THE NATIVE RACE.
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THE NATIVE RACE.
The foregoing picture is a photograph of Wiremu Tamihana Te Waharoa, the Head Chief and King of the Maories, universally known by the name of William Thompson, who has made himself very famous in the present rebellion, and whose influence for good or evil over his coloured subjects is very great. We have selected this photograph in order to give our readers an idea of the appearance of the personages whom we are now briefly to describe. The picture will, therefore, in the circumstances, be not inappropriate.
The natives of this colony, known by the appellation Maories, are evidently a mixed race--of Malay origin, and are in general tall, active, and well made; their colour brown, with black hair, sometimes straight and sometimes curling, and fine teeth. In features they exhibit as much variety as the Europeans, and there is little national to character in their countenances, which, before they come the age for being tatooed, may be called regular and pleasing.
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Few of the Maories have whiskers, nor do they wear beards, but, instead of shaving, they pluck out the hair with a pair of pipi shells. Their dress in the early days consisted of a mat made of the native flax, which is very fine and silky, and woven with much ingenuity by the women, which was thrown over their shoulders; another mat of the same texture was fastened round their waist by a girdle and belt. During stormy weather or in winter they formerly used a very course description of mat, which they call "Kakahow." It was warm, and impervious to rain, and so long as to cover the whole body. As the English blanket became known, it gradually succeeded the mat, and the blanket is even now giving way to the English style of dress. Those who can afford it, lay aside entirely the mat and blanket, and wear a shirt and trousers. Hats, caps, and shoes are also coming more into use with them. Numbers, however, can yet be seen in their own original quaint costume, and without any covering for their head or feet. In the way of ornament, both males and females have their ears bored, and a piece of greenstone or a shark's tooth, tipped at the thick end with red sealing wax, and suspended by a piece of black ribbon, plays the part of an ear-drop. A greenstone image is also sometimes worn about the neck.
The Maori women have a large share of the drudgery of life; marry young, fade early, and, as is commonly the case with uncivilised races, are in physical appearance greatly inferior to the men. Their dress is now, generally, a long loose roundabout of coloured cotton print, and they do not commonly wear any covering on the head or feet, unless on occasions of public mourning, when they adorn their heads with chaplets of green leaves. Sometimes, however, a large straw bonnet is worn, but it does not in the least beautify their appearance. Their husbands consider them infinitely inferior to themselves, and treat them with the greatest brutality, which they bear with the greatest patience.
The Maori children, or pickaninnies as they are called, are very docile and obedient. In bringing them up, the parents seldom have recourse to personal chastisement, believing that it has the effect of damaging the spirit of the child. At an early age, they acquire great self-respect, and at public discussions they will be seen seated around
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the outer circle, attentive, grave, and thoughtful listeners.
For the sake of increasing their beauty, as they suppose, the natives, at a certain age, submit to be tatooed. The operation of the tatooing is performed with a hammer and a serrated chisel, causes great swelling and excruciating pain, and is sometimes the work of years. The punctures are stained with a dark vegetable dye, the pattern in circles and curved lines is punctured on various parts of the person, as well as on the face. The women, however, are but slightly tatooed, having only a few lines cut about the lower lip and chin. The process disfigures the natives in their youth, but it has the commendation of completely concealing the ravages of age.
The general food is the Koomera, or sweet potatoe, the root of fern roasted and pounded, the common potatoe, cabbage plant, fish, of which they have abundance, and cockles. Though they eat sometimes pork, it is chiefly on great occasions.
As a body, they are intelligent, high-spirited, and warlike, but generally good-humoured. They are inquisitive, communicative, and almost incapable of keeping a secret. They are keen traders; cautious and not easily deceived. They are themselves quick observers, and have the tact to take for the moment the tone of those with whom they are brought into contact.
To see them on the occasion of some melancholy event of general interest, you can hardly fail being impressed with the manner in which they give utterance to their sorrow. It is hardly possible, indeed, to conceive any sound more expressive of heart-broken sorrow than the native tangi. At the death of a relative, it is said, they meet and commence their melancholy wail. Tears roll down their cheeks in constant streams, the countenances express the utmost intensity of grief. The head is bent down, half buried in the folds of the blanket they wear, and a shrill, piercing wail gives expression to their grief. This is kept up throughout the whole day, now one and now another of the mourners keeping up the note with unabated violence. Yet these sounds of lamentation express and mean no more real feeling than our own "deep mourning." This same sorrowful cry, but with mitigated violence, is indulged in when friends or relatives meet after a lengthened absence. After rubbing noses
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together--the accustomed mode of native salutation--they set up the same wailing sound, at the same time telling each other what has happened since they met.
It is difficult to define what their religion is. They believed that the chiefs when they die, go away to a happy place, but that the cookee--a menial servant--has no further existence beyond this world. They believe in a Supreme Being, designated the Atua, or something incomprehensible, the Author of good and evil, the Divinity who protects them in dangers or destroys them by disease. They used to pray to the sun, moon, and various images. The labours of the persevering Missionary have done much good, and effected the destruction, to a great extent, of these native religious superstitions and idolatries, and large numbers are now under the influence of the truth, and increasing daily. It is to be hoped that all may yet embrace the glorious Gospel of our blessed Saviour.
Their style of oratory is very plain, intelligible, and straightforward, and to the purpose, and highly figurative. All questions of importance are discussed by them in public assembly, the great chiefs taking the leading part. They speak with great animation, walking about from side to side, repeating two or three times each word and sentence as they proceed. When excited, the orators dance about like a tiger in a cage, slapping his tatooed thighs, and brandishing a spear or tomahawk about his head. The following is the speech of Te Whero Whero Potatutu, when he was proposed to be elected King of the Maories; and as he did not wish to offend his Electors, this speech was thought worthy of the fame. "Wash me, my friends, I am covered with mud. Love Gospel and Friendship. Ngatihaua work, continue to work. The Kotutu sits upon a stump and eats the small fish. When he sees one he stoops down and catches it, lifts up his head and swallows it. This is his constant work. William, you understand your work. When the sun shines, we see him."
The intellectual capacity of the New Zealanders, up to a certain point, at least, is quite equal to our own. Their songs and poems, both ancient and modem, abound, in fact, with poetic imagery. The figures with which their language abounds are all drawn from the natural objects around them.
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The natives contrive to make a livelihood from the resources of their lands. Numbers of them are owners of schooners and canoes, by means of which they are enabled to bring their goods into the market in town, where they get plenty buyers, both for their potatoes and fish, as well as their fruit. Their canoes are made of one single trunk of a tree, and are capable of holding from 100 to 200 persons in each.
The natives are extraordinarily fond of tobacco. All classes, from the chief to the slave, have a craving for it.
They cannot be called Cannibals by nature. Several tribes are free of this altogether, while others do it out of pure revenge. During the present war several instances occurred, as might be expected from the circumstances; and not later than at the close of 1865, a gentleman connected with the Government Employ, was murdered and devoured in the Waikato district, by a few of the followers of a fanatical and diabolical religion, "Pai Marirism," believed in by a tribe of Hauhaus.
Whatever opinion may be formed of the savage character of the Maories, from the conduct of several tribes during the present time of strife, it must be understood that this is neither characteristic of the whole race, nor does it form a fair specimen of the native disposition generally. There is a good and bad class in every nation, and probably some at home may feel that in this new country, there is a superabundance of the latter class among our Aboriginals. It is not so now, however. The progress of civilization and religion has advanced so great, and prospered so well, through the efforts of the Missionary, as to effect a most wonderful change upon the dispositions and habits of the natives. The majority of the native race are inclined to be peaceable, and in times of peace all, more or less, live on the most friendly terms with the settler, cultivating by themselves their own lands, and trading in an honest and business-like style with the Pakeha, or white man, as well as with their own race.
In closing this description, we may remark that the Maori is a very good neighbour to dwell and work with. To some extent, the two races, from the foundation of the settlement, have continued to appreciate the advantage of intercourse and presence of each other; and, in fact, the natives generally have been looked upon as useful neigh-
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bours, of good humour, and as ever ready to enjoy a joke, instead of being regarded as drawbacks to the prosperity of the country.
