1859 - Thomson, A. S. The Story of New Zealand [Vol.I] - Part I. The Country and its Native Inhabitants - CHAPTER VII. CUSTOMS IN WAR.--CANNIBALISM.--SLAVERY.

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CHAP. VII.

CUSTOMS IN WAR. -- CANNIBALISM. -- SLAVERY.

PEOPLE in England imagine the New Zealanders fought with each other on the same principle that country gentlemen hunt foxes, or, in other words, for the pleasure they derived from it. This is not correct. The New Zealanders carried on war upon much the same principle as that on which English gentlemen formerly fought duels. They rushed into conflicts from possessing a nice sensibility of that species of honour which weighs insults rather than injuries.

Soon after their arrival from Hawaiki, the Kawhia settlers came across to Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, and burned the Arawa canoe. The motive for the perpetration of this act of incendiarism is obscure, but it gave rise to war, and was a cause of strife over the whole country during several subsequent generations.

All the great wars the New Zealanders of the present

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generation know much about occurred not more than a hundred years ago. Vague traditions of numerous conflicts show that tribes, as regards strife, were like clans in the feudal ages of Europe. When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand, he found the whole population living in fortified villages, and after the introduction of fire-arms, until the year 1840, the country was one large battle-field. Since that era there has been no civil war of any magnitude.

Every war had an apparent just cause. The motive may have been slight, but there was a lawfulness for it, looking at the question with the ideas of New Zealanders.

The principal causes of strife were violations of the rights of property, such as claiming lands, catching fish; killing rats, pigs, or birds in disputed districts; cursing or bewitching persons, adultery, marriage between individuals belonging to different nations, violating tapus, murders, personal injuries, and hereditary feuds. The last two causes were almost immortal, because in a country not fertile in events injuries were long brooded over, and the monotony of life was only broken by their discussion and remembrance. To wipe out stains on kinsmen was the inheritance of generations, and revenge became one of a chief's first duties.

Should an English yeoman say to another, "You be d------d," and a New Zealander belonging to a different tribe, say "You be eat," or "Your head be put into a pot," although both insults are analogous, yet very different results would follow. The Englishmen would fight it out with fists; the insulted New Zealander would rush to his tribe and relate the injury he had suffered, and if payment were refused for the evil words,

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war might ensue. Blows given by proxy, or shots fired at the effigies of chiefs, were the same as if they had been actually done to the living individual: land and women were, however, the two great causes of strife.

But although the New Zealanders were not slow in seeing causes for strife, they shuddered at striking the first blow, and in every dispute mediators were gladly accepted until blood was actually shed. This dislike to war is likewise exhibited in their slowness to anger. They infinitely preferred settling disputes by talking than by fighting, and it was only when they saw that fighting was absolutely necessary to support their dignity that they did fight. They were cautious in rushing into wars which were fought to destroy and enslave, not to conquer.

Should payment for the cause of war be refused, a similar insult was immediately hurled at some member of the opposing tribe. Every offence but the destruction of life had some commercial equivalent. For murder no compensation was accepted but another life, and this was accomplished by "running a muck," an ancient Malay custom denominated by the New Zealanders the "fight for blood." This sanguinary act was thus performed. Several armed men proceeded secretly to the enemy's tribe, and without any warning slew the first persons they encountered. Innocent people were consequently almost invariably slain for the guilty. Running a muck is a phrase naturalised in the English language, and means "to run madly and attack all we meet;" 1 a very good description of the New Zealander's fight for blood.

Before the army took the field the chiefs of the host,

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in order to infuse confidence, asked the gods to foretell whether the expedition would prove successful. This divine opinion was obtained through the priests in various ways. Sometimes sticks representing the combatants were stuck in the ground, over which the priests performed certain ceremonies. Then food was cooked for the gods and the army. After partaking of this the priests returned with the people to the place where the sticks were placed; and should the sticks representing the enemy have fallen down, the gods were supposed to announce success, if otherwise, defeat: in which last case the expedition was postponed to a future occasion.

When victory was promised by the gods the war party took the field. A New Zealand army consisted of all the male persons in a nation capable of bearing arms. No individual was forced to join the ranks, but all were morally obliged to do so. Several women and slaves accompanied the troops to carry potatoes, cook food, and act as a commissariat. The warriors were tapued. Hereditary chiefs were generally the leaders of the expedition, but not always, as men were chosen for this high office on account of their well-established reputation for bravery. It was absolutely necessary to have a man of energy and vigour at the head of a war party, the troops expecting to be led on, not ordered on, and the army fought by example more than counsel.

When a conflict was inevitable the New Zealanders did not flinch from it, although they actually fought under the influence of what is called by Englishmen "Dutch courage." This species of bravery was not drawn from imbibing spirits, or swallowing or smoking

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stimulants, but from the excitement of oratory and the war dance. It was quick, fierce, and impetuous, more suitable for attacking than defending posts, and under its impulse, campaigns were generally settled by one battle. Influenced by passion more than prudence, they advanced in fits of temporary madness and fled, if victory was not won before the depression which invariably follows.

When both armies were alike confident of success a pitched battle resulted. They approached close to each other, and chiefs and warriors advanced in front of their respective legions and delivered exciting harangues. In these orations every subject was mentioned capable of goading them to fury; allusions were made to the tribe's former greatness, the favour of the gods, the bravery of their ancestors, and that the blood of their fathers formerly shed was not yet avenged. On such occasions, and trifles show men's characters, no reference was made to their present imminent danger. The master of an English pirate ship, about to engage one of Her Britannic Majesty's cruisers, would steel the hearts of his crew to desperation by telling them they fought with ropes round their necks; but the New Zealanders, in cases not dissimilar, only looked at the bright side of the picture.

As the orators proceeded with inflammatory addresses, the war parties threw off their mats, daubed their bodies with red ochre and charcoal, twisted their long head-hair into lumps, adorned it with feathers, and roused their blood to greater fervour by the war dance.

It is impossible to describe this extraordinary dance. The whole army, after running about twenty yards,

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arranged itself in lines, five, ten, twenty, or even forty feet deep, and then all squatted down in a sitting posture. Suddenly, at a signal given by the leader, all started to their feet, having weapons in their right hands. With the regularity of a regiment at drill, each man elevated the right leg and right side of the body, then the left leg and left side; and then, like a flash of lightning, jumped two feet from the ground, brandishing and cleaving the air with his weapon, and yelling a loud chorus, which terminated with a long, deep, expressive sigh, and was accompanied with gaping mouths, inflated nostrils, distorted faces, out-hanging tongues, and fixed starting eyes, in which nothing was seen but the dark pupil surrounded with white. Every muscle quivered. Again and again these movements were enacted; and time was marked by striking their thighs with their open left hands so as to produce one sound, and by old naked women daubed over with red ochre acting as fuglers in front of the dancers. Songs were likewise chanted to preserve order in the host. The following, of reputed antiquity, has the metre marked, to give some idea of the way in which it was sung:--

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At the words "that may flee." the movements of the dancers became furious.

The men in both armies, now excited to desperation, cast off every part of their apparel. Distinguished warriors rushed out and challenged others by name from the enemy's ranks. Abusive epithets and insulting attitudes were bandied between the combatants. The Ngatiraukaua and Ngatitoa shouted on these occasions the following song to the enemy:--

Both parties, maddened with anger, hatred, and malice, hurled their spears, and rushed madly, with loud-screaming yells, to grapple in deadly conflict. Each warrior selected his foeman, and the battle consisted in a series of personal combats. These duels did not last a minute before one party gave way, fled, and was pursued by the conquerors howling like hounds in sight. That army which killed the first man, or charged with most energy or with the loudest yells, often proved victorious by producing a panic; and, as the warriors poured their whole souls into the onset, rallying was an impossible manoeuvre. Repulses were defeats, and defeats were frequently destruction.

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NATIVE LITTER FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED.
Vol. I., page 129.

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The victors, after a short pursuit, returned to the battle-field to enjoy their triumph. They first collected in high honour their own dead, marking the spots where warriors fell with spears, and carefully examining whether their hands were clenched, a sure proof the vital spark fled while their bodies were struggling for victory. The wounded victors were gently borne from the field in litters made by tying together two poles parallel to each other. The enemy's dead were cooked and eaten; but the first man slain was set aside for the gods, and called the holy fish. Their wounded were insulted and slain; and chiefs, before receiving the deadly blow, were tortured by having lacerated wounds made in sensitive parts with saws of jagged shark's teeth, or by applying blazing kauri gum to their skins, or by cooking them alive. Young men who had fought for the first time, were asked by the priests if they had slain any of the enemy.

Half a century has nearly elapsed since a conflict such as the above has occurred. Most modern contests consist in distant discharges of fire-arms, and it has been found easier to raise the courage of the New Zealanders to distant than to close encounters. History, indeed, shows that few men can be brought up calmly to the deadly grapple, and the New Zealanders invariably shun danger if possible, and never charge unless they have an apparent advantage.

Such a battle as the one now described generally terminated a campaign. Those of the enemy who escaped slavery or death fled to impregnable fortifications in mountains and forests. The victors after gorging themselves like serpents for several days with the flesh of their dead foes, returned, bearing in honour the

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sacred heads of their dead chiefs, and with insulting triumph poised on spears the heads of their foes. The women left at home rushed out to meet the conquerors, and if their husbands or relatives were slain they were permitted to murder slaves in revenge. The tapu was then removed from the warriors, and the head-hair or the ear of the first enemy slain was preserved for this ceremony. Portions of either were tied to the stems of long toetoe reeds, and the warriors, each bearing one in his hand, were drawn up as if for a war-dance. Then the priest chanted a song to which the warriors kept time; after which food was cooked and the tapu was removed.

The heads of fallen chiefs were carefully preserved from decay by an ingenious process, and deposited with their ancestors' bones, to be brought forth on future occasions to excite men to revenge their deaths. The bloody heads of the enemy were stuck round the fences of the village, for the purpose of being insulted. "What!" said a chief to one of these trunkless heads, "you wanted to run away, did you? but my meri overtook you, and after you were cooked you were made food for my mouth. And where is your father? he is cooked! and where is your brother? he is eaten! and where is your wife? there she sits, a wife for me! and where are your children? here they are with loads on their backs carrying food as slaves."

The way in which heads were preserved for these insults was as follows: -- On the battle-field the dead were decapitated, the brain, tongue, and eyes scooped out, and their cavities filled with fern or flax. The heads were then thrown into boiling water until the thick skin could be easily torn off, next plunged into cold water, and afterwards placed in a native oven, such

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as that used for cooking, where they were left until the oven cooled. They were then exposed on stages to the wind and sun, or hung in smoke. Should heads exhibit signs of decay after the first cooking, they were put through the same process again. During this steaming the muscles shrank, but the hair, the tattoo marks, and the features were uninjured. Near the East Cape some tribes preserved the whole body; in which case the viscera were extracted, the cavities filled with fern, and then the body was exposed on a stage to the sun and wind.

From the admirable manner in which heads were preserved by the above process, a French writer 4 has given to the New Zealanders the credit of knowing the antiseptic properties of pyroligneous acid. But this is a fiction. All they knew of chemistry was that wind, heat, and smoke prevented animal matter from decaying, a process frequently resorted to by them in preserving winter food.

It was not, however, in pitched battles that the New Zealanders displayed their genius for war, but in building, attacking, and defending stockades. This species of warfare was thus conducted:--One party made an inroad into the enemy's country, laid siege to a stronghold, and endeavoured to kill the defenders or capture the fort. On such occasions the besiegers erected stockades in close proximity to the enemy's pa, and after killing several men returned home; the besieged, in revenge, then advanced and attacked their former assailants. This style of warfare continued for several years without much loss of life.

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The construction of the war pas built on these occasions exhibits the inventive faculty of the New Zealanders better than any other of their works. Such strongholds stood on the banks of rivers, the borders of lakes, on headlands jutting into the sea, on mountains, and in forests. Water was the only indispensable requisite in their construction.

Their shape and size depended much on the nature of the ground and the strength of the tribe. They had double rows of fences, on all unprotected sides; the inner fence, twenty to thirty feet high, was formed of poles stuck in the ground, and lightly bound together with supple-jack withes and torotoro creepers. The outer fence, from six to eight feet high, was constructed of lighter materials. Between the two there was a dry ditch. The only openings in the outer fence were small holes; in the inner fence there were sliding bars. Stuck in the fences were exaggerated wooden figures of men with gaping mouths and out-hanging tongues. At every corner were stages for sentinels, and in the centre scaffolds, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad, from which men discharged darts at the enemy. Suspended by cords from an elevated stage hung a wooden gong twelve feet long, not unlike a canoe in shape, which, when struck with a wooden mallet, emitted a sound heard in still weather twenty miles off. Previously to a siege the women and children were sent away to places of safety.

Fire-arms have completely changed the construction of the above strongholds. Formerly the ditch, twenty-four feet deep, was dug to obstruct the enemy; now ditches are only five feet deep, and are used as rifle-pits

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to fire out from. Loopholes and flanking angles have been introduced, and bells supply the place of gongs.

In besieging fortifications New Zealanders held that wisdom was better than weapons of war, and never attempted open assaults. Occasionally red-hot stones were thrown from slings, in the hope of setting pas on fire, and advances were made close up to the walls by underground approaches, or by parties protected from the enemies' spears by shields of flax and reeds. But pas were rarely taken by such means, although sieges occasionally lasted six months. Treachery, stratagem, starvation, and panics were the chief instruments besiegers trusted in for success.

The massacre at Te Toka in 1841 is an excellent example of a treacherous assault upon an enemy inside a pa. 5 The following is a specimen of a successful attack by stratagem. During the Rotorua war of 1836 two fortifications belonging to the same party stood in the Bay of Plenty, thirteen miles apart. One was at Tauranga, the other at Tumu. The Tauranga pa was besieged, and the neighbouring missionaries heard the gong and the war conch roaring during the night, and the sentinels upbraiding the enemy for inactivity by shouting:--

One morning the missionaries missed the besiegers and thought they had fled, but before their surprise

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had subsided, a number of men, women, and children, with blood-stained bodies and exhausted frames, were seen rushing wildly for shelter to the Tauranga pa. The truth was now apparent. The sentinels in the Tumu pa, no longer dreading attack, slept every night in their blankets, and the gong was unstruck. This was told to the Tauranga besiegers, who surprised Tumu a little before daylight, and killed nearly three hundred souls. 6 In the confusion of the assault a remnant escaped to Tauranga.

The following is another instance of the sort of stratagem practised during warfare. In 1830, Waharoa's pa at Matamata on the River Thames was invested. Waharoa ordered his people to cook two days' provisions, put out every fire, tie up the dogs in a wood behind the pa, and occupy the ditch, on the weakest side of the stockade. The besiegers, who concluded Waharoa had fled, and had tied up the dogs to prevent discovery by their barking, lost no time in advancing to occupy the stronghold. As they approached close to the outer fence, Waharoa's people rose out of the ditch, and poured into them a close volley of musketry. The besiegers, panic-struck at this unexpected reception, fled, and were pursued with slaughter until they reached their canoes in the Thames.

In besieging pas, the besieged were occasionally drawn out into ambushes by an apparent retreat. In such ambushes the parties were not crowded together, but stood some distance apart, as the proverb says, "about the distance of the Taniwha's teeth."

Forts have been captured by starvation. In such

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cases they were regularly invested by encircling them with stockades.

Panics occasionally led to victory. Many of Hongi's successes were produced by this cause, the most remarkable being the fall of Matakitaki on the Waipa river in 1823.

Night attacks were never made. The early dawn was the favourite hour for a surprise.

In war New Zealanders shrank from no labour to insure success. Thirty years ago the Awaroa river was dammed up to prevent the warriors from the Bay of Islands dragging their canoes from the Manukau into the Waikato river.

Conflicts in canoes occasionally occurred on lakes, rivers, and creeks.

War canoes for sea navigation are eighty feet long, four feet broad, and four feet deep. Fifty paddlers sit on each side, and three fuglemen stand in the centre of the canoe, exciting the paddlers to exertion by their songs and actions. They have elegantly carved stern-posts, fifteen feet high, ornamented with feathers and dyed flax, and shorter posts at their stems similarly adorned. In the south part of the island they are made of totara wood, and in the north of kauri. Both are painted red.

The crew on board war canoes kneel two and two along the bottom, sit on their heels, and wield paddles from four to five feet long; the steersman, sitting in the stern, has a paddle nine feet long. Over tempestuous seas war canoes ride like sea-fowl. Should a wave throw a canoe on its side, and endanger its upsetting, the paddlers to windward lean over the gunwale, thrust their paddles deep into the wave, and by a curious action force

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the water under the canoe. This makes the vessel regain her equilibrium, and gives her a vigorous impulse forward. Even when a canoe is upset, the crew can bale her out, and put her right in the water.

Naval engagements were exceedingly rare, as they were alike dangerous to both parties. War canoes were chiefly useful in transporting armies to the scene of action; but when they did meet in strife, the combatants on board discharged their spears, drove their canoes against each other, and then a hand-to-hand fight ensued. The great object in canoe conflicts was to upset the canoes, and kill the warriors helplessly struggling in the water.

War canoes were distinguished by well-known names, and when not required they were dragged inland, and carefully preserved in covered sheds. Launching war canoes into the ocean was heavy work, and there were several chants for the purpose of enabling warriors thus occupied to exert simultaneous efforts. These songs had various measures, adapted either for pulling heavy or pulling light. For up-hill work there were long-syllabled words in the chants, each of which seemed to issue from the pullers' mouths with the same difficulty as the canoe advanced. But when the hill was crowned, a succession of one-syllable words composed the chant.

The first five lines of the following chant was sung by one voice, to give notice for all to prepare for pulling. Afterwards, when the pullers had arranged themselves along the gunwales of the canoe, one line was chanted by a single voice while the pullers breathed, and the response was shouted by all who at the same time pulled together.

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CHANT USED WHEN DRAGGING A CANOE OVERLAND.

1 Voice. The Kiwi 7 cries.
All. 8 Kiwi.
1 Voice. The Moho 9 cries.
All. Moho.
1 Voice. The Tieke cries.
All. Tieke.
1 Voice. A belly only.
All. 10 Fork it out, fork it out.
1 Voice. Keep in the path.
All. 11Fork it out.
1 Voice. It's the second year to-day.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. It's the man catcher.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Give this way and carry it.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. But whither carry it?
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Ah! to the root.
All. 12 Root of Tu.
1 Voice. 0 wind!
All. 13 Pull away.
1 Voice. Raging wind.
All. Pull away.
1 Voice. Pull onwards the root.
All. Root of Tu.

(A halt and then a fresh start.}

1 Voice. That's it! go along, Rimu. 14
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Go along, Totara. 15
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Go along, Pukatea. 16
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Give way, firmness.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Give way, strength.
AU. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Brace up.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. My belly.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Hi hie. 17
All. Hahae. 18
1 Voice. Pipie. 19
All. Tatae. 20
1 Voice. Join.
All. 21 Ha!
1 Voice. Join.
All. Ha!
1 Voice. The sling.
All Ha!
1 Voice. And the spear.
All. Ah! and the pohue forth.
1 Voice. Ah! and the child of flint.
All. 22 And the child of the Manuka paddle.

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(A halt and afresh start.)

1 Voice. It's I. It's I.
All. A long pull.
1 Voice. The thing is dead.
All. A long pull.
1 Voice. Jog along, jog along.
All. 23 Slip along, slip along.
1 Voice. Brandish the hatchet.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Draw it out.
All. That's it.
1 Voice. It's a cock.
All. It's a taraho. 24
1 Voice. It's a duck. 25
All. Quack, quack, quack, quack.
1 Voice. It's a duck.
All. Quack, quack, quack, quack.

The songs with which fuglemen in war canoes excited paddlers to keep time and to exert themselves were not unlike the above. These men sung verses alternately and marked time by brandishing warlike weapons.

Good singers frequently enlivened the chants with extemporaneous jokes suitable to the occasion.

SONG FOR A WAR CANOE.

Now pull.
Now press.
Now give the time.
Now dip it in.
Now hold on.
Now be firm.
Pull, pull away.
Upwards, upwards, away.
To Waipa away.
Now pull.
The feathers of his canoe are not worth looking at.
The quick stroke.
The quick stroke. Pull.
Pull away.
Stick it (the paddle; in.
Strike up a song.
A shove.
Stab it (the water).
Let it be deep.
A long pull.
Yes, yes.
A shove.
Now stick it in.
Shove along, hard work though it be.
An old man is kicking out there.
Look alive.
Is kicking out there.
Go along.
A bend (in the river).
Make it your own.
A point of land.
Leave it behind.
Pull away.
Pull away.

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(Then all the paddlers join.)

Go, firewood.
We shall have flesh to eat at Maketu.
The tide is ebbing,
To help us to a bellyful of raw flesh.
Pull away. 26

Peace was made among the New Zealanders when both the combatants were tired of war, and when the debtor and creditor account kept told them that their losses were nearly equal. Neutral parties, who passed unmolested through both camps, made known the general feeling for peace. A herald was then sent from one tribe. He was generally an old man, and the qualifications for the appointment were eloquence and relationship with both parties. The emblem of his office was the branch of a tree. On arriving at the enemy's camp, all assembled to hear his propositions, which were assented to after a long discussion. A feast was then given and peace restored.

Before the introduction of fire-arms, the New Zealanders possessed several weapons, but no very deadly one, for distant warfare. The pere was a sling for throwing spears and slinging stones hot or cold. It was like a whip. The handle was four feet long, and the whip part made of flax was two feet long. The projectiles were slight javelins, sharp and jagged at their points, from four to six feet long. Occasionally they were pointed with bone, or the barb of the stingaree. These projectiles were discharged with the pere from elevated platforms. They were tied with a sliding knot to the end of the whip, and by a sudden jerk thrown several hundred yards with considerable force and precision. Slings are now completely disused.

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Their spears were made of white pine hardened by fire, from four to fourteen feet long, and sharp at both ends. These weapons were discharged from short distances, and although brandished over the head to excite terror were thrown from a level with the hip.

The hoeroa, a projectile made out of the rib of a whale, was four feet long and two inches broad. Being a scarce projectile, a rope was fastened to one end of it, so as to pull it back. The hoeroa was occasionally used as a club, and from being curved blows from it were with difficulty warded.

Bows and arrows were not unknown, although never used in war.

To protect the body from these projectiles chiefs wore a defensive armour over the chest and loins made of closely woven flax.

For personal conflicts the New Zealanders had several deadly weapons, and, like all races ignorant of iron, they used hard minerals for making keen-edged ones.

Of these the greenstone meri was the most esteemed. It weighs six pounds, is thirteen inches long, and in shape resembles a soda-water bottle flattened. In its handle is a hole for a loop of flax, which is twisted round the wrist. Meris are carried occasionally in the girdle like Malay knives. In conflicts the left hand grasped the enemy's hair, and one blow from the meri on the head produced death. The greenstone composing these implements of war is called nephrite by mineralogists, and is found in the Middle Island of New Zealand, in the Hartz, Corsica, China, and Egypt. The most valuable kind is clear as glass, with a slight green tinge. Meris are also made of jade, serpentine, jasper, dark grey stone, whalebone, and wood. All have

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different names; but none are held in any estimation in comparison with greenstone meris.

The patu was a wooden weapon not unlike a violin, and a little larger than the meri.

The toki, or adze, was a favourite weapon. Its handle was made of wood two feet long, and the adze of greenstone, jade, jasper, or granite. In conflicts adzes were used like meris, and in peace for breaking wood and scooping out canoes.

The New Zealanders had five sorts of wooden clubs, which were occasionally highly carved and ornamented with feathers and dyed flax. The hani is the best known of the clubs, and all were used for giving or warding off blows.

Neither swords nor bayonets have been adopted by them for close conflicts.

Connected with war was the custom of eating human flesh. "Tell me what a man eats, and I will tell you what he is," seems peculiarly applicable to this ancient custom. Starvation, superstition, revenge, hatred, and other motives, may in the first instance have excited men to eat each other; but when cannibalism is found common among races of men, sensual love of human flesh invariably influenced the continuance of the custom. The New Zealanders have obtained a disagreeable notoriety for this vice; and so much so that few persons can think of New Zealanders without thinking of cannibalism, or of cannibalism without thinking of the New Zealanders.

There is great obscurity about the origin of the now familiar term cannibal. It was first used to designate a man-eater in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and it is the custom of the age to derive cannibal from

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Latin, "propter rabiem caninam anthropophagorum gentis;" as in French, appetit de chien: but Humboldt thinks it is a corruption of Caribalis, a form under which Columbus designates the Caribs or Caribas. Cannibal, in Hakluyt's Voyages, is spelt with a single n.

In speculating on the origin of cannibalism in New Zealand, it is requisite to remember that it is a Malay and Polynesian custom, and according to the mythology of the New Zealanders the god of war commenced the practice by eating his brothers. The first man who made his stomach a tomb among the ancestors of the New Zealanders was Manaia, and he did so by eating the flesh of a man for debauching his wife. The curse Manaia gave his spouse on this celebrated occasion is still remembered: -- "Accursed be your head. If you dare to do the like again I'll serve the flesh of your brother in the same way; it shall frizzle on the red-hot stones of Waikorora."

Tradition states that the New Zealanders were not cannibals for some generations after their arrival in the country, and there are different accounts as to the motives which instigated them to renew this horrible ancestral custom.

One Waikato story relates that cannibalism began thus in New Zealand. Tuhetia and Tahinga, two brothers-in-law, went out to fish. Being unable, when done, to draw up the stone which anchored the canoe, Tuhetia dived to the bottom for a shell to cut the rope, and Tahinga, when he was under the water, cut the rope with a concealed shell, and paddled off, leaving his brother-in-law to certain death. When the drowned man's son grew up to manhood, he made war on the son

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of his father's murderer, and killed and ate him, which act gave rise to other instances of murder and cannibalism.

Another Waikato story on this subject relates that a whale was stranded, containing the spirit of the deified man Tutunui. The animal was consequently sacred. A man named Kae ate a portion of this whale, which sacrilegious act was equivalent to eating the body of Tutunui. In revenge, the descendants of Tutunui killed and ate Kae. Kae's friends in return ate one of Tutunui's descendants, and thus commenced cannibalism, and a cause was given for its continuance.

Both these stories indicate that revenge was the motive which led the New Zealanders to renew the custom of cannibalism. There are, however, other traditions on this subject, but none have any claim to historical accuracy. Even the same traditions are told in different ways, and by some the circumstances now related are said to have occurred, not in New Zealand, but in Hawaiki.

Whether or not cannibalism commenced immediately after the advent of the New Zealanders from Hawaiki, it is nevertheless certain that one of Tasman's sailors was eaten in 1642; that Captain Cook had a boat's crew eaten in 1774; that Marion de Fresne, and many other navigators, met this horrible end; and that the pioneers of civilisation, and successive missionaries, have all borne testimony to the universal prevalence of cannibalism in New Zealand up to the year 1840. It is impossible to state how many New Zealanders were annually devoured; that the number was not small may be inferred from two facts authenticated by European witnesses. In 1822, Hongi's army ate three hundred persons after the

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capture of Totara, on the river Thames; 27 and in 1836, during the Rotorua war, sixty human beings were cooked and eaten in two days. 28 The persons eaten were enemies slain in battle, and men, women, and children taken prisoners. The bodies of the last two were seldom eaten, and cannibalism was rarely practised during peace. When slaves were eaten in peaceful times by chiefs, political motives were the secret causes of this unusual occurrence. There are few New Zealanders above forty years of age who have not partaken of human flesh, a sure proof of the former prevalence of cannibalism in the country.

The customs connected with cooking and eating human flesh were these: -- After a battle the enemy's dead were collected, and their bodies were cut into pieces. One corpse was set aside as a trophy sacred to the god of war, and its hair and right ear were kept for the purpose of removing the tapu from the war party. Cooking-ovens were now dug in the earth in two long rows, and the flesh in one oven was set apart for the gods. This sacred oven had a wreath of fern round its edge, and two pointed sticks, stuck on the top, upon one of which there was a potato and on the other a lock of human hair. The flesh was often kept in the ovens for twenty-four hours. The chief commenced the feast, and this was occasionally done by swallowing the uncooked brain and eyes of some fallen warrior. If the chief's sons were present, they partook next; and then the whole army, with bloody hands and passions maddened by fighting, singing, and dancing, gorged themselves like boa constrictors. Men have died after such

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banquets. The whole body was devoured with the exception of the lungs, stomach, intestines, and other parts. When the warriors were surfeited, the remains were collected and packed in baskets. Portions were then sent round to tribes not actually engaged, to ascertain their feelings. Should these presents be received and eaten, the conquerors might depend on the support of those who did this, in resisting future attacks from the vanquished.

Should the son of a chief engaged in war not be present at the feast, a basket of human flesh was sent expressly to him. The Rev. A. N. Brown visited a battlefield two days after the conflict, and saw quantities of human bones picked clean of flesh, long bones broken as if to extract the marrow, and bloody heads stuck about on poles. Should the war party reach home before all the flesh is eaten, the remnant was thrown away, not brought into the village, as such proceedings would have rendered the habitations sacred. Women were not permitted to eat human flesh. They may have done so by stealth, but human flesh was forbidden food to females. Women were, however, allowed to become cannibals when the chief had no male issue, in which case the flesh sent from the battle-field was eaten by his eldest daughter, or by his nearest relative male or female. This custom was dictated by the law of primogeniture, and was done to transmit in an unbroken line the honours of chiefs to their descendants.

Human flesh was eaten by the New Zealanders from motives of revenge and hatred, to cast disgrace on the persons eaten, and to strike terror. Hatred and revenge are their strongest passions, and these were strengthened by cultivation and use.

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It was such a disgrace for a New Zealander to have his body eaten, that if crews of Englishmen and New Zealanders, all friends, were dying of starvation in separate ships, the English might resort to cannibalism, but the New Zealanders never would. To hint to a New Zealander that his father has been eaten is an insult unequalled in the English language. All their insulting speeches had reference to cannibalism. The following song, sung by men or women, is an excellent specimen of such compositions.

To strike terror was one of the motives of cannibalism. Civilised warriors on entering battle only dreaded death, but New Zealanders were tortured with the idea of their bodies being eaten. Chiefs were proud of having great cannibal reputations, and such names as "eaters of chiefs" were borne by some warriors. In the hour of battle the presence of a well-known cannibal nerved his followers arms and cooled the courage of his opponents.

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It is erroneous to suppose that cannibalism was practised under the conviction that the strength and courage of the person eaten passed into the body of the eater. No man ever coveted the qualities of those he hated. This English idea arose from chiefs having sucked living blood from flowing veins, and from the brains and heart being prized above all other parts of the human body.

Human flesh was never eaten by the New Zealanders as food. Cook and other navigators have asserted that the absence of quadrupeds suitable for food drove the people to cannibalism, and Professor Owen hints that when the gigantic moas were all eaten the New Zealanders commenced devouring each other. In no instance which has come under my notice were they ever driven from want of food to the dire necessity of eating human flesh; and the fact of human flesh having been sacred, and forbidden food to women, one half of the population, is a strong argument against human flesh having been used as a substitute for animal flesh.

Nevertheless, they had a strong liking for it, and all admit that its smell and taste were grateful. A proverb says, "the flesh of man surpasses that of all other animals in flavour." In 1852, at a Missionary Meeting at Tauperi, a native teacher said, "Although I am not an old man, I have eaten human flesh; it was sweet." Several men have told me that human flesh tastes like fresh pork, and others that it has the flavour of veal. When New Zealanders devoured their fellow-men they were almost invariably intoxicated with excitement. No men but sacred chiefs could partake of human flesh without becoming tapu, in which state they could not

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return to their usual occupations without having the tapu removed from their bodies. This decree may have been dictated to prevent human flesh being used as food; as all cannibal races, except the Battas in Sumatra, 29 have pronounced it disgraceful for men to have their bodies eaten by men.

This narrative must have excited disgust. It is therefore pleasing to record that few of the rising generation were ever partakers of a human banquet. The last authentic instance of cannibalism occurred in 1843. During the late war, the bodies of an English soldier and two officers were mutilated, but not eaten. In 1852 I visited a pa near Tara Wera, one of the most distant places from the English settlements, a few days after a conflict. The spots where the warriors fell and the graves in which they were interred were shown me, but no human flesh was eaten on the occasion. This extinction of an ancient custom cannot be attributed to the introduction of animals suitable for food, as pigs abounded in New Zealand years before cannibalism ceased. It is Christianity which has driven this revolting custom out of the land, and, to the credit of the present generation of New Zealanders be it said, few willingly admit to strangers that they ever shared in a cannibal feast.

Prisoners not slain after conflicts were portioned out by their conquerors among the free men of the tribe as slaves, chiefs always reserving for themselves the largest number. Sometimes whole tribes became nominally slaves, although permitted to live at their usual places of residence, on the condition of catching eels and preparing food for their conquerors at certain seasons.

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Before the year 1830 one tenth of the New Zealanders were living in a state of slavery, and Domesday Book shows that the bulk of the English people were once in a similar condition.

The people who were slaves in New Zealand were men, women, and children captured in war, and their descendants for ever. Children borne by slave women to free men were tainted with their mother's curse; children of free women and slave men were not slaves. No law or public opinion existed relative to the treatment of slaves; the word of their masters was law, and a refusal to obey death. It was likewise death for a slave to try to escape. There was no minor punishment. The people never defended the cause of slaves, and their mode of reasoning was this: the lives of slaves were sacrificed when captured; they have, therefore, no just cause of complaint in being slain at any future period.

Slaves were occasionally exchanged, as European powers exchange prisoners of war, but manumitted slaves never regained their former position in the tribe. Slaves were sold to other tribes, and given in payment for injuries. Harsh words from chiefs to slaves were as nothing, but similar offences from slaves to chiefs were never forgotten.

Nevertheless, slaves were not ill-treated as long as they did what was required of them. They slept in huts, eat the same kind of food as their master, although off separate dishes, and shared in all his amusements. Neither the bearing nor language of slaves was that of lacqueys. Cruelty was the exception, kindness to them the general rule. There was, however, a dark side to this picture; slaves were slain at the death of chiefs,

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for the purpose of attending on them in the next world. They were occasionally killed and eaten by chiefs during peace, for political purposes. They were neglected during illness, and their bodies were contemptuously treated after death.

Slaves were employed in cooking food, drawing water, and hewing wood. In such occupations they were not assisted by free men. They accompanied their lords on fighting and fishing expeditions, but rarely rose to influence. They were marked by no external badge, although generally deficient in tattooing. In the presence of Europeans, strangers to the language and customs of the country, slaves were often blusterers. Free children knew from their earliest youth that their playmates were slaves, and knew the gulf which separated them from each other. Slavery was a taint never wiped out; chiefs taken in war might be spared, wives given them from among the daughters of the conquerors, children might be born unto them, but they were still slaves. The influence of the greatest warrior was destroyed by slavery; a circumstance which rendered death a relief, and their lives more agreeable with their conquerors than with their own tribe.

On Englishmen's ears the term slave grates harshly; but slavery was an easy physical burthen in New Zealand. This ancient custom, the lot of a large portion of mankind, is now nearly extinct in the colony. Christianity, the establishment of the British Government, and the civilising influence of commerce, have been chiefly instrumental in destroying the property of man in man. Among some remote tribes slaves are still found; but a large proportion have returned to the homes of their ancestors. A few, from attach-

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ment to their masters, live as free men among the tribes with whom they were formerly slaves. The disuse of slavery has extinguished one of the causes which made New Zealand wars so ferocious. Battles are now conflicts for victory and revenge, not for slaves.