CHAPTER III
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CHAPTER III.
Native Customs regarding Children--Tattooing--Marriage.
While the approach to European customs has been thus followed by a train of evils, art and civilized life have as yet done little to aggravate the pains of child-birth. The mother at the approach of labour seeks refuge--often alone--in a neighbouring wood, and in a few moments after the birth of the child goes to a running water, bathes herself and the infant, and is soon seen again occupied with her usual work amongst her associates. But until the time of baptism she is "tapu," that is, sacred, or unclean, if we prefer the Biblical translation of a Hebrew word of the same signification. Generally, however, only the wives of chiefs are subject to this rigorous custom. The mother herself cuts the umbilical cord with a shell, often too close, and in consequence umbilical ruptures are frequent; they however disappear with the growing age. Twins, which are called mahanga, are not uncommon, but no superstitious feeling is attached to their birth, and it is regarded as a natural occurrence. Sometimes the child is sacrificed (roromi, infanticide), but
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NATIVE CUSTOMS.
this unnatural crime mostly occurs as an act of revenge: --broken faith, or desertion by the husband, the illegitimacy of the children, matrimonial dissensions, illicit connections with Europeans, slavery during pregnancy, and separation from the husband--are the principal causes. In many cases infanticide is the result of superstition of the grossest character, and is occasioned by fear of divine anger and punishment. Rangi-tautau, the wife of a young chief at the mission settlement at Roturua, killed her first child under the following most singular circumstances: --while pregnant she was one day at the pa on the other side of the lake, where an old priestess had hung out her blanket for the purpose of airing it; the young woman observed a certain insect upon the garment, --caught it, and, according to the native custom, eat it. She thought that she had not been perceived, but the old witch had seen her, and immediately poured forth the most violent imprecations and curses upon her for having eaten a louse from off her sacred garment, and foretold that she would kill and eat her own child as a punishment for this sacrilegious deed. This threat she frequently repeated after the woman's confinement, and worked so much upon her agitated mind by threats of the vengeance of Heaven, that the infatuated mother dug a hole, buried her child, and trampled it to death, unmoved by the piercing cries of the poor creature. But she afterwards deeply repented having thus violated the
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INFANTICIDE.
most sacred law of nature; and, perhaps, in consequence of this, she and her husband separated from their tribe and became the principal supporters of the missionary.
They have other modes of killing the child: the head of the infant not yet fully born is compressed, and thus its existence terminated; and sometimes abortion is effected by pressing violently upon the abdomen with a belt. Many children are stillborn; but I suspect that in almost all these cases death was caused by the mother. It makes no difference whether the child is male or female; but if the woman is desirous that her child should be of the one sex, and has boasted that she knows it will be so, on its proving of the other sex she frequently sacrifices it. The child, if suffered to survive the first moments of its existence, is generally safe; and even under the circumstances I have mentioned, maternal love often gets the better of anger or despair. I have known cases, however, where in a fit of passion or jealousy the child was afterwards murdered by the mother or her relations.
The child who is not doomed thus to perish at its birth is nursed with affection and tenderness, either by the mother or by some other woman of the tribe, who gives it her breast. During a great part of its infancy it is taken care of by the father, who evinces admirable patience and forbearance. It remains unclothed and exposed to the inclemency of the weather, but often takes refuge in the
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NAMES.
warm blanket of the father or mother. It is lulled to sleep by songs which are called nga-ori-ori-tamaiti, and which happily express those feelings and sentiments that so delight us in our own nursery rhymes. In this early age there is, it appears, little mortality or sickness amongst the New Zealanders, except in those parts of the island in which the diseases I have alluded to are prevalent, or have become hereditary.
The father or mother, or the relations, give a name to the child, taken from some quality or from some accident which happened before, or at the time of, his birth; new names are thus continually formed. It is rarely that the son bears the same appellation as his father; the name is simple, but one man is often known by different names, and an accident may change the original one. All the names have meanings, and the number of pure vowels which occur in the language, and the termination of every word with a vowel, render the names harmonious. 1 The European, or
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BAPTISMAL
rather Oriental, names which have been given to the missionary natives undergo a transmutation adapted to their idiom, which improves their euphony. Unconnected with naming the child is the custom of its baptism. This remarkable ceremony (E riri) is entirely unique: the time of its performance is not at any fixed period, but it generally takes place during the first few months after the birth. It is done by the tohunga, or priest, who, with a green branch dipped in a calabash full of water, sprinkles the child and pronounces the following incantation, which varies according to the sex of the child. The whole ceremony is very mysterious; few of the young people have been present during its performance; and it seems to be a relic of a former more connected form of religious worship, or perhaps of that primitive religion which is the basis of our most sacred religious rites.
A very old chief and priest in Kaitaia, who had become a Christian, related to me the circumstances, and gave me the incantations.
It would be necessary to be acquainted very
Names of Men.
Hamanu
Tumu-Tumu
Tawao
E Ihi
Matangi
Warepouri
E Puni
Rauparaha
Pane Kareao
Names of Women.
Aroha
Rangimahora
Wakapoi
Pirang
Rangingangana
Rangipaeroa
Parengaoe
Kaone
Eraraue
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INCANTATIONS.
exactly with the whole of the ceremony before attempting to decipher the sense of these incantations, or to translate them. There were some discrepances in the accounts I received of this custom: I was told that the baptism is carried on by girls or women, who lay the child upon the mat. Perhaps the two accounts can be reconciled, as the incantation may be said alternately by the priest and by the girls in the form of a dialogue. This seems to be probable from what I can decipher of it. The whole has evidently a symbolical meaning, as indeed all customs of the kind have, even among the most savage nations.
Incantation used at the Baptism of Boys.
Tohia te tama nei kia riri kia ngiha, kaui otu me te nganahau ka riri ki tai no tu ka nguha ki tai no tu, Koropana ki tai no tu. E pa te karanga ki tai no tu: me te nganahau ki tai no tu: taku tama nei kia tohia: koropana ki tai no tu: pa mai te karanga ki tai no tu: ko te kawa o karaka wati: o riri ai koe: e nguha ai koe: e ngana ai koe: e toa ai koe: e karo ai koe: ko tu iho uhia: ko rongo i houhia.
Incantation used at the Baptism of Girls.
Tohia te tama nei kia riri: kia nguha te tama nei: kani o tu: me te nganahau: ka riri ki tai no tu: ka wakataka te watu: kania kania ma taratara: te hihi ma taratara: te hau o uenuku puha ka mama tauira o tu: ka mama tauira o Rongo. Ho: ka kai tu: ka kai Rongo: ka kai te wakariki. He haha: he hau ora: he hau ran-gatira: kei runga kei te rangi: ka puha te rangi. E iriiria koe ki te iriiri: hahau kai mau tangaengae haere ki te wahie mau tangaengae: watu kakahu mou tangaengae.
The following is an attempted translation of the incantation used at the baptism of girls; but several
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BAPTISMAL INCANTATIONS.
words are evidently incorrectly written, and of others I am unacquainted with the meaning.
As, however, it was stated by a native to be "a piece of nonsense which he did not understand, nor anybody else, for its mystical expressions were known only to a few," it is probable that some words are very ancient and obsolete. I have not attempted to translate those parts of which I could not comprehend the import. The sentences may be considered to be pronounced alternately by the priest and a party of girls: --
Girls. Tohia te tama nei.
We wish this child to be immersed.
Priest. Kia riri.
Let it be sprinkled.
Girls. Kia nguha 2 te tama nei.
We wish the child to live to womanhood.
Priest. Kani o Tu.
Dance for Atua.
Girls. Me ta nganahau.
Priest. Ka riri ki tai no tu.
It is sprinkled in the waters of Atua.
Girls. Ka wakataka te watu.
The mat is spread.
Priest. Kania ma taratara,
Te hihi ma taratara.
Dance in a circle,
Thread the dance.
The remainder is very obscure.
Scarcely anything can be said as to the education of children, which is left almost entirely to nature.
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CHILDREN.
They early acquire those arts which are necessary for their maintenance and preservation. Near the sea or the lakes they acquire the art of swimming almost before they are able to stand upright. They are not deficient in obedience to their parents, although the latter do not exercise their authority very strictly, but allow their children to do what they do themselves. Where there is no occasion for burthening them with restrictions which they do not understand, as is the case in civilised nations, there are fewer occasions for correction. They are a cheerful, affectionate set of little urchins, indefatigable in annoying the visitor from distant Europe by their curiosity, which extends to his person, clothes, all the things he may have with him, and even to his sayings and doings, which are faithfully reported to the elders: nothing escapes the attention of these youngsters. From their continual contact with the adults all their mental faculties are early developed, although they pass their youth in doing nothing, or in innocent games. Their kite (manu, or pakau pakaukau) is of a triangular form, and is very neatly made of the light leaves of a sedge; it is held by a string made of strips of flax tied together, and its ascent is accompanied with some saying or song, such as the "He karakia pakau," 3 which I here give in a note. It is a sign
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SPORTS OF CHILDREN.
of peace when it is seen flying near a village, a "tohu tangi manu." A top, called kaihora, nicely formed and managed as it is by us, supplies another of their amusements. In the game of Maui they are great proficients. This is a game like that called cat's-cradle in Europe, and consists of very complicated and perplexing puzzles with a cord tied together at the ends. It seems to be intimately connected with their ancient traditions, and, in the different figures which the cord is made to assume whilst held on both hands, the outlines of their different varieties of houses, canoes, or figures of men and women are imagined to be represented. Maui, the Adam of New Zealand, left this amusement to them as an inheritance. Another game is called tutukai, and is played with a number of pebbles. A very common sport amongst children consists in opening and shutting the fingers, and bending the arm in a certain manner, when the following words are said, the whole of which must lie completed in a single breath: --
Katahi ti karua ti ka hara mai tapati tapato re ka rau ua ka rau ua ka noho te kiwi ka pohe wa tautau to pi to pa ka huia mai ka toko te rangi kai ana te wetu kai ana te marama o te Tiu e rere ra runga o tepe ra peka o hua kauere turakina te arero wiwi wawa ke ke ke te manu ki taupiri.
They have the following tale of a girl, whose face they fancy they can discover on the orb of the moon. Rona, a native maid, went with a calabash to fetch water. The moon hid her pale face behind dark and sweeping clouds. The maid, vexed at this
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TATTOOING.
uncourteous behaviour, pronounced a curse on the celestial orb; but as a punishment she stumbled and fell. The moon descended, raised her from the ground, and she now resides with her.
There is no separation of the sexes during childhood, nor indeed at any later age. Although puberty appears earlier than with us, the difference in the period is not so great as it is between us and the southern nations of Europeans.
Families are not large; there are rarely more than two or three children, although I found more numerous families in the interior. One of the causes may be the habit of nursing the child for a very long time. I have seen, however, as many as ten children by the same father and mother. As soon as the boy grows up he partakes in the occupations of the man, and tries to get a name for warlike exploits. He then receives the tattooing, an operation which lasts some time, and is done at intervals. The Tohunga is charged with this function; but it is not every one of them that is able to perform the operation. Some of the chief masters of the art are slaves, and the Waikato tribe are celebrated for their skill in the perfect execution of the designs. The tattoo, or "moko," which is its native name, is done either with the sharp bone of a bird, or with a small chisel called uhi. The candidate for this distinction reposes his head upon the knees of the operator, who drives the chisel into the skin with his hand. Each time, the chisel
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TATTOOING.
is dipped into a pigment called narahu, which is prepared by carbonizing the resin of the kauri-pine; and after each incision the blood is wiped of. The persons operated upon never allow the slightest expression of pain to escape them; and after the inflammation has passed away, the regular and clean scars appear dark. The tattooing of the lips is the most painful part of the operation. The moko is the same in all tribes, and does not form what might be called the arms of an individual, neither is it given as a reward for valiant deeds When the natives had occasion to sign deeds in their transactions with the Europeans, they used to draw upon the document a part of their moko or some other figure as their signature; but this seems to have been a modern invention. The moko is not an enforced ceremony; but any one may have it done, or not, according to his wishes. Neither is it in many cases complete, but often remains unfinished. Slaves, if they have been taken when children, are not tattooed, nor is the operation completed in those cases where it has already been partly performed upon them. The complete moko comprises the face, the posteriors, and the anterior part of the thighs to above the knees The first lines are drawn from the wings of the nose to the chin. All the different parts of the moko have names. They are generally curved or spiral lines.
Rerepi are those from the nose to the chin.
Pongiangia, at the wings of the nose.
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TATTOOING.
Ngu, at the summit of the nose.
Kauwai, on the chin.
Ngutu, on the lips.
Hupe, in the rima nasi.
Koroaha, on the lower maxilla, where the masseter lies.
Puta-ringa, on the ears.
Pae-pae, on the malar bones.
Kokoti, on the cheeks.
Korohaha, the lower spirals of the cheeks.
Erewa, upper eyelid.
Tiwana, over the brows and temples.
Titi, four lines on the middle of the forehead.
Rape, the posteriors.
Rita, the outer lines of those spirals.
Puhoro, the upper part of the thighs.
The girls, as soon as they arrive at puberty, have their lips tattooed with horizontal lines; to have red lips is a great reproach to a woman. With females in many cases the operation ceases here, but more frequently the chin is tattooed, especially in the Waikato tribe, and the space between the eyebrows, much resembling the tattoo of the modern Egyptians: in some rare cases it extends over the angles of the mouth: I have indeed seen a woman whose whole face was tattooed. Women bear, besides, the marks of their "tangi," or lamentations for the dead: these are incisions made on their bodies with shells, and dyed with narahu, often running regularly down the thorax and the extre-
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MARRIAGES.
mities, but frequently without any regular design. The general effect of the tattoo is to give the face a rigorous and unchangeable appearance: it prevents the symptoms of age from becoming visible so early as they otherwise would do, but it is not so formidable as it has been represented by some travellers. The tattoo of the lips, however, in women, gives them a livid, deadly appearance, certainly not to their advantage.
Although few or no ceremonies are connected with marriage, the customs regarding married women are strict and solemn. No marriage or connection for life takes place before the young people have attained a certain age, from eighteen to twenty for instance, with a little difference perhaps in the two sexes. It is not, however, rare that a child is promised in marriage, and then she becomes strictly "tapu" until she has attained the proper age. The suitor for a wife either succeeds by a long and continued courtship, e-aru-aru, if the girl is at first unwilling to bestow her inclinations on him, or, if she is propitious, a secret pinching of the hands on both sides declares the affirmative. The latter is called ropa. If the girl is so lucky as to have two suitors who have equal pretensions, so that neither herself nor the father ventures a decision, "e-puna-rua" is ordered, or what we would call a pulling-match--a dragging of her arms by each of the suitors in opposite directions, the stronger obtaining the victory, but often with very injurious conse-
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POLYGAMY.
(quences to the poor girl, whose arms in some cases sustain luxation. Polygamy is not interdicted, but is very uncommon amongst them. Here and there a chief possesses two wives, sometimes three, but most of them have only one. Adultery on the part of the wife is punished with death, of which several instances have come under my observation; where, under the influence of Europeans and missionaries, the native laws have become less rigorous on this point, the husband exposes his wife in puris naturalibus, and is then reconciled to her. In a pa near the North Cape of the island the wife of an influential chief had committed this crime. The chief, a Christian, enraged at the insult offered to him, declared he would divorce his wife. The woman, on her side, said that if he did she would hang herself, and would no doubt have kept her word. What was to be done? The case was discussed with the missionaries, and after a few days the man forgave his wife and took her back again.
The adulterer often seeks safety in flight: if he is of an inferior class, or a slave, he has forfeited his life; if he is a chief or an influential person, retributive justice cannot reach him: when he is of a different tribe, it becomes a cause of war. But these latter cases are very rare, as it is most frequently slaves who are guilty, and they are protected by no one. If the husband is faithless, his mistress is sometimes killed by his wife, but at all events stripped naked; and this is often done to the hus-
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ADULTERY.
band by the relations of the wife, if his rank does not shield him. Sometimes the husband commits suicide from fear of the consequences. A curious case of this description came to my knowledge, which I will relate, as being interesting in other respects. We were accompanied from Kawia into the Waipa district by a chief of the name of Te Waro. Te Waro had been in Van Diemen's Land, had seen the working of the English laws there, and had resolved in his own mind to adopt them in his country to their full extent. When we were in Kawia, Captain Symonds, the police magistrate, explained to Te Waro the new state of things in New Zealand, and especially that they ought not to take the punishment of crimes into their own hands, but give the offenders up to justice. The chief made a promise that in his tribe he would make known those laws and enforce them. When we afterwards came to Te Waro's own abode on the Waipa river, Captain Symonds settled satisfactorily some outrages which had been committed by the natives upon some European settlers; and as soon as this was finished, the chief, calling a girl to him, stepped forward and said to us, "I promised you to acknowledge your laws, which seem to be good, and I will be true to my promise. This girl has committed a murder. Her brother had had forbidden intercourse with a slave-girl, and, when the case became known, he feared the consequences from the relations of his wife, and
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TREATMENT OF WOMEN.
shot himself. But the sister found the slave last night in the bush, and, to revenge her brother's death, killed her. Take the girl and judge her according to your laws." The girl was Te Waro's daughter! The reader may imagine the scene! Te Waro, a man of serene, highly meditative, and noble countenance, arraigning his only child of murder: his motives could not be mistaken. Before him stood his daughter, who pleaded her cause with energy and firmness, although now and then a tear started from her eye. She justly observed that she had acted according to their law, and that the girl had been the cause of her brother's death. But Te Waro would not listen to this. When the magistrate refused to send the girl to Auckland, Te Waro wished to give himself up to justice, being the nearest relation, and was with difficulty persuaded that any such mode of retribution was contrary to our laws. This case will show how much the natives appreciate the new order of things, and how easy it will be to reconcile them entirely to it. And yet this was a tribe far in the interior, not in constant contact with Europeans, nor influenced by missionaries.
The wife is well treated by the husband; she is his constant companion, and takes care of the plantations, manufactures of mats, and looks after the children. The man constructs the house, goes out fishing, and to war: but even in war the woman is often his companion, and either awaits in the neigh-
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DIVORCE.
bourhood the termination of a skirmish, or on the field itself incites the men to combat.
Divorce scarcely ever takes place except in cases of adultery. Widows are "tapu" until the bones of the husband have been scraped and brought to their ultimate resting-place: the same is the case with the widower. After this ceremony they become "noa," or free. Widows of arikis, or hereditary chiefs, hold for life the highest influence over the tribe, or convey this influence to the chief whom they may marry. Instances of suicide at the death of a husband, especially if he was a "great man," are not uncommon; and hanging seems to be the favourite mode of exit.
It is well known that girls, before they are married, can dispense their favours as they like--a permission which, as long as they lived in their primitive state, was perhaps not abused, as the liaison was binding, for the time being, even with Europeans. Afterwards girls became an article of trade with the chiefs in shipping places, who regarded selling their women as the easiest method of getting commodities. But it must be admitted that parents, relations, and the females themselves, are very anxious to unite in legal matrimonial ties with the whites, and that licentiousness is not an inherent part of their character. If these ties are in any way fixed, they are maintained on the part of the female with affection and faithfulness. Infanticide is then uncommon. I know as many as. six children of
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MIXED MARRIAGES.
such mixed marriages: there results from them one of the finest half-castes that exists, and I would add, also, an improvement on the race, at least in its physical particulars, as far as can be judged from children. They retain, however, many of their mother's peculiarities, especially in the colour and quality of hair and eyes. They are generally attached to her race, and of course better acquainted with her language than with English. I may observe that their number in the islands is nearly 400. A European having a native for his wife obtains, as a matter of course, the full protection of her father: and if the latter is a powerful chief, the son-in-law can exercise a great influence, as the natives generally take great delight in their grandchildren. Connexions of this kind, even if the couple had been lawfully married, have been viewed --and, as it appears, most unwisely--with great contempt by the missionaries, who are too apt to consider the people to whom they have been sent to breach the Gospel as an inferior race of beings; in many cases, however, the missionaries seem to have been actuated by a desire to check the influence of bad characters who may thus connect themselves with a tribe. From some cases which have come under my observation, I must remark that many of these have turned out very good marriages; and as the average native female population seems to be greater than the male, this will furnish a
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BLENDING OF RACES.
remedy against certain evils experienced in other colonies, where the contrary was the case, and tend to what I conceive to be very desirable--an ultimate blending of the races.
