being 73.
Children, how carried, 114.
Children of Light, 36. (See also Stars.)
Civil law, substitutes for, 83, 86, 87. (See also Tapu.)
Cloak-pins, 199.
Clothing, 192. (See also European; Garments; Belts; Weaving.)
Coconut, Name of, retained by Maori, 145.
Combs, 208.
Conception caused by magic, 54, 100; by stones and trees, 54.
Confession, immersion, and absolution, 62, 73, 106.
Conscription unknown, 90, 91.
Cooking, 94, 96.
Cooking-sheds, 238.
Cordage, 208.
Cordyline as a food product, 178.
Cosmogonic genealogies, 33, 34, 41.
Cosmogonic myths, 33, 41.
Counting. (See also Enumeration.)
Courtship, 102. (See also Betrothal; Atahu.)
Covering mouth, a curious usage, 112.
Craniology, Maori, 4.
Crayfish, how taken, 265.
Crescent symbol, 66, 169.
Crocodile, name of, preserved by Maori, 50. (See also Moko.)
Crops, care of, 168, 176. (See also Agriculture.)
Culture differed in different areas, 93.
Dancing. (See also Haka; poi; Posture; War.)
Dart-throwing, 132.
Dawn Maid, 39; protects souls of dead, 39, 40, 82.
Death avenged by swinging, 131.
Customs, 104. (See also Burial; Exhumation; Mourning.)Lying in state, 107.Origin of, 104. (See also Whiro.)
Death-journey food, 105.
Decorative art, 126.
Decorative work in houses, 232. (See also Wood-carving.)
Demon lore, 50, 53. (See also Tipua; Taniwha.)
Demoniacal possession, 67.
Diction, mode of, 13. (See also Oratory.)
Digging, singular method of, 174.
Digging-stick, use of, 171, 174.
Disease, treatment of, 67. (See also Medical science; Sick; Sickness.)