1856 - Shortland, Edward. Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders - CHAPTER II

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CHAPTER II.

FROM the accounts given by the New Zealanders of their own origin, and from what we know of the present relationship of the various tribes into which they are divided, it appears that the inhabitants of the three islands may be classed under six primary divisions, distinguished more or less one from the other by peculiarities of dialect, of physiognomy, and of disposition, amounting in each case to a sort of nationality. The difference of character is even recognized by themselves, for we have instances of its being noticed in mottos alluding to the reputed quality for which the members of a primary division are remarkable. For instance, the motto of Ngati-awa, the division sprung from the crew of the canoe Te Mata-atua, is Rauru-ki-tahi (one-worded-Rauru). It is laudatory of their good

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faith, signifying that they imitate the example of their ancestor Rauru, who had a reputation for doing always as he said he would do. The motto of the descendants of the crew of Te Arawa is Nga uri a Te Matekapua (children of Te Matekapua); meaning that they inherit the thievish propensities of their ancestor Te Matekapua, who is celebrated for his many bad deeds, and among them for having plundered his neighbour's store of kumara for a long time without being discovered, owing to his having taken the precaution to walk there on stilts, which prevented his footsteps being tracked.

In the former chapter, the several primary divisions have been traced to the crews of different canoes which found their way to the shores of New Zealand. Whether all the canoes which may thus have reached New Zealand proceeded from the same island, called Hawaiki, or from different islands of Polynesia, we will not pretend to say with anything like certainty. The traditions respecting the origin of their ancestors pervading all the tribes of New Zealand are very similar. And although many peculiarities of dialect are observed to prevail very generally throughout the members of the primary divisions of which we have been speaking, yet the actual differences in dialect between the inhabitants of the most distant parts of that country are inconsiderable, and, in fact, no more than may be accounted for by lapse of time, added to the want

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of union, and, consequently, of familiar communication between each other.

It is an inquiry of some interest where Hawaiki is--the island from which the New Zealanders say their ancestors came. The reply we are able to make is only conjectural; but there is every reason to believe that the island referred to was either the principal one of the Sandwich Island group, pronounced Hawaii by its present native inhabitants, the Owaihee of Cook; or, one of the Navigator Islands, pronounced Savaii by its present inhabitants; both of which forms of pronunciation are dialectic variations of the New Zealander's pronunciation Hawaiki.

That so long a voyage as from the Sandwich Islands to New Zealand could be safely made in open canoes may appear to some almost incredible; but it is certain that when skilfully managed the canoe of the Polynesian can brave very rough seas. Mr. Ellis, speaking of the voyages which these islanders make in their canoes, says, "We have every reason to believe the canoes of the natives (of the Sandwich Islands) were larger formerly than they are now, and yet we have known them make very long voyages, being sometimes a fortnight or three weeks at sea." 1 He then goes on to mention some recorded instances where these canoes had made voyages of five or six hundred miles. That

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their canoes were well built, and sometimes of a large size, we are told by Kotzebue, who saw one, a double canoe, which measured seventy feet long, twelve broad, and three-and-half deep. 2

I had once an opportunity of satisfying myself that the ordinary sized canoe of the New Zealanders may be exposed even to the violence of a tempest without destruction.

One afternoon in the month of June, 1844, while I was at Tauranga, a storm from the north-east came on suddenly, and soon increased to a violence I had seldom known equalled. About nightfall, when the gale was at its height, I was startled by hearing the shouts and exclamations of many voices uniting with the roaring of the wind. What was my surprize to learn that a canoe had just arrived from Opotiki, a place distant about sixty miles to the eastward, and that the noise proceeded from the friends and relations of the crew, who were naturally transported with joy at their safety.

The event appeared to me so marvellous, that I went early the next morning to see the canoe and its crew, to be the better assured of the fact. The canoe I found hauled up on the beach as far as high water mark, with the cargo, consisting of baskets of kumara and potato, still on board. It measured about forty feet in length, with an extreme width and depth of about five feet. The hull

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or lower part was formed from the trunks of two trees, dove-tailed together after the peculiar method of the country, which consults strength more than uniformity of shape. And above this was fastened a topside or gunwale of the usual width of about ten or twelve inches. There was no protection against the break of the sea, except that offered by a sort of deck constructed of raupo or flag, by which the bow was covered in a temporary manner for a few feet -- a safeguard generally adopted when making coasting voyages of any length. The crew, nine fine able-bodied fellows, were seated on the ground, with a numerous crowd around them, listening to their account of the near escapes they had had on their voyage.

They left Opotiki in the forenoon, with every indication of fine weather; but by the time they arrived off Maketu, the gale had become violent, and, unfortunately, the people of that place being at deadly feud with them, they could not take refuge there. Their only hope of safety was, therefore, in reaching Tauranga, then sixteen miles distant. In this they succeeded; and arriving off the mouth of the harbour took in the sail, and tried to find shelter under the lee of a rocky island; for the danger they most dreaded--the broken water or tide-rip at the entrance of the harbour--was still to be passed. Keeping the canoe as close as possible to the island by means of their paddles, they

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refreshed themselves with the remains of some cooked provisions, asking counsel of each other what they should do; for their position was very insecure, as it required their constant exertions and vigilance to prevent the canoe being dashed on the rocks, or overwhelmed by the waves. After a short consultation, it was resolved to make an effort to cross the mouth of the harbour at once, while they had strength. And though the canoe was nearly swamped in the attempt, it brought them and their cargo safely to land.

With this evidence, we cannot well deny that the voyage from the Sandwich Islands to New Zealand may have been made in such canoes as the New Zealanders have. Besides, the nearest spot from which the first inhabitants of the country could possibly have come is more than one thousand miles distant. And we may fairly presume, that a canoe able to make a voyage of that length could, under favourable circumstances, have made a voyage three times as long. In the tale of the voyage of the canoe called Arawa, recounted in the former chapter, we are told that, on its reaching New Zealand, the rata tree was in full bloom; which incident determines the time of year to have been February, corresponding in season to our August-- that most favourable for making a voyage in those seas.

We shall now lay before the reader some observa-

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tions to show that the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands have a strong family resemblance to their brethren of New Zealand, in respect to language and otherwise. After reading Mr. Ellis's remarks on the Hawaiian language, and examining the vocabulary collected by him, any one familiar with the language of the New Zealanders will pronounce it to be nearly identical with that of Hawaii. The following are the chief points of difference:--1st. The Hawaiians omit the consonant k in words where it is used by the New Zealanders, as in ino for kino (bad), ura for kura (red). 2ndly. They sometimes sound the consonant l, 3 which the New Zealanders never do, employing in its place r. 3rdly. They use the word hoo as a prefix to words, in order to make them causative, while in New Zealand the word used for the same purpose is whaka. 4 This last is the most striking difference between the two languages. 4thly. They sometimes substitute the consonant k in words where t is used by the New Zealanders, as in kanaka for tangata (man). This peculiarity, however, does not appear to prevail over the whole group, and where it does prevail it is very probably only a modern innovation, introduced subsequently to the time of the supposed

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migration to New Zealand, as we may infer from the following statement, made by Mr. Ellis. "The k in most of the islands is generally used in common intercourse, but it is never admitted into their poetical compositions, in which the t is universally and invariably employed." 5 Any other existing differences, such as the use of n, where the New Zealanders generally pronounce ng, are hardly of sufficient importance to be noticed in this inquiry. For, as already remarked, even in different parts of New Zealand, variations of a similar nature are observable. Thus, some of the tribes pronounce the aspirate h, while others do not. Some, instead of the consonant ng (which is the more common sound), use n, and others k. Some pronounce wh, where others pronounce only h; as in the word pewhea (like-what), also pronounced pehea. Some, instead of r, have a sound nearly approximating to d; and some for p have a sound nearly like that of b. All languages, in fact, are liable more or less to changes of this nature. 6

But apart from similarity of language, there are other points worthy of notice, which serve as links

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of connexion between the inhabitants of these islands so remote from each other. Both were found, on their first discovery by Cook, to resemble each other in personal appearance, in warlike disposition, and in the practice of cannibalism. The same remarkable ceremony, called tangi, prevails both in the Sandwich Islands and in New Zealand. In both these countries, it is the custom for guests to carry away with them any part of the food set before them which they cannot then consume.

Tane, Rono, Tanaroa, and Tu are said to be names of Gods of the Sandwich Islanders. 7 Tane, Rongo, Tangaroa, and Tu are also names of Atua, often met with in legends preserved by the New Zealanders, and in their ancient charms.

The name Maui, celebrated in the traditions of the New Zealanders, is found also in the Sandwich Island group, in the name of the island next in size to Hawaii; and the term Maori, 8 used by the New Zealanders to distinguish their race from Europeans, or from negroes, is the very term found

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to be used in Hawaii and the adjacent islands for the same purpose.

We shall content ourselves with one more fact, favourable to the identity of Hawaiki with the largest of the Sandwich Islands, and we are inclined to attach much value to it. The New Zealanders are remarkably fond of the kumara, or sweet potato, and devote a great deal of time to its cultivation. Their traditions say, that in Hawaiki, whence their ancestors brought the root of the plant, it grew to a much larger size 9 than in any part of New Zealand, and required far less attention to its culture. We also learn, from a remark made incidentally by Mr. Ellis, 10 that "in the Sandwich Islands the kumara is one of the principal means of subsistence at the present day," but that "in the Society Islands it is only partially cultivated, and is greatly inferior to those grown in the northern islands."

If it be also true, as we infer from this fact, that the kumara does not flourish in the more tropical islands of Polynesia, which have a soil and climate similar to that of the Society Islands, the tradition

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of the New Zealanders respecting the large size of the root brought from Hawaiki, if of any value, compels our looking to the more distant Sandwich Islands as the probable source from which the migration in question proceeded.

In the Navigator and Society Islands, as well as in the islands of Polynesia, lying further eastward, as far even as Easter Island, are found the same race of men as in New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands, speaking languages so much alike to each other that they may almost be looked on as dialects of the same language. 11 And, as far as is known, the superstitions, customs, and manners of their inhabitants have a general similarity.

At the Friendly Islands, however, the Polynesian race is found to be partially blended with a totally distinct race, called Papuans, having a different language and different habits. While in New Caledonia, in the New Hebrides, and in other islands lying more to the west, as well as in the chain of islands connecting them with New Guinea, the inhabitants are all Papuans, New Guinea being the stronghold of that race.

It is a rational conjecture, that the primitive inhabitants of the whole Indian Archipelago were also Papuans. This may be inferred from the fact that traces of the race are still discovered in many

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of the islands 12 now occupied by the brown race, as well as in the Malay Peninsula, 13 and even, according to some accounts, in Cochin-China, 14 while the natives of the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, belong entirely to the Papuan family.

A migration from the continent of Asia of a brown race of Indians appears to have taken place at a subsequent era, and to have established themselves by force in the Malay Peninsula, in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Celebes, and several of the adjacent islands, as well as in the Philippine group, exterminating to a great measure, or absorbing the Papuan race in the conquered districts.

From the Philippines, detached portions of the population of the brown race must have migrated eastward in search of new lands, and thus peopled the Caroline and Ladrone Islands, whence they found their way to the Sandwich Islands, and the Navigator and Society Islands, and the islands

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comprising Polynesia Proper, all of which, we have every reason to believe, were before then uninhabited.

The most convincing proof that the primitive stock from which the brown race of the Indian Archipelago and the Polynesians have sprung was the same, is derived from comparisons made between their languages. It is observed, that the languages of both are constructed on the same grammatical principles, and present many striking points of agreement in other respects. 15

It seems probable that the course of migration to Polynesia Proper was principally by way of the Sandwich Islands; because it would have been impossible for the brown race to pass eastward by the more direct route of New Guinea, and the chain of islands stretching from it to Polynesia, without encountering a hostile race, whom they had only been able partially to overcome; and because, after quitting the Ladrone Islands, by keeping to the northward till they fell in with

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westerly winds, they might reach the Sandwich Islands, and from thence the Marquesas, or the Society Islands, quite as easily as by steering a more direct course towards them in opposition to the trade wind. The voyage from the Sandwich Islands to the Marquesas or Society Islands would not be attended with such difficulties for a canoe as might perhaps be thought; for a canoe, unlike a boat, is most safe when kept in the trough of the sea, and the course that the north-east trade wind would therefore oblige a canoe to be steered would carry her from the Sandwich Islands towards the more eastern Polynesian Islands.

We will suppose that a fleet of canoes, such as that spoken of in the traditionary history of the New Zealanders, equipped for a voyage of discovery, with the best means in the power of the inhabitants, were to sail from the Sandwich Islands in a southerly direction. Some of them would probably fall in with one or other of the islands of tropical Polynesia, while some might pass through the whole of them from north to south without discovering any. These last on encountering the south-east trade wind would find it necessary to steer a more westerly course, which would carry them towards New Zealand; and, on losing the trade wind, if the voyage were made in the summer season of that hemisphere, the prevailing winds being then northerly and easterly, they could hardly

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miss falling in with some part of the coast of New Zealand, extending as it does from north to south more than six hundred miles.

Mr. Ellis in his account of the Sandwich Islands states, that the most general and popular tradition prevailing among the inhabitants of Hawaii is, that their ancestors came from Tahiti. In Oahu, another of the group, it is also believed, that the "first inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands were a number of persons who arrived in a canoe from Tahiti, and who, perceiving the islands were fertile, and inhabited only by gods or spirits, took up their abode on one of them, having asked permission of the gods, and presented an offering, which rendered them propitious to their settlement." 16 It is worthy of remark, as confirming the relationship between this people and the aborigines of New Zealand, that the ceremonies here referred to are precisely similar to those employed by the natives of New Zealand in their unconverted state, on arriving at any strange country. 17

The inference drawn from the above traditions by Mr. Ellis is, that they "afford a strong presumption that the Sandwich Islanders came originally from the Georgian Islands," because Tahiti is the name of the most considerable island of that group. As, however, the common signification of the word tahiti in the Sandwich Islands, in the Georgian

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group, and also in New Zealand, is "a far off place," the above traditions may mean no more than that the first colonists of the islands came from a far off country. It is also believed, that the name of the principal island of the Georgian group is properly O-Tahiti, signifying "of or belonging to a far off country," in reference probably to the arrival of its first inhabitants from a distant land.

Mr. Ellis also suggests several reasons why the continent of America may have contributed to the population of the Sandwich Islands. But the conclusion at which we must arrive, by comparing the language of the aborigines of America with that of the Sandwich Islanders and the Polynesians generally, is quite at variance with this hypothesis. The researches already made regarding the structure of the former languages show that they all belong to one family, being formed on similar grammatical principles. 18 One of the remarkable features in the American languages is, that distinctions in time and mood are expressed by inflexions to a much greater extent than in any other known family of languages. And this fact is as strong a proof as we can well have that the Polynesians (including the Sandwich Islanders) are a distinct race from the aborigines of America: for in the Polynesian

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languages moods and tenses are not denoted by inflexions of the verb, but by particles prefixed or affixed to the root, which is itself almost invariable in form. Another remarkable feature observable in the American languages is the principle on which they form compound words. This is such, that it constantly tends to destroy the original resemblance between words used by different tribes to express the same idea.

On the contrary, the widely separated members of the Polynesian family of languages preserve a remarkable identity, their words admitting of but very limited inflexion, and their compound words being formed by the union of simple roots. The same, or nearly the same words express the same ideas in New Zealand, in Otahiti, and in the Sandwich Islands. If the continent of America has contributed to the population of the Sandwich Islands, at any rate, it would seem that it has not done so to a degree sufficient to produce a sensible influence on their language.

The present native inhabitants of New Zealand are evidently, to a certain extent, a mixed race, containing among them two elements, one of which may be called the pure Indian, the other being the Papuan. The marked characteristics of the former are a brown or copper-coloured skin, black 19 hair--

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straight, wavy, or curling--and a tolerably well-formed nose, sometimes even aquiline. While those in whom the Papuan element is most marked have the skin much darker, the hair black and crisp (but not growing in separate tufts like that of the true-blooded Papuans), 20 the nose flat and broad at the nostrils, and the lips more full and prominent. Between these extremes, every intermediate variety of feature may be met with among the New Zealanders; but their prevailing type of feature is the Indian.

To account for this mixture, some persons have suggested that a Papuan race was found in possession of the country by the ancestors of the New Zealanders when first they arrived, and that the mixed breed has sprung from alliances between

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the two races. It has even been stated, that the Papuan element belongs more especially to slaves, who are supposed to have sprung principally from the subdued and degraded race. I have never been able to satisfy myself, however, that this latter statement has any trustworthy foundation, having remarked the crisped hair to prevail equally among the rangatira (gentleman) class, as among slaves. Besides, the traditions of the New Zealanders speak of the country being uninhabited at the arrival of their canoes from Hawaiki; and in the other islands of Polynesia a proportion of the population is similarly found to have the Papuan character of feature.

These traces of a mixed race are easily accounted for by supposing, as indeed appears certain, that the Indian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula were primitively inhabited by Papuans, and that the brown or copper-coloured race, whom we have called Indian, invaded their country and took possession of parts of it; for a long time must have elapsed between their first invasion of the Malay Peninsula and their conquest of the Philippine Islands, from which point we suppose the ancestors of the Polynesians to have migrated. And during the interval, in which the two races remained so nearly in contact, while the one was being supplanted or absorbed by the other, no doubt alliances must have taken place between individuals of op-

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posite sexes, giving rise to the appearance of a mixed race now observed.

The largest and most westward of the Navigator group, called Savaii by its present inhabitants, is the other point from which it appears probable that the ancestors of the New Zealanders may have migrated. The description given by Kotzebue 21 of the manners and appearance of the natives of the Navigator Islands, in 1824, agrees remarkably with Cook's account of the New Zealanders. Boldness, ferocity, and the practice of cannibalism were characteristics of both; an example of which had been given by the former when La Perouse visited them. Notwithstanding they had been well treated on board his ship, they attacked an armed party who ventured on shore; and, nothing daunted by the first discharge of fire-arms, rushed on their opponents before they could reload their pieces, and killed Captain De Langle and fourteen men.

In language, they do not now appear to resemble the New Zealanders as much as the Sandwich Islanders do. But from the data we have to guide us in forming our judgment on this point absolute dependence cannot be placed, on account of the great difficulty of fixing the orthography in distant localities on precisely the same basis, without a uniform agreement as to the letters used to denote

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doubtful sounds. Kotzebue 22 remarked that there was a great difficulty in distinguishing between the sound of l and r at the Sandwich Islands. In New Zealand also, words are differently pronounced in different parts of the island, as has been remarked already--so much so, that if two persons had set to work independently to reduce the language to writing in our characters, they would have made it appear that the language varied in different districts vastly more than it really does.

From comparing the translation of the New Testament made at Samoa, one of the Navigator Islands, the literal differences between the language of these islands and that of the Maori of New Zealand appear to be --

These, with the omission of k, which is so common a sound in New Zealand, and the more trifling variations caused by the use of v for w, and g for

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ng, make a great difference in the written appearance of the two languages -- greater, perhaps, than the actual difference of pronunciation warrants;--- for I observe that in the authority to which I have referred for the specimens of the Samoan dialect, where k would be used in New Zealand, an apostrophe is sometimes written, as if some sound was actually used by the Samoans in such cases, though too soft to be represented by the letter k. An example of this is the word ika (fish), which in the Samoan New Testament is written i'a.

In Appendix I. a comparative table of the dialects of the Polynesian groups is given, from which it will be seen that they all too nearly resemble each other to enable us to deduce any argument of great value, from such comparisons, as to the point of departure of the first colonists of New Zealand.

In person, the natives of the Navigator Islands, like the Tongans and Tahitans, are represented 23 as far exceeding in stature that of the New Zealanders and Hawaiians, who do not appear conspicuously larger than Europeans. But this point of resemblance between the two latter may have been caused by the effects of climate.

It is worthy of notice, that besides the identity of names, the two widely-separated islands -- Savaii of the Navigator group, and Hawaii of the Sand-

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wich Islands--have peculiarly striking points of resemblance in their natural appearance, both rising from the sea with a regular ascent to a lofty summit, exceeding in the latter the height of the peak of Teneriffe. This resemblance was a subject of remark to Kotzebue, and more recently to Mr. Pickering, 24 who also observes that these two were the only islands he had seen in those seas which were overspread with lava streams. The identity of the names of the two islands would seem to suggest that one was colonized directly from the other, and that the first settlers in the island last colonized, finding it so much like the one they had left, gave it the same name on that account.

The charming description given by Kotzebue of Savaii, or Pola as he calls it, quite equals the traditionary account given by the New Zealanders of the beautiful climate and fertile soil of Hawaiki; and its crowded population is a ready explanation of the necessity for migrations in search of other countries. We shall conclude this inquiry with an extract from the Russian navigator: --

"The following day we surveyed the magnificent island of Pola (Savaii). Its lofty mountain was enveloped in thick white clouds, which seemed to roll down its sides, while the majestic summit rose into a cloudless region above them. The most luxuriant

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vegetation covers even its highest points. From a considerable elevation down to the sea-shore, the island presents a charming amphitheatre of villages and plantations, and confirmed us in the opinion that the Navigator Islands are the most beautiful in the Southern Ocean, and consequently in the whole world.

"The shore was thronged with people, some of whom pushed their canoes into the sea to approach us, while others stood quietly watching us as we sailed past."