The Mauri or Mouri

We have here another quality pertaining to man and things, and one that it is by no means easy to describe. The mauri of man is apparently his physical life principle, and the Greek term thymos seems to describe it, inasmuch as it is an inward activity. But it is more than this in Maori belief, for, under the name of mauri ora, it is held to be a protective quality, the sacred life principle of man. This aspect of the mauri it will be necessary to enlarge upon. Such is the immaterial mauri, but there is also a material mauri pertaining to man, forests, land, villages, etc., and this may be described as a protective talisman, a material emblem of the gods that possesses great protective powers, as also does the immaterial mauri of man.

Some writers define the mauri of man as his soul, but it is not advisable to employ that term, for the reader would confuse it with the spirit that survives the death of the body, i.e., the wairua. The mauri ceases to exist with the death or disappearance of its physical basis.

The firm belief of the Maori in the power of his gods, in the ever-present dangers surrounding all forms of life, in the necessity for protecting the life principle, resulted in the institution of material mauri or talismanic objects endowed with power to protect the immaterial mauri, or life principle. This practice was carried out not only in connection with the life principle of man, but also with that of crops, of fish, birds, forests page 47and land. In native belief this subtle life principle pervades all things and it is necessary that it be carefully protected from all harmful influences. The earth and the heavens, the heavenly bodies, the elements, all natural phenomena, the seasons, day and night, the ocean, streams, lakes, all possess this vital, life-giving principle. This was probably a very far spread, if not universal, belief at one time.

The mauri of man is not located in any particular organ of the body, nor are the wairua and hau for that matter. Again the mauri is not the seat of the emotions, although it is affected to some extent by fear, etc. Thus the expression ohomauri describes the startled feeling of one suddenly alarmed; the person's mauri is "startled". So far it may be termed a sentient spirit. The mauri is of a more quiescent nature than is the wairua; the latter is essentially an active principle. The mauri is a protective principle because it represents the gods and the tapu pertaining to them. We would be inclined to term it the divine spirit in man; it is the immaterial shrine or abiding place of the mana or power of the gods in man, hence it is essentially tapu. Should anything occur by means of which the mauri or a of a person is vitiated or polluted, and so rendered noa or common (void of tapu), then the person is in a dangerous condition. This is because the protective powers of his wairua are nullified, that is the protection of the gods has been withdrawn, and his life principle lies open to the malignant activities of evil spirits, the arts of black magic, and the innumerable pernicious influences that ever surround man.

Both the immaterial and material mauri are taunga atua, abiding places of protective spirit gods, or shrines, and a knowledge of these strange beliefs is absolutely necessary to any person who would understand the institutions of the Maori. The material mauri used as a protective talisman possesses no innate powers of its own, its virtues are derived from the indwelling spirit gods located in it by means of a priestly rite.

Any act that vitiates the tapu of a person, as already explained, seriously affects his mauri. In like manner the material mauri of, say a forest, may be rendered virtueless by some act of carelessness. For instance, during the bird snaring season the forest is under strict tapu, and, should any person convey cooked food into such forest, then that forest and its mauri become tamaoatia or defiled. The gods at once withdraw their protection, the forest becomes "helpless", fruits and other products no longer flourish, and most of the game birds desert it. It is now imperative that a priestly expert should take the matter in hand, page 48conciliate the gods and restore the tapu of the forest and the effectiveness of its mauri. The immaterial mauri of man may be defiled in a similar manner.

Old natives who have watched the deterioration of their people in numbers, energy and stamina, have often told me that the cause thereof lies in the fact that the mauri ora of the race has become polluted and virtueless through contact with Europeans. As one old man put it, the health, vigour and welfare of the race have returned to Hawaiki. In like manner the vital principle of the forests has been destroyed or much weakened by the abandonment of tapu and the godless ways of Europeans, hence the great diminution in the number of birds.

A material mauri or talisman is sometimes termed a whatu or iho, both of which words carry the meaning of core and kernel.

The material mauri representing a person may, according to Tuta Nihoniho, be a stone or a piece of wood. Its power to protect man is implemented in it by the ritual of the tohunga or priestly adept which locates the wairua (spirit or soul) of the defunct parents or ancestors of the person in the material mauri. These implanted spirits are the real protecting power, the stone or other object being their temporary abiding place while protecting their living descendant. The mauri was thus held to safeguard a person, to save him from the dire effects of black magic and also from death by violence and other dangers. A mauri of this kind was sometimes employed for a brief space of time only, as for instance to represent a person during the performance of certain divinatory rites, after which it was discarded.

In some cases a man about to undertake a journey would get a tohunga to provide him with a mauri, that is to empower a small stone or other object to serve as a protecting talisman for him during his journey. The tohunga would locate or implant the gods in that stone to protect the traveller. (Ka whakamohio e te tohunga nga atua ki roto i taua kohatu hai tiaki i te tangata haere.) Here we must remember that atua is a name applied to anything supernatural, or even extraordinary, or abnormal, thus the ancestral spirits referred to above are looked upon as atua.

In these cases the adept would warn the recipient not to lose the talisman, or disaster would certainly overtake him. To judge from explanations received from many other natives the great danger would lie in the fact of an enemy finding such a lost talisman and using it as a medium in sympathetic magic.

page 49

On the return of the traveller he would get the adept to deprive the mauri or talisman of its powers, to make it a common thing again, after which it was virtueless. It is interesting to note how akin are the above described beliefs to those of true ancestor worship.

The following notes were obtained from members of the Ngati-Porou tribe:

The mauri of roto tuna or roto kakahi, lagoons or lakes in which eels or fresh-water mussels abounded was usually a stone. In the ceremony by means of which the stone was constituted a mauri, the priestly adept dipped a branchlet in the water of the lake, or stream, and then tapped the stone with it, repeating the necessary charm at the same time. This act was hai whakanoho i te wairua o te roto ki te kohatu, i.e., to implant the wairua (spirit or soul) of the lake in the stone. The stone was then concealed, lest it be found by some meddlesome person, the result of which might be that such food supplies could no longer be obtained in the waters. The ceremony endowed the stone as it were with the mana of the lake, or stream or awa kehe. The mauri will hold or retain the food products of water or forest, i.e., its fruitfulness, such is its office. It protects such products from the magic arts of enemies, and renders such arts futile. The task of implanting the wairua of the forest or stream in the stone was performed by a tohunga. So long as the mauri was not found and tampered with, then no arts of sorcerers could affect the food products they represented.

The mauri of a forest, river, or stream was also utilised as a means of attracting fish to that stream, to render them fruitful and plentiful to retain them in such waters, to prevent them leaving the river. This material mauri is merely a stone over which a tohunga has recited a certain charm in order to endow it with the above powers, and which was then concealed somewhere on the bank of the river. Fish would then become numerous in those waters. Should any person discover the mauri, and take it away, then fish would desert that stream. The mauri of a bird snaring ground, of water-pools where birds were caught, and of lakes, were all of a similar nature.

Again I was told that a stone selected as a material mauri for a fishing canoe had a certain charm recited over it, after which it was carefully concealed, lest it be found and taken away or deprived of its powers by some evilly disposed person. Its office was the retaining of tapu and the influencing of the gods to protect the canoe when at sea; also to render the fish of the ocean complacent.

page 50

Should an enemy get possession of the mauri of a pa, then assuredly that pa will lose its mana (prestige, luck, etc.) and the people thereof will lose their nerve, self-confidence, and so on. Also food supplies will run short and become scarce, for food products will not mature. In the mauri we have a talismanic object that represented the power of the gods to preserve the pa and its inmates from harm, to inspire confidence, to uphold the prestige of fort and people, to promote general welfare. The mauri was the shrine and visible representation of such power and protection of the gods. The mauri. was the very kernel, and heart, and soul of the pa.

The mauri of the Arawa vessel that was brought hither from Polynesia was a stone, and it was deposited at Moehau to serve as a mauri for all time for the immigrants and their descendants. All important sea-going vessels were provided with such a talisman.

The mauri of fish was deemed an institution of great importance, for it was believed to attract fish and retain them in its home waters. Eel fishers were wont to have such a talisman at their eel weirs.

The mauri of crops was another important institution in Maori eyes. We hear of this principally in connection with the kumara or sweet potato, the principal cultivated food product of these isles. The rude stone images called "kumara gods" by us, and described by natives as taumata atua, or abiding places of the gods, were used as mauri of crops.

We have now seen that the mauri is a vitalising principle pertaining to things animate and inanimate, and that it never leaves an animal body until death; it is not a separable or apparitional soul. Life principle is perhaps the best term whereby to describe it, but it is credited with certain powers that are not readily grasped by Europeans.

There were certain formulae termed mauri that were recited over persons in former times. In the case of infants the object seems to have been either to endow an infant with the mauri life force, or to render it mauri tapu and effective. This latter form of charm appears to have been also repeated over adults.