CHAPTER XXV.
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CHAPTER XXV.
RELIGIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES IN NEW ZEALAND.----WHEN PERFORMED,----HOW TO DISCOVER A THIEF AND THE WEATHER.----SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS.----INSPIRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD.----CANONIZED BEASTS.----NATIVE FEARS.----A VEGETABLE ANIMAL.----CHARACTERISTICS ATTACHED TO WHIRLWINDS, WATER-SPOUTS, RAINBOWS.---- NATIVE DIGNITY.----HOW AGGRIEVED AND ACCOMMODATED.----PROPITIATING THE GODS.----PROHIBITION OR TAPU.----ITS EFFECTS ON LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.---- NATURE OF THE OBY, GRISGRIS AND FETISH.---- BELIEF IN RELIQUARIES.---- INTERDICT ON RIVERS.----PAYMENT FOR NON-OBSERVANCES.----OBJECTS SUBJECTED TO THE TAPU.----THE POAPOA----OFFERINGS FOR TRANSGRESSIONS.
THE religious rites of the New Zealanders are very numerous, and a non-attendance in fulfilling any of them, renders the transgressor open to robbery of all his effects, and a yet more severe punishment. The ceremonies performed in honour of the birth and death of the chiefs have been given. Marriages are blessed by the priesthood, who invoke the sun, moon, stars, earth, and even the winds, to be propitious to the bridal pair. Among the superstitions, the following may be mentioned. The method of discovering a thief, is found by a priest taking a number of small sticks (or pebbles) previously making a small circle on the ground.
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Each stick is notched, to represent one of the parties suspected of a lapse in honesty, and all are thrown up in the air, and the stick that falls within the circle, the representative is declared the thief, but should all of them fall wide of the mark, the suspicions are accounted fallacious, but the stick nearest to the circle is supposed to be connected directly or indirectly, and a fresh batch of the articles, representing his relatives or companions (as the case may be) are thrown up. If a result similar to the former takes place, no further notice is taken.
Previously to a party leaving a village for a campaign, a number of sticks are placed slightly in the ground, (each stick representing a person) during a calm, after a strong breeze has sprung up, the priests take a survey of these rods of divination, and such as have fallen indicate the fall (in battle) of the persons represented. A deal of trickery is practised by the priests in such instances, as those whom they would favour, their effigies are pushed deep in the earth, and to whom they bear malice, their representatives are scarcely placed in the soil. These ridiculous symbols are carefully gathered and placed in a canoe in which no food is allowed to be partaken of, and carried to the war. They may be termed the native sibylline oracles.
Inspiration is said to be afforded to the priesthood by the divinities. A priest who greatly boasted of a circumstance which he had predicted
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as likely to come to pass, and which by chance happened to do so, boasted that he felt assured that he could not be mistaken as he had the information from a shark, who had conveyed it to him in a confidential communication.
Every animal has a chance of becoming sanctified for a time, during which his life is assured. Hogs are sometimes named after great chiefs deceased, and when thus canonized are never allowed to be killed. Thrice fortunate indeed is the animal thus elevated from his herd, as he may roam in sacred places, grub with his sainted snout the luxuriant herbage in a wai tapu , and can attain a good old age, fearless of the fate that attends his kindred. We have seen monstrous representations of animals 1 placed in cemeteries to scare
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away these freed brutes, but attended with ill success.
On the natives passing the tombs of their celebrated warriors, they become seized with an awe which they cannot define; it is not uncommon for them to throw a dried shell-fish, such as a cockle or clam, at the tomb, and often in lieu, a thread from their garment, at the wooden image set up a a cenotaph.
A whirlwind of sand has been described to us as a hasty departure of invisible spirits to the Reinga, or world of shades, A water-spout was characterized as arising from a deficiency of water in heaven, a portion of which ascending, was necessary for the existence of the divinities located there. Meteors were said to be caused by the forcible ejectment of an Atua for misconduct. A rainbow is called an ara wata , or ladder for the chiefs to ascend to heaven. A chief will not hesitate carrying an European on his back, and we have often witnessed disputes between those members of the aristocracy as to whom the preference should be disposed; but a slave would regard himself as humbled to the dust if obliged to perform the same duty for his master.
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A slave is not allowed to partake of food which has been carried on the shoulders of a chief. European families, on whom the blessed light of civilization has fallen, are, (we had almost said,) equally prone to superstition, that even a sense of religion cannot eradicate; but this feeling among all savage or semi-civilized nations is most absorbing. They all implicitly believe in omens, dreams, second-sight, predestination, evil eyes, bewitching, auguries, relics, charms, bequeathings, philtres, sorceries, enchantments, astrology, &c. Every singularly formed rock, elevated mountain, conical hill, dense forest, river, lake, cave, marine, or subterranean, hollow tree, are remarkable as not being a work of the great Creator, but as the habitation of spirits ever on the alert to take advantage of any lapsus that may occur in the conduct or demeanour of the morally benighted natives. To deprecate the ire of the imaginary atua , he attempts propitiation by the commission of crimes of the deepest-dye, fearing otherwise, (adficietur malo ) he will meet with a terrific retribution. The prohibitory law of the tapu enters into every subject relative to life in New Zealand. The priests have the sole management of the penitential fasts, that devolve on the person who breaks through the rules of his faith.
Parents are unable to caress, or even touch their children, while either labour under the interdict, food must not be handled by any person, which must be extremely annoying to the chiefs to be fed
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by other persons, but the poor slaves, who have no such indulgences, are obliged to gobble the food from the ground on which it is laid. If they should be lucky enough to get an assistant, many a trick is played them, by cramming victuals so excessively hot in their mouths, as to bring tears from their eyes, and in case of dropping the pungent vegetable, the assistant decamps.
The sea-side is often tapued by certain tribes who possess the sole right of fishing for shell-fish on the beach.
Farms and their productions while ripening are also similarly protected. 2 The tapu generally con-
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sists of a bunch of human hair being affixed to a tree, or a piece of old garment; should this sign be violated, a quarrel and war ensues in consequence. The prohibition often interferes with the European traders, as often a river is not allowed to be navigated while a seine is preparing on its shores. In the interior streams, if any person was found paddling a canoe, while the waters lay under an interdict, the people of the district would not hesitate in shooting the person so disobedient as to transgress the tapu . Among such persons who are of a less sanguinary disposition they become satisfied by only robbing the delinquent of every thing he possesses, including his canoe, paddles, freight and garments, ignorance of the existing tapu being no excuse for breaking the law. If a native feels himself aggrieved, the same law is open to him, whenever he has the opportunity to enforce it. Few words have a more extensive meaning. If an accident takes place in a forest, during the felling of timber, the place is deserted, and wood, for the future, is prohibited being cut in that place.
When a place is to be tapued, the intimation is announced to all whom it may concern (or not) by a raoui or grotesque carving in wood, painted with the usual red earth, which is found in certain districts, and is baked after the native method.
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The vicinity of the spot being thus announced as sacred is never infringed.
Fruit trees are often sacrificed in like manner, as on such karaka (native fruit) trees on which human hair has been hung up, the fruit is no longer allowed to be made use of. Any raupo or bulrush flags put apart for building certain houses, &c., the same can never be made use of for any other purpose, as the rush is tapued for that express purpose.
The first fish of the season is tapued as an offering to the gods, and the priest and chiefs take the clerical trouble of gastronomizing on them, for the benefit of the Atuas . Few people exhibit greater devotion in this respect than the New Zealand priesthood.
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On a party of natives undertaking a war, a canoe is tapued for carrying certain objects, such as the bones of deceased warriors, of ferocious and cannibal memory, 3 supposed as particularly efficacious in aiding the tribes, or the muskets, paddles, and other relics of the defunct chiefs, which are never made use of but as charms. In default of the above, rotten sticks that once formed part and parcel of the house of the chief are substituted, even fern-pounders, and similar trifles.
Viands are often tapued for certain chiefs, and the messenger (Karari ) carrying it is not allowed to partake of any kind of food until he has delivered his message. These viands are termed poapoa , and sometimes consist of pigeons preserved in their own fat, the several bones being carefully extracted, and often the remains of human victims who have been murdered in sacrifice. Portions of food are often placed in baskets to propitiate the Atua , either for actual (present) misfortunes, or those that may in all probability be pending. The basket is hung up on the branch of a tree or notched stick; at other times it is placed in a small round calabash,
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and a small stick run through it in the centre and inserted into the nearest wai tapu . Mats hung upon four sticks also serve for this sacred purpose. Punishment without benefit of the native clergy, would visit any person guilty of partaking of such viands.
If a native should be unfortunate in any of his expectations, he immediately suspects that he has offended an Atua (but the particular one he is unable to guess at), he immediately offers (what he imagines to be) an adequate payment, by setting fire to the house of his antagonist; or should such persons be too powerful for him, he consumes his own house; but, if his ill luck should still continue, he thinks at once to retrieve his good fortune by attacking, clandestinely, an enemy, or even friend (for he is not particular to a shade), and should he possess superior strength, murders him, as an expiatory sacrifice.
