Human Sacrifice for a New Pa, or Fortified Village

Here we have another matter that has been much magnified by writers on Maori customs. In one case only have human bones been found at the base of the stockade posts of a fortified village, and this has been magnified by some writers into a common custom. The place alluded to is the Tawhiti-nui pa at Opitiki, which is said to be a very old place. Native tradition tells us nothing of its origin, but states that it was in existence twenty generations ago. Doubtless the burial of a human sacrifice in such a place was practised occasionally, but there is no proof to show that it was often done. Evidently the idea prompting such a barbarous act was similar to that pertaining to the burial of a person at the base of a house-post—the preservation of the building.

In vol. 15 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society Colonel Gudgeon gives an account of the discovery made at Tawhiti-nui: "The present owner of this place, while levelling the old ditches of the fort, thought it advisable to dig up the butts of some old puriri posts that had at one time supported the palisades of the pa. These butts, though nearly 2 ft. in diameter, and of a wood that is held to be almost indestructible, were, with the exception of a small core, found to be mere dust. But the levelling revealed the interesting fact that no less than thirteen skeletons were found in such positions as to warrant the belief that they had been placed in the holes at the same time as the posts, and were probably buried alive…. That the original pa was of very ancient date may be inferred from the fact that the bones I have mentioned crumbled into dust after a few days' exposure to the air; only the teeth remained intact." In this case we must presume that the victims had been buried at the bases of the heavier posts of the stockade in order to "hold them up."

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Among the Takitumu folk of the east coast a stone was buried at the base of one of the principal stockade posts of an important fortified village. Such a stone was called a whatu, and it served as a mauri for the village and its inhabitants—that is, it was a talisman rendered effective as a protective agent by its being a kind of shrine or abiding-place for the god or gods under whose protection the village had been placed. It was by means of certain tapu ceremonial performances that the mana or power of the gods was implanted in such stone.

Colonel Gudgeon mentions a case in the Bay of Plenty district in which a member of a vassal clan was utilized as a human sacrifice for a new pa: "When Ngati-Whakaue rebuilt their great pa at the Pukeroa (Rotorua), all the tribes in that vicinity lived for a while in a state of apprehension, for they knew full well that some victims would be required to sanctify the work, nor did they breathe freely until the blow had fallen on Ngati-Tura." The statement made, however, in a footnote to p. 209 of vol 12 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society lacks supporting proof; we do not know that such a thing often occurred.

Tylor gives us evidence as to such human sacrifices for fortified places in Europe, Africa, Asia, Japan, the Asiatic Archipelago, &c., thus showing how widespread was the custom. The burial of human victims at the bases of posts of protective works was also practised in Tenasserim.