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Maori Religion and Mythology Part 1

Human Sacrifice at the Death of a Chief

Human Sacrifice at the Death of a Chief

Here we have what was perhaps the most frequent cause of human sacrifice among the Maori folk, though this form was not viewed as a solemn ceremonial affair, such as the sacrifice of a person for a new house, fort, or canoe. Whether the object was to provide companions and attendants for the dead man in the spirit-world, or simply to add éclat to funeral functions, to honour the departed one, this killing was not seemingly viewed as a solemn religious performance.

Mortuary sacrifice was a recognised practice among the Maori, but in connection with persons of importance only. The victim was slain as a koangaumu, a term for which we lack a satisfactory definition, and was called an ika koangaumu. My Tuhoe notes state that such a sacrifice was simply an aggrandizement of the defunct chief, and that in some cases the victim was a member of the same tribe, though of a different clan. The body in this case was not eaten, nor, apparently, was any rite performed over it.

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In his Life and Times of Patuone C.O. Davis writes: "It was the custom of the Maoris, on the occasion of a great chieftain's death, to kill a slave, to cook the body in a tapu oven, and place it on a stage near the carved tomb of the deceased; but when an inferior man died, kumara and taro (vegetable food products) only were cooked." Here it must be impressed upon the reader that few native functions were universally performed in the same way; differences obtained in different districts.

Cruise tells us that "When a member of the chief's family dies, a certain number of the slaves, proportioned to the rank of the person, are sacrificed to appease the spirit of the deceased." We have, however, no reliable evidence that this was the object of the sacrifice. Cruise sojourned in New Zealand for but ten months, and could not have acquired a knowledge of the native tongue. Curiously enough, such persons often profess to tell us the origin and meaning of Maori customs, and such statements have been largely guesswork. This writer gives us a brief account of an occurrence at Sydney, when a young Maori chief died there. In Sydney at the same time were several other Maori, some of them commoners. The young chief's friends wished to kill the latter "to appease his departed spirit," and the Rev. Marsden had some difficulty in staying proceedings.

Thomson, in his Story of New Zealand, states that "On the death of chiefs, slaves were slain to do them menial service in the next world." Brown, in New Zealand and its Aborigines, writes: "It was a very common practice at one time to sacrifice a number of slaves on the death of a chief, in order that he might be duly provided with a respectable retinue of attendants in the next world." In the New Zealand Journal for 1845 appeared the following: "In October, 1843, on the death of Kupanga, the wife of a native chief on the island of Waiheke, near Auckland, a slave girl was shot to accompany her mistress to the other world." In an account of a native fight at Taranaki, in which thirteen chiefs were killed, Polack wrote: "On the burial of each chief ten slaves were murdered to serve the wairua or spirit of the warrior in the next world." He also describes the lying in state of a dead chief: "Around the body lay his weapons of defence, which were to be buried with him. Alongside lay the body of an interesting girl, wife to the chief, who had hung herself the day previous…. Some slaves, male and female, had been put to death to attend their superiors at the Reinga (spirit-world); they were immediately afterwards buried." Again, he says: "A chief named Parenui died while we travelled on the west coast of the northern island, on which three of his wives sacrificed themselves. To aid this family in their eternal route several slaves were murdered page 239to assist their master in his future existence. The females were laid in great state by the side of the husband; the slaves were immediately buried, as such sacrifices are not permitted to be devoured." C.O. Davis tells us that "The self-immolation of the wives of a deceased chief was plainly a voluntary expression of their extreme affection for the dead." This self-murder by widows, being merely suicide, cannot be included in human sacrifice. Nor am I inclined to believe that intense affection was the cause of such suicide on the part of the widows; it was simply a custom; it was deemed the proper thing for a widow to do. Simulation of intense grief was a much-favoured practice among our Maori folk; in some cases it may almost be described as a recreation.

In Fiji this slaying of persons at the death of a chief was a cherished institution, and the missionaries had much more trouble in putting a stop to it than in New Zealand. Of the practice in Fiji, Williams wrote: "This custom may have had a religious origin, but at present the victims are not sacrificed as offerings to the gods, but merely to propitiate and honour the names of the departed." These remarks would apply equally well to the practice in New Zealand. At Fiji a man's friends suffered grievously; his wife or wives, sometimes also his mother, or a friend, were strangled, and their bodies laid in the bottom of the grave to serve as "grass" to place his body on. This expression resembles one employed by the Maori, who speaks of the sacrificed slaves or other persons as a whariki, or mat, for the chief's grave—something for him to rest upon. Early writers on Fiji, however, show us that the natives of that group far excelled the Maori in this savage custom. Thus, Williams tells us that when a certain chief was lost at sea, seventeen of his wives were destroyed. Again, when some natives were killed at Viwa in 1839, eighty women were strangled to accompany the spirits of their husbands to the next world. Mr. J. Matthews, writing from Kaitaia in 1837, tells us of "a wicked old man" who "killed, wantonly killed, a little girl, in order that her spirit might be in attendance on the spirit of his niece, who was on the point of death."