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Maori Agriculture

The Mauri of the Kumara

The Mauri of the Kumara

We have already seen that a considerable amount of tapu and ceremonial pertained to the kumara and its cultivation, also that the Maori held very peculiar views regarding the page 200mauri of that useful tuber. In order to make this matter somewhat clearer to our readers, it is well to explain that, in native belief, all things possess a mauri. This term is sometimes rendered as "soul," as in the case of the mauri of a person. Not only man, however, but all things, trees, plants, the lower animals, birds, fish, stones, forests, streams, &c., &c., possess a mauri. In these cases it may be rendered as life principle, but the Maori mind seems to recognise certain spiritual attributes in the mauri of even inanimate objects. Nothing can exist without this principle, and if it is polluted in any way, then its physical basis is in parlous plight. For instance, should the mauri of a forest be polluted, then that forest loses its fertility, fruits become scarce, and the birds desert it. If the mauri ora of man meets with a like misfortune, then his welfare suffers grievously, he being exposed to all evil influences. The idea seems to be that the loss or pollution of this spiritual life principle deprives its basis of the protection of the gods, a fact that spells disaster to it.

Maori tradition tells us that, when the old time Polynesian voyager, Hape, reached New Zealand, he resided for some time at Ohiwa, and then went on his travels southward. Now, for some unexplained reason, when he left Ohiwa, Hape took with him the mauri of the kumara. "Ka tangohia e ia te mana, ara te mauri, o te kumara, ka riro, ka waiho ko te matao." He took away the mana, that is the mauri of the kumara, and left the cold (infertility). After his departure, the Ohiwa folk found that their crops would not grow, the plants did not flourish, and produced but a few poor tubers. They at once knew that the mauri of the plant was affected in some way, and messengers were dispatched to seek Hape and ask him if he had tampered with it. They followed him to the South Island, from place to place, until they arrived at a village where he had died some time before. His body lay in a hut, and there they found it in a desiccated or mummy-like condition. Tamarau, one of the offsprings of Hape, proceeded to perform a certain ceremony by means of which he might acquire the mana and powers of Hape, as well as recover the mauri or life principle of the kumara. He recited certain ritual as he entered the hut, and then proceeded to bite the ear of his dead kinsman. By this act he at once became endowed with supernatural powers. He then sought the mauri and found it concealed in the waist belt of Hape, the material representa-page 201tion of the same being a piece of the stalk of a kumara plant. He then took the wairua (spirit) of Hape, represented in this case by a lock of his hair, and he and his party returned to their homes. The mauri of the kumara having been regained, the plantations produced prolific crops.

In taking the piece of stalk to represent an immaterial quality it would be necessary to rely on a certain ceremonial performance which imbued that stalk with the ahua (semblance) of the life principle of the kumara. This curious form of belief extends far back into Maori myth, for we find that in the very beginning of things, when guardians were appointed for the different realms of the universe, and departments of nature, the three beings Tane-te-hokahoka, Tangaiwaho, and Rongo-marae-roa were appointed to preserve the welfare and fertility of plants, trees, fish, and other things.

We have seen that the term mauri is used in two ways; it denotes the life principle, and is also applied to anything that represents that principle. In the case of a forest, stream, or the ocean itself, some object might be chosen as a material mauri, over which certain ceremonies were performed in order to preserve the productiveness of such forest, stream, or ocean. Thus we are told that, in some districts, a stone was selected as a mauri for a cultivation ground, being concealed somewhere about the margin of the field. Having been endowed with the necessary powers by priestly adepts, it was supposed to preserve the vitality, &c., of the cultivated products, to cause the tubers to grow to a large size, to prevent ravages by pests, to protect the crops from the magic arts of evilly disposed persons. Such a material mauri is a taunga atua or shrine of the gods under whose care the crops are.

In his Maori History of the Taranaki Coast, Mr. S. P. Smith describes a small stone vessel termed punga-tai, in which the Maori of former times is said to have preserved a small quantity of earth brought by his ancestors from their old home in the isles of Polynesia. This earth was used as a medium in the ritual performed in connection with the planting of the kumara, and it was believed to have an important effect in producing a good crop.

This belief in the efficacy of the innate powers of soil brought from the homeland is strong in the Maori mind. We are told in Maori tradition that when the vessel Takitumu arrived from Polynesia, she ran down the east coast of the page 202North Island, her crew being in search of Te Mahia-mai-Tawhiti. Evidently they knew that, somewhere on the east coast, was a place resembling in appearance a place named Te Mahia at their home in Eastern Polynesia, probably at the island of Tahiti. Even so the immigrants sailed past Torouka and Te Ika-a Tauira, and saw Waikawa and Kahutara loom up afar. Then Ruawharo rose and said:—"This is Te Mahia." As they came near the land Nukutaurua was seen projecting outward. Thus came Takitumu to land at Te Mahia, though, on examination, it was found that it did not exactly resemble Te Mahia at Tawhiti. Here the immigrants resolved to settle, and the package of sand brought from the other Mahia was here opened and the contents scattered over the new land. Also was performed certain ritual in which Ruawharo had been instructed. When the people awoke next morning a whale was seen stranded on the beach. Now their mother had said to Ruawharo and his young relative:—"At the place where you see a whale drift ashore, there you must dwell." It was the sand mauri combined with the potent charms that caused whales to be cast ashore at that place, and, down long generations, have they so come ashore there, where a hill resembling a whale in form is viewed as the mauri of whales. It seems probable that the name of Te Pakake a Whirikoka is connected with a similar story, and this name was applied to a block of land, or a range, near the Waingaromia tributary of the Waipaoa river. Whirikoka was a great-grandparent of the three brothers Hourangi, Whiro and Wahawera, who were the children of Mohiku-tauira.