1846 - Marjoribanks, A. Travels in New Zealand - CHAPTER III

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CHAPTER III.

The New Zealanders have a singular method of testifying both their joy and sorrow, by cutting their faces, arms, and legs, with broken muscle-shells, inflicting deep gashes; and I have seen a dozen of them at a time, covered with blood from head to foot, upon the death of a relative. Indeed, I gave a female a trifle to let me see how she did it, when she immediately took up a muscle-shell, broke it, and came across her arms in two or three places, when the blood almost immediately oozed out. She was so much disfigured before, that I thought an additional cut or two could do her no harm. When friends arrive after a long absence, in addition to this cutting process, they continue howling for several days like wolves, which is rather a singular method of testifying their joy. This practice is fast disappearing, however, with the progress of civilization.

Polack, in his excellent work on the manners and customs of the New Zealanders, after allud-

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ing to the numerous ceremonies performed at the great religious fete of the Haihunga, and describing the war dance, says, that whilst engaged in it, the tongues of the performers are thrust out of their mouths, thereby indicating the contempt they have for their enemies, and as they do this before commencing a battle, it seems to produce a wonderful effect in raising the bravery, and heightening the implacable hatred the belligerents have to each other.

After describing the moans and wailings in which they occasionally indulge during this feast on account of the dead, recalling to their remembrance their virtues and endearing actions; and with noses pressed against each other, chanting the happiness that had now vanished, Mr. Polack adds, "This strange custom is not confined to apparent cause for grief; for to give an additional zest to the entertainment, sharp muscle-shells are made use of to excoriate the skin, and the consequence follows in streams of blood issuing from every part of the body, face, arms, breast, legs--no part having the preference of an escape from this brutal practice. Nor is this lamentation confined to such occasions; on any persons, known or related to each other, meeting after an absence of a few weeks, or on the illness of a friend or relative, the muscle-shell and the accompanying tangi are instantly put in requisition. So enamoured are these people of affliction, that the writer has been viewing a play (takaro) among the natives, when suddenly it has entered the afflicted head-piece of one of the performers to sit down to a tangi or weeping, a ceremony consisting of long and silent embraces, interrupted only by sobs and tears. The suitor for this display of misery has no sooner expressed his desire, than,

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with the vacillating habits of these people, the whole company, instantly squatting down on the ground, have commenced crying with 'might and main,' as if they were about to be deprived of existence now and hereafter. So copious is the effusion of blood and tears, that their scanty garments are soon saturated." I daresay none of you would have any great desire to join the New Zealanders in this delightful amusement of the tangi, though it must be an excellent thing for those who are troubled with too much blood. Though these ceremonies may to us appear somewhat absurd, yet they shew that, amongst uncivilized nations, the affections they entertain towards each other are infinitely stronger than amongst those who call themselves civilized; and this being the case, I am decidedly of opinion that the march of intellect destroys the march of affection and of love.

This practice of cutting themselves, and tattooing, not only their faces, but a great part of their bodies, seems to leave but little doubt of their Asiatic origin, or that they were descended from the Jews; for, in the 16th chapter of Jeremiah, it is said, --"Both the great and the small shall die in this land, they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves." And, in the 19th chapter of Leviticus, the following prohibition was addressed to the children of Israel, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you;"--which shows that they must have been in the habit of doing so. Now, what is called tattooing, may not inappropriately be designated a printing on the skin or flesh. It is both a tedious and a very painful operation, and is performed by the priest, who, if not very skilful, has sometimes to delegate the task to

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people of skill among the different tribes. The higher the rank, the more they are tattooed, so that a king or chief, has scarcely any of his natural face or body left. They make out a plan for the face, in particular, and occasionally for the body, as a surveyor in this country would make out a plan for an estate. They commence the operation at an early age, about fourteen or fifteen, as it takes two or three years before the operation is completed, the pain being so great, that they can do but little at a time, otherwise the patient would fever and die; and instances occasionally occur of its proving fatal. The tattoo is done either with the sharp bone of a bird, or with a small chisel, the candidate for this distinction reposing his head upon the knees of the operator, who drives the chisel into the skin with his hand. After each incision, the chisel is dipped into a pigment called narahu, which is prepared by carbonizing the resin of the Kauri pine; and after each incision also the blood is wiped off. After the inflammation subsides, the scars appear dark. Women have their lips chiefly tattooed, which is by far the most painful operation, though they submit to it cheerfully, red lips being a great reproach to a woman.

The prophets of Baal, of old, were in the habit of cutting themselves in a similar manner; for, in the 18th chapter of the First Book of Kings, it is thus written--"And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them." The process of tattooing prevents the face from assuming the furrows of passion, or the wrinkles of age. I may mention one other circumstance, which leads me to the conclusion that they were Jews, though passing for New Zea-

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landers, and that is their wonderful rapacity and love of money. This feature in their character is not mentioned by any of the historians whom I have read, but during my residence in that country, I became acquainted with two Englishmen named Smith and Eberly, and a Scotsman called Malcolm, who had all married Maori, or native girls, and had resided there for some years, who all assured me that they were remarkably greedy in their disposition. They described them also as being rather ungrateful, at which I was surprised, as savages in general make it a rule never to forgive an injury, nor forget a favour; a doctrine considered sound by many of our philosophers. In regard to this additional feature in their character, namely, ingratitude, I observe that Mr. E. J. Wakefield states, in his description of a hostile meeting of two tribes on the Wanganui river, that the missionaries there assured him that they knew no such feeling as gratitude. And yet these are represented by some as the most noble-minded, princely set of men in the world; but from all such nobles, and such princes, I trust that I, at least, may be delivered.

Mr. Thorp confirms this statement in regard to their rapacity, in a letter addressed to the editors of the Sydney Herald, the leading journal of New South Wales, which appeared in that paper on the 8th of March, 1842. The editors called the public attention to this letter in the following paragraph: --

"In the fourth page of this day's Herald, there is a letter from Mr. Joshua Thorp, giving an account of New Zealand, which will be sure to draw down upon him the wrath of the land-jobbers, who are holding New Zealand up as an "airthly paradise," as Sam Slick calls it. For the information of those who do not

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know Mr. Thorp, we may mention that he is a very respectable man, well known in this colony, and that for several years he held the office of town surveyor of Sydney. The statements made by Mr. Thorp may be depended upon: of the fairness of the inferences which he draws, our readers must judge for themselves."

Mr. Thorp says 'the natives have protectors appointed, a measure which affords no more satisfaction to the settlers here, than it does to those of New Holland. Our lord in Downing Street, has done this to gratify those termed saints in England, whose beneficence shines like a lantern in a dark place, glaring at a distance and emitting a faint gleam near at hand. Look at the pale aborigines of England, and compare them with the sable sons of remote nations, the red Indian, or the copper-coloured Mowry, and which has the advantage. It is true, that wherever the white man sets his foot, in temperate regions at least, they seemed doomed to dwindle away, but this is the consequence of knowledge, and the order of providence. The Mowries are well able to protect themselves, better, at present, than the settlers. In trade, selling land, or selling their produce, no Jew of Monmouth Street can deal with more cunning or more persevering importunity; nothing is done, however slight, without demanding the ootu or payment, and, if instead of higgling, you at once give what is asked, they become uneasy at having made such a boko keeno (trade bad). Squatting on their hams, which as they grow old causes their knees to be covered with large wrinkles, they will spend an hour selling a pigeon or a fish, and then produce ten or twenty more seriatim from under their blankets. They are generally an

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idle race, passing more than half their time squatting or lying muffled up to the mouth in blankets or mats, smoking, talking, singing psalms, and sleeping. Since the whites have come in greater numbers, they have grown more idle, and tenfold more extortionate for whatever they do. The Kowry timber, which covers large tracts of mountains is now very dear and unavailable, because the Mowries will not carry it out to water carriage at a remunerating price." Yet these are the men who have had protectors appointed with large salaries. Why, it would have been a more sensible act on the part of our distinguished friend Lord John Russell, had he appointed some of them as protectors to the British, as, poor creatures, they seem to stand much in need of it; and better protectors than the New Zealanders, I for one would not desire.

I shall now give you a few of the more peculiar characteristics of that singular people, and, though my opinion of them is not so favourable as that of many others, yet I am inclined to think that the character given of them by the Rev. J. Butler, in a letter dated Kerikeri, 10th October, 1821, and quoted in the Report of the House of Lords in 1838, is not altogether applicable to them at the present day; Mr. Butler says, "New Zealand is covered with fern, weeds, brush, and woods; and the natives are covered with lice and filth to the last degree; and withal a proud, savage, obstinate, and cruel race of cannibals."

The "tapu" or tabboo is a ceremony common to New Zealand, along with all the other South Sea Islands. The power of "tapuing" seems to be vested in the principal chief alone, and may be considered the most important bulwark of his authority. This ceremony

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renders every object, either animate or inanimate, sacred, or not to be approached, so that no person can enter tapued ground, nor touch a tapued person. Every girl promised in marriage is tapued, and married women also, until chastised by their husbands, when the "tapu" ceases, and they are then free to any one who can catch them, a remarkably good plan for securing the affections of the husband, and relieving the sex from some of those periodical chastisements in which some of the husbands in this country are so apt to indulge. Favourite pigs, canoes, and muskets are sometimes tabooed; burial ground is always tabbooed, and so is also a chief's head. A person who has touched a dead body is tapued for a certain time. Had I remained in the colony I meant to have asked them to "tapu" me, as then no one could have touched me. The only inconvenience I should have felt would have been, that I would not have been allowed to touch food or drink, but would have had to be fed by others till the tapu was taken off. Desecration of the "tapu" was, at one time, punished with death, though that punishment is not now inflicted. Nayti, the New Zealand chief, says, in his examination before the House of Lords, that if a New Zealander goes into tabbooed ground, the man to whom it belongs goes and takes his pigs and every thing belonging to him. Nayti also states, that at one time they used to fight every moon, and burned ships when they first saw them, as they could not possibly understand what they were.

But the cannibal propensities of the natives is, perhaps, the most distinguishing feature of their character, and hence that country was long known under the title of the Cannibal Islands. It was chiefly the pri-

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soners taken in battle who were devoured, and those whom they did not kill were made slaves of, though when they took the head chiefs of their enemies they generally put them to death, a practice adopted with the English chiefs at the Wairoa massacre. It was only certain parts of the body that they partook of, and two of Captain Cook's officers, who tasted a morsel of it, which was handed to them by a New Zealander, found that its flavour was not unlike that of pork. Several British residents whom I met with in New Zealand, and who had tasted it also, agree in this opinion. They generally devoured those also whom they slew in revenge; the tragic fate of the crew of the Boyd, was a striking example of this. That vessel was chartered in Sydney, to convey spars from Wangaroa, in New Zealand, about twenty-six miles to the northward of the Bay of Islands, and land them at the Cape of Good Hope. She sailed about the latter end of 1809, and soon after leaving Sydney, the cook, having accidentally thrown overboard, in a bucket of water, a dozen of pewter spoons, and, apprehensive of being punished for his negligence, told the captain that they had been stolen by George, a young New Zealand chief, who was on board, returning to his own country. The captain, without sufficient investigation into the affair, directed the boatswain to punish him, and, though George protested that he was innocent, and as a chief ought not to be degraded in such a manner, the captain was inexorable, and, as the boatswain was a powerful man, George suffered severely, his back being much lacerated

When George landed at Wangaroa, amongst his subjects in New Zealand; (the Nga-pui tribe,) and

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showed them his back, they were roused to the highest pitch of indignation, and vowed revenge.

The captain, never suspecting any treachery, engaged George and his tribe to accompany him and his party, consisting of nearly all the ship's crew, to the spar forest, about ten miles up the river, and when arrived at one of the thickest recesses, and, when the men were scattered here and there amongst the natives, George threw off his New Zealand cloak, which had been arranged as the signal for a general massacre, and pointing to his wounds, said, "Captain Thomson, see how you have served my back." He had scarcely uttered these words when his brother dashed out the captain's brains, and in a moment, before the least opposition could be offered, every European was laid dead on the spot. George and his party then hastened to the ship, where they massacred the few who had been left to guard her, sparing only Mrs. Marley, wife of a publican in Sydney, with her child; Miss Broughton, daughter of the acting commissary general at Port Jackson, and the cabin boy, who had behaved with much kindness to the New Zealand chief during the voyage.

Thus, by the lie which the cook told, seventy British subjects were killed, roasted, and devoured, and property lost to the amount of £30,000, the ship having taken fire the day after the massacre, owing to some powder having accidentally ignited, through the ignorance and negligence of one of the natives, by which several of them were killed, and the ship completely destroyed.

The Rev. Mr. Wilkinson states, that they ate a women when he was there; and at the dreadful fight that took place in 1836, betwixt the tribes of Makatu

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and Tamu, when 400 were killed, Mr. Knight mentions, that he came accidentally on the field of battle, and saw bodies which had been newly killed, besides halves and quarters of bodies, legs, and hands, lying in every direction. The Rev. A. N. Brown, writes thus on 25th August, 1836, --"We visited to-day, the site of the mission station, and the spot where the battle was fought, ---sticks, and native weapons, were placed about in different directions, denoting where the natives who were shot fell. We then went to the spot where Waharoa's party lay encamped, and where, for two days after the battle, they remained to gorge on sixty human bodies. The sight is even now horrifying; --human bones of all kinds are spread about, many of them evidently broken for the purpose of extracting the marrow, and all of them picked as clean as they could have been by the wolf or the vulture." Mr. Leigh, a Wesleyan Missionary, who was sent from New South Wales, to New Zealand, in 1819, mentions having come to a place where they were roasting a lad about fourteen. The cook held him up by the feet, to allow Mr. Leigh to look at him, but he was not enough done at that time.

The first introduction of fire-arms into that country, occasioned dreadful scenes of massacres and cruelty. The great chief Shungee, by some called E-ongi, "the scourge of New Zealand," was the person who may be said to have first introduced them. This chief paid a visit to England, and was very courteously received by George the Fourth, who among other things, gave him a great quantity of arms and ammunition. On leaving England, he sailed to New South Wales, and the Governor of that country made him a present of a number of cows, and other articles. These

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Shungee, exchanged for fire-arms, and thus equipped, he sailed to New Zealand, determined to be superior to all the chiefs in his own country. He first extirpated the whole tribes on the River Thames, and made dreadful ravages all over the islands. He collected 3000 fighting men, and commenced his march against the tribes residing at Mercury Bay, and the river Thames, having heard that in his absence they had slain one of his relations. The battle was dreadful; but Shungee proved victorious, and returned to the Bay of Islands in triumph. Mr. Leigh says, in reference to this victory, (vide Report by the House of Lords,) "After my arrival in New Zealand, I learned that Shungee and his party slew 1000 men, 300 of whom they roasted and ate, before they left the field of battle. Shungee, killed the chief above mentioned, after which he cut off his head, poured the blood into his hands, and drank it. This account I had from Shungee and Whycatoa, who related it with the greatest satisfaction. In war the New Zealanders give no quarter to the men, and take the women and children prisoners, who are sometimes killed and eaten as an act of revenge. Shungee, and his party, have killed more than twenty slaves since their return from war, most of whom they have roasted and eaten. I conversed with Shungee, and some other chiefs on the subject of my residence amongst them, but Shungee, said, that it would not be safe for me to proceed to Mercury Bay, or to any place near it for the present, as he intends to kill all the people at that place, and the river Thames."

The practice of eating human flesh must certainly be considered as characteristic of a people sunk far beneath the average condition of even savage life,

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scarcely, indeed, rising above the level of beasts of prey. "So incredible," says Walton, in his history of New Zealand, "did it seem that a species of barbarism so revolting should in any country take place, that the accounts of its existence were for a long time either doubted, or disbelieved. I was among the sceptical on this subject, but I had not resided long in New Zealand, till every doubt that cannibalism was practised by the natives was removed by the strongest evidence. Aware, however, that this practice is detestable in the eyes of Europeans, they are at pains to conceal as much as possible the instances of it that take place from their knowledge; and it was only incidentally that I could discover the proofs of its existence. It is, however, disappearing, and will gradually die away in proportion as the civilization of the natives, from their intercourse with emigrants, advances. No European, however, need entertain the the slightest apprehension of being subjected to this horrible custom, the victims of which are exclusively selected from among slaves and prisoners of war. When a victory is obtained, a council is held on the fate of the prisoners, of whom some are adjudged to slavery, and others to be killed and devoured. The dreadful process of killing and dissecting the latter is performed before the eyes of their countrymen, and the agony and horror with which the bloody spectacle must be beheld when, as often happens, the sufferers are the dearest relatives of the spectators, may easily be conceived.

"To detail the sacrifices offered at the bloody shrine of cannibalism, is the most unpleasant part of the task which the plan of this publication imposes. I will, therefore, out of the many instances that might be

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brought forward in illustration of the cannibal propensities of these islanders, select only two, with which to conclude this part of the subject. The chief of a party, who had gained a battle, having bound one of the prisoners, caused a tomahawk to be fixed firmly betwixt his teeth. He then made an incision in his throat, and drank like a vampire the blood which streamed from the wound. Another monster commanded a young female slave to prepare the oven for making ready a feast with which he intended to entertain a party of his friends. When her master's order was executed, she asked him for the provisions that were to be put into the oven, when he told her that the dish intended to be cooked in it was herself. The wretched girl, at this horrible annunication, bursting into tears that would have melted any heart but that of a fiend, importuned him to spare her life, -- but all entreaty was vain; the inexorable wretch bound his victim hands and feet, and threw her into the oven alive!"

Walton here states, that Europeans run no risk of being devoured, and no doubt, as a general rule, and when not actuated by revenge, this may be correct. But, when pressed with hunger, they become in some measure like beasts of prey, as a tiger when gorged becomes gentle, and even the lion of the forest seldom eats human flesh when he can get any other, so that if you meet him after his repast, he will walk politely past; whereas, if you come across his path when he is roaring out "where shall I dine," you must lay your account with his dining on you. The following narrative will show what the New Zealanders will do when situated like the lion.

In 1821, a vessel called the "General Gales," sailed

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from Boston, in America, to New Zealand, on a sealing voyage; and on the 10th of August, a number of men, and an overseer, were landed near the southwest cape of the district of Te-Wai-Poenama, for the purpose of engaging in that fishery. In the course of six weeks they had obtained 3563 skins, which they had dressed and prepared for shipment, though seals have now almost disappeared on these coasts. One night, about eleven o'clock, an attack was made upon their cabin by a horde of savages, who made the Americans prisoners, and burnt the cabin and every thing which it contained. They forced the traders to go with them to a place called Looking Glass Bay. Having rested there one day, they proceeded on a long journey of about 200 miles, in a northerly direction, and arrived at a place called Sandy Bay. The cannibal propensities of the savages could hold out no longer. They laid hold of one of the traders, and having made him fast to a tree, they beat out his brains with a club. They then cut off his head, which they buried in the ground, and cooked and devoured the remaining part of his body. They offered some of this food to his companions, who, from the pressure of hunger, not having tasted food for a long time, partook of it. The remaining Americans were made fast to trees, and every day one of them was killed, and afterwards cooked and eaten. The whole would have shared the same fate; but one evening the savages were so affrighted by a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, that they fled from the place, and the two remaining Americans having succeeded in unloosing the flax they were bound with, made their escape in a canoe that happened to be within their reach. They had no water, nor provisions of any kind, and after suf-

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fering, during three days, all the miseries attendant on an absolute want of the necessaries of life, they were rescued from their perilous situation by the "Margery," a flax trader, belonging to Sydney.

I shall conclude this detail of their cannibal propensities with a narrative of the fate of Captain Marion. That amiable French officer touched with two ships at Cape Brett, Bay of Islands, in 1772, and went on shore himself, with a crew of sixteen, including four of his officers, having been invited to land by the natives, who went on board of his vessel; and the whole of them were murdered by the savages. Not returning, another boat's crew, consisting of twelve men, was despatched next morning to the shore, for wood and water; and, while it was absent, a man was observed swimming towards the vessel, and a boat having been sent to his assistance, all on board were horrified at the account which he gave of the tragical fate which his companions had experienced.

When the boat reached the shore, the natives came up to the party, and to delude them the more, with a show of kindness, carried them from the boat to the beach, to prevent their feet from getting wet. The seamen then dispersed to collect the wood, and while thus occupied, unarmed, a signal was given, upon which the natives by whom they were surrounded, rushed in upon them, and with their stone hatchets, beat out their brains. Eleven were, in this manner, very quickly dispatched, one only having escaped to tell the dreadful tale. When the carnage began, he disengaged himself by a desperate effort from the grasp of those who had laid hold on him, and sprang into a thicket, where he lay concealed till the canni-

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bals had left the place, after cutting up and dividing among them the mangled bodies of his unfortunate countrymen. He then darted from the wood, and succeeded, as before noticed, in reaching the vessel.

Though, after this appalling information had been given, little doubt could be entertained as to the fate of Marion and his people, a company of men, well armed, was immediately dispatched in the long boat of the "Mascarin," to ascertain, if possible, how they had been disposed of. After searching for some time, they perceived the boat crowded with natives, in which the unfortunate commander and his companions had been conveyed. Lieutenant Crozet, who had under his command a party of sixty men, employed in cutting down wood not far from the place, on being informed of what had taken place, ordered his men to collect their tools and proceed instantly to the boats, without communicating to them the intelligence he had received, which he thought might discourage them. When approaching the boats, the natives followed them, demonstrating by their gestures the most hostile intentions, and crying out that their chief, Te Kuri, had killed and devoured Marion. The undaunted resolution of Crozet, who drew a line upon the sand, and threatened to shoot whoever should overstep the boundary, had the desired effect of keeping them at bay till the sailors got into the boats. But no sooner were the boats putting off, than maddened, it is supposed, at their own folly in permitting their prey to escape, when it was in their power, they rushed into the water with the view of hauling the boats ashore. By this manoeuvre, however, they laid themselves open to that just and severe

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retaliation which the French did not hesitate to inflict. 1

Walton has omitted to state one reason why they do not eat white flesh when they can get black, and that is from the aversion which all savages entertain to salt provisions, and the flesh of the whites, it seems, has a saltish taste, probably from taking salt to our meat, which they never do. From the (inquiries which I considered it my duty to make on this important subject, I discovered that the flesh of a girl about fifteen or sixteen, if plump, and in healthy condition, was considered the most delicate and juicy, and I have no doubt it was a girl of this description who was thrown into the oven alive, to be ready by dinner time. Dr. Dieffenbach states, when treating on cannibalism, that the natives, "when conversing with him freely on the subject, admitted that human flesh was well-flavoured, particularly the palm of the hands and the breast."

Cannibalism has now, however, ceased over the whole of that country, and also wars among the various tribes, --thanks to the introduction of civilized society amongst them. The only possible reason that can be adduced for their continual wars, and the inhuman banquet which was the consequence of victory, among a people, in other respects, comparatively mild and gentle, is that what at first originated in necessity, had been perpetuated by habit, and exasperated by revenge. Cannibalism indeed, as a matter of

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course, ceased with their wars, as it was all along connected with them, and seems to have been kept up more from the implacable desire of revenge, joined to the superstitious belief that the strength and courage of a devoured enemy were transferred to him that eats him, than from any predeliction to that unnatural practice. Indeed, as a proof of the friendship that now subsists among the different tribes so lately at war with each other, I may mention, that one of the tribes in the Northern Island, not far from Auckland, gave a grand feast, in 1844, to all the surrounding tribes, at which several thousands attended; and, among other dainties provided for that feast, there were 5000 sharks, which were all demolished. It may therefore be said, that