Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders [Vol. I.] [Capper reprint, 1976]

Joel Samuel Polack

First published by James Madden and Co. in 1840

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services.

Epub © 2013 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-1-927279-29-8

[Pages i and ii are blank]

[Title page]

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS;

WITH NOTES CORROBORATIVE OF THEIR HABITS, USAGES ETC.,
AND REMARKS TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS,
WITH NUMEROUS CUTS DRAWN ON WOOD

BY J. S. POLACK, ESQ.,
AUTHOR OF 'TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES IN NEW ZEALAND BETWEEN THE YEARS 1831 AND 1837'

DEPARTURE OF WARRIORS ON A PREDATORY EXCURSION

VOL. I.

JAMES MADDEN & CO.,
8, LEADENHALL STREET,
AND
HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY.
MDCCCXXXX.

Title Verso

LONDON:
E. VARTY, PRINTER, 27, CAMOMILE STREET, BISHOPSGATE.

REPRINT PUBLISHED BY

CAPPER PRESS

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND
1976

Printed offset by the Caxton Press, Christchurch from the copy in the Canterbury Public Library, Christchurch

[List of Illustrations]

ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.

1. MAP OF NEW ZEALAND, TO FACE TITLE

2. DEPARTURE OF WARRIORS ON AN EXCURSION, – – – – - Title Page.

3. PORTRAIT OF TANGIERI, A CHIEF OF MAUNGAKAHIA – - i

4. REMAINS OF A CHIEF OF WANGARI LYING IN STATE – - 64

5. PORTRAIT OF TAMAROA A CHIEF OF KAIPARA – – – – - 67

6. TOKI PU TANGATA, A NATIVE STONE ADZE – – – – – - 71

7. NA RAOUI, OR SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS – – – – – – – 115

8. SEPULCHRAL EFFIGIES – - - - – – – – – – – – – - 116

9. TOMB OF TUWHENUA, A CHIEFTESS – – – – – – – – – 118

10. FAMILY CEMETERY OF MAWERANGI - - - – – – – – – 120

11. MONUMENT TO THE FATHER OF P0MARE – – – – – – – 121

12. PLATFORM FOR THE REMAINS OF A CHIEF – – – – – - 122

13. REMAINS OF A CHIEFTESS OF HOKIANGA – – – – – – 157

14. ROLL OF FLAX AS PREPARED FOR EXPORTATION – – – 177

15. WETIKI, OR NATIVE BELT – – – – – – – – – – – – 179

16. ANCIENT WOODEN HOE – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 193

17. FISHING VILLAGE – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – - 197

18. LANDING NET – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – - 198

19. FISH BASKETS – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 198

20. NATIVE FISH-HOOKS – – – – – – – – – – – – – – - 199

21. A NATIVE BASKET – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – - 200

22. HOUSE ERECTED FOR AN EUROPEAN – – – – – – – – - 205

23. CARVED ENTABLATURE FOR FRONT OF A HOUSE – – – - 206

24. HOUSE FOR THE ACCOMMODATION OF VISITORS – – – - 207

25. SHEDS ERECTED BY TRAVELLERS – – – – – – – – – - 208

26. NATIVE HABIT OF QUITTING A HUT – – – – – – – – 208

27. NA POWAKA, OR VILLAGE DEPOSITORIES – – – – – – 209

ILLUSTRATIONS. – VOL. I.

28. NATIVE MUSEUM – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – - 213

29. FLAX STORES NEAR A KOURI FOREST – – – – – – – - 211

30. STORE FOR THE KUMERA – – - - - – – – – – – – - 212

31. FIGURE TO SURMOUNT THE FRONT OF A HOUSE – – – - 213

32. CARVED DOORWAY TO A COUNCIL-HOUSE – – – – – – - 213

33. PLATFORM IN A VILLAGE - - - - - – – – – – – – - 214

14. PITOU, OR FIGURE-HEAD TO A CANOE - - - – – – – 219

35. RAPA, OR STERN-POST - - - - - - – – – – – – – - 219

36. RAPA, PITOU AND STERN-POST – – – – – – – – – – 220

37. WAKA PANI, OR PAINTED CANOE – – – – – – – – – - 220

38. E'HOHI MAORI, OR COMMON PADDLE – – – – – – – – 221

39. RAPA MAORI. OR STERN-POST – – – – – – – – – – - 221

40. E'HOHI PANI, OR PAINTED PADDLE – – – – – – – – 223

11. NA TIARU, OR CARVED BOWLS FOR BAILING – – – – - 225

42. CARVED BUCKET – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – - 226

43. CARVED BOX FOR TRINKETS – – – – – – – – – – – - 239

44. NA POWAKA WAKIRO, OR BOXES – – – – – – – – – – 230

45. PORTRAIT OF TE WAINGA, A PRIEST OF HOKIANGA – - 252

46. NA RAOUI, OR PROHIBITORY POSTS – – – – – – – – 277

47. RECEPTACLES FOR NATIVE FOOD – – 279

[Contents]

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Manners, Customs, Habits, and Opinions of the New Zealanders. – Gradual Change and Progression towards European Habits. – Effects caused by the Advancement of Colonization among the Natives. – Contradictions in Character explained. – Influence of Social Compacts. – Early Manners of the People contrasted with their present Habits. – Opposition evinced towards the early Visitors to the Country. – National Industry. – Island of Victoria. – Physical Contrarieties existing among the native Population. – Their Origin. – The Islanders of Australasia. – Condition and Manners, and peculiar Difference from the New Zealanders ....... 1

CHAPTER II.

Local Traditions of the Origin of the King of Heaven and the Country. – The Island of Ai-no-mawe. – Native Antiquities. – An Unnatural Divinity. – Origin of the National Mythology. – Decrescence of Civilization. – Origin of the Native Religion. – Astronomical Suppositions. – Enjoyments ascribed to the Deities on Earth. – Origin of a Volcano, with its Causes and Effects. – Bad Examples furnished by the Gods. – Formation of the Sun and Moon. – Monumental Tombs to the Atuas. – Mawe and the boiste-

CONTENTS.

rous Winds. – Traditional Origin of the Nation. – A miraculous Egg. – Traditions prevalent in the Bay of Plenty. – The East Cape. – Colossal Monuments. – Early Colonization. – Extraordinary Voyages, Emigration of Natives in 1836. – Treachery of the Emigrants. – Primitive State of Society. – Progress of Laws. – Effects of an Increase of Population. – Field open for British Enterprise ........11

CHAPTER III.

Division of the People into Tribes. – Origin of Chieftainship. – Chief of Uwoua, his Character and Discretion. – Is made Captive in Battle, and becomes a Family-Man. – His Person accounted as Sacred. – Effect of habitual Authority. – Term of Slavery. – Records of Polygamy. – Power of a Chief. – Hereditary Honours and Appellations. – Veneration for Genealogy. – Singular Customs. – Salutary Flagellations. – National Education. – Imitations. – Precocity of Children. – Generosity of Tribes. – An Unnatural Present. – Customs at Tahiti. – Rangatira's. – Second Grade of Chieftainship. – Marital Reproaches. – Cannibalism decried. – Importance of Marriage. – Accession of Lands. – The Warrior E'Ongi. – His Abilities. – Political Power. – An Amazonian Wife. – Value attached to Birth ........ 23

CHAPTER IV.

Respect paid to Children by the Adults. – Law of Primogeniture. – Power of a Parent or Master. – System of Presidency. – Absolutism of former Chiefs. – Power of Life and Death. – Inclinations of the People for Agricultural Pursuits. – Decrease of Power among the Chieftains. – Readiness of the Natives to amalgamate with British Colonists. – Loyalty of the People to their Chiefs. – Effects of Loyalty on the Language. – Sacred Feeling towards the Human Head. – Records on the subject. – Travelling in the South Sea Islands. – Causes why Chiefs rarely become Captives. – Inauguration of Strangers as Chiefs. – Presenta-

CONTENTS.

tion of Gifts. – Abilities required in a Chief. – Their Revenues and Duties required from them. – Regal Injustice in the South Sea Islands. – Custom, of bestowing Names. – Anecdote. – Marriage Presents. – Anecdote. – Traits of Generosity. – System of Barter and Extortion. – Encroachments. – How to Handle a Nettle....... 34

CHAPTER V.

Ceremonies observed on the Birth of the Child of a Chief. – Chagrin when Deceived in the Sex. – Invention of the Priesthood. – Deities Taxed for Malignity. – Art of Improving Beauty. – Records on Fashion and Beauty. – Curious Dentition. – Baptismal Rites. – Form of Prayers to the Divinity. – Tithes. – Educational Records. – Occupation of Chiefs. – Allowed to Change their Tribe. – Obeisance observed towards their Wishes. – A Native Traveller. – Consequences resulting from a Refusal from Slaves to Work. – Conduct requisite to obtain the Friendship of a Chief. – Intermarriages accounted necessary. – Right Divine. – Chiefs act as Agents in Barter. – Honour of a Chief, how Compromised. – Anecdote. – False Conception. – Promise of Restitution. – Domestic Trick on the Writer ....... 47

CHAPTER VI.

Veneration entertained by the Natives for their Ancestors. – Divine Origin of Chiefs. – Eternal Abode. – Worship of the Living. – National Opinion on Europeans and Nations. – Practice of Hospitality. – Singular Necessity. – Triumphal Entry. – Native Jesting. – Belief in Immortality. – Consolation in Dying. – Last Moments of an influential Chief. – Wailing of the Survivors. – Records of Lamentation and Cutting the Flesh. – Europeans supposed Callous to Grief. – Addresses to the Defunct. – Ornaments. – Face-Painting. – Lying in State. – Sacrifices of Human Victims. – Its Discontinuation, how effected. – Prohibition or Tapu. – Closing the Eyes and Superstitious Ideas. – Singular Cus-

CONTENTS.

tom. – Anecdote. – Funeral Chants. – Funeral Deposits. – Probable Discoveries. – Curiosities Preserved Sacred........ 58

CHAPTER VII.

Offices of the Chiefs. – Sacred Victuals. – An European Convert. – Anecdote. – Acclamations of Grief. – Services of the Priesthood. – Feast of Exhumation. – Ceremonies undertaken by the Priesthood. – The Nature of the Prayers. – Requests put to the Deities. – Records of similar Festivals. – Difference in Forms of Commemoration. – Sacrifices of Human Victims. – Causes of its Discontinuation. – Festival in Honour of Te Koki, an influential Chief. – Native Preparations. – Art of Beautifying. – New Uses for European Garments. – Modern Fashions. – Female Decorations. – Reception among the Villagers. – Mounting. – Native Horsemanship. – Customs of State. – Salutation. – How to obtain a Lion's Share. – Native Ton. – A Glance at a Native Carnival. – Painted People. – Public Introductions. – The Dance of Welcome. – Necessary Preparations and Introductory Movements. – The Haka. – Implements made use of by Dancers. – Efforts of the Ladies. – Feats and Songs accompanying the Dance. – Native Grimace. – Effect in Time of War. – The Tangi, or Lamentation. – The Pleasures of Grief. – Feelings engendered by Absence. ......... 72

CHAPTER VIII.

Description of the Feast. – Variety of the Fare. – Humours of the Fair. – Sports and Amusements of the Festival. – Native Auctioneer and Foreign Importations. – Native Manufactures. – Disputation for Bargains. – Customs in Favour of Females. – Its Consequent Effect. – Modern Influence of the Sex. – Graceless Curs. – Effect of Robbery. – Newly imported Sports. – Uncommon Dress. – The Kiwikiwi Bird. – Snares for its Capture ......... 91

CHAPTER IX.

Subjects for Oratorical Display and Legislation. – Suit-

CONTENTS.

ing the Action with the Word. – Records of Feasting. – A Wary Orator. – Depreciating an Enemy. – New Readings of Tales and Traditions. – A Comical Narrator. – A Circle of Choristers. – Extempore Effusions. – The Evening Meal. – A Civic Display. – Hospitable Care of Strangers. – Discussions of Polity. – Effect of Refreshment. – On Future Wars. – Majority versus Minority. – Proposition for a Fishing Excursion. – Irritable Inuendos. – Agricultural Localities. – Pro and Con. – A Magician inculcates that Discretion is the Better Part of Valour. – Cogent Reasoning. – Tangible Argument. – How to Punish an Enemy. – Memorable Mishaps. – Turn of a Debate. – Further Sports. – The Breaking up and Departure by Land and Water ....... 99

CHAPTER X.

Deposit of the Priesthood. – Records of the Departed. – The Deceivers and Deceived. – The Tawa Moa, or Sacred Fight. – Attention paid to the Last Expression. – Supposed Prophecies. – Modern Discovery of Antiquities. – Nature and Causes. – Customary Prohibitions. – Posthumous Honours. – Its Records and Varieties. – Cemeteries in New Zealand. – Impiety in their Violation. – Punishments imposed on the Delinquent, and the Silent Indulging Curiosity. – Its Subsequent Effect. – Superstition in favour of Robbery. – Loss of Life in Bilking a Prohibition. – Anecdotes. – Weakness versus Cunning. – Impurity of Gazing. – Dying Childless accounted a Misfortune. – Records of the Fact. – Boasts of a Victor. – Death of an influential Chief. – His Children Reproached as Wanting in Duty. – Cause of Unappeasable Feuds. – Superstition Overcomes Revenge. – A Variety in Sacred Warfare. – Indispensable Requisite for a Dead Man. – Making Ghosts to Serve the Dead. – A Tomb near Kaipara ........ 107

CHAPTER XI.

Monumental Effigies of the New Zealanders, and Representations – Cemeteries, where situated. – Records of An-

CONTENTS.

niversary and Pilgrimage. – Sepulchral Posts Described. – Substance. – Form. – Children, Where Deposited. – Tomb of the Father of Pomare and Muriwai. – Fears of the Population. – Haunting Spirits. – Doctrines of Transubstantiation. – Anecdote. – Colloquy between the Author and a Priest. – Religious Bias. – Superstition of a Guide. – Discovery of a Large Man in the Body of a Small Bird. – The Piwakawaka. – Symbolic Emblems to Commemorate Departed Greatness. – Records adducing the Fact. – Investiture of Deities with Human Passions. – Statements of the same. – Embalming as Practised by the Natives. – Records on this Subject. – Substitutes for Conjugal Partners ........... 119

CHAPTER XII.

Distinguishing Characteristics among the Native Females. – Practice of Staining their Lips. – Women, their Influence and Station in Society. – Exact Persuasive Eloquence. – Various Situations in Life. – Neglect of Education and its Effects. – Political Bias. – Difference in the Treatment of the Females in Australia and New Zealand. – Assertions on the Decadence of Nations. – Modesty and Reserve. – Anecdotes. – Precautions used in Bathing. – Decorum while in Company with Strangers. – Inviolability of a Bachelor. – Beauty of the Women. – Personal Manners. – On Marriages, divided into Three Systems. – Affiancing. – Anecdote. – Infamy of Celibacy. – Singular Punishments awarded to Bachelors. – Made liable to an Action. – Honours Bestowed on Married People. – Anecdote. – Novel Method of Perpetuating Friendship between Families. – Ready Complaisance of a Father and Husband. – Age assigned to Old Maids. – Relationship in Marriage. – Betrothing. – At what Period. – Courtship. – Its Contingent Dangers. – Marriage of Half-Sisters. – Elopements. – Danger accruing from the Practice. – On Plurality of Lovers. – Anecdote. – Ceremonial of Marriage and Forced Nuptials – Hymenean Rites, how conducted. – Feasting. – Friendly

CONTENTS.

Robberies and Castigation – Concubinage. – Family Debates. – Marriage Presents given away. – Conjugal Commerce, its Cessation. – Primitive Method of taking a Wife .......... 129

CHAPTER XIII.

Marriage interdicted on Death of Relatives. – On Chastity. – Solecism in Habits. – Singular Feats to Boast of. – Punctilio. – Brides made Blind. – The Living united to the Dead. – Remarks of Transient Travellers. – Chastity of Married Females. – Adultery, its Punishments. – Jealousy. – Polygamy, its Rise, Progress, and Effects. – The Superior or Chief Wife. – The Second Wives. – Handmaids and Slaves. – Causes of Domestic Disquiet and Interminable Quarrels. – Allowance of Pluralities. – Readiness of the Natives to impart Information. – Narrative of a Chief in Pursuit of an Addition to the Sum Total of Human Happiness. – Becomes Enamoured of a Village Belle. – Apparent Jest and Palpable Truth. – Wary Conduct of the Wily Chief. – Well-founded Alarm. – Change "from Grave to Gay." – A Hen-pecked Mate. – Spirit of Rivalry revived. – A Reluctant Consent .......... 144

CHAPTER XIV.

Precautionary Measures. – Captive Women. – And Living Scape-goats. – Arrangement of Family Comforts. – Evils of Polygamy to Society. – Fracas among Slaves. – Adopt the Manners of their Mistresses. – Handmaids and Concubines. – Distinction without a Difference. – Respective Rank taken by Mistresses in a Household. – Female Supremacy. – Ardour of Female Affection in New Zealand. – Self Immolation of Women. – Conduct of Relatives on such Occasions. – Anecdote. – Lying in State. – Faithfulness to Europeans. – Pride and Obstinacy of Chief Females. – Widows. – Divorce, its Institution and Causes. – Records on this Subject. – Means of procuring Separation by Men and Women. – Results of the System. – Conduct of Widows on the Decease of their Husbands. – Lucky and Unlucky Days for Marriage ............153

VOL I.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

Employment of the Women. – Method of Igniting Wood. – Records of the Occupation of the Sex. – And its Analogy to Marriage. – Method of procuring Fire when Travelling. – Familiarity of Domestic Intercourse. – Picture of a Sleeping Apartment in a Village Family. – Primitive Furniture – Extra Lodgers. – Chanticleer and his mistakes. – Village Scenes. – Dog Chorusses. – Pursuits of the Villagers. – Occupations of the Men. – The Timber Trade. – Methods of Felling Heavy Trees, and conveying the Trunks to the Water. – Time and Tide to remove them. – Rivers in New Zealand ........... 163

CHAPTER XVI.

Flax Trade. – Mutual Jealousies of the Native Traders. – Aboriginal Pedlars. – Good Faith in Trading. – Net-making. – Carving. – Mental attention of the Natives. – Domestic Employment. – Weaving. – Looms. – Dress making. – Quillings. – Various kinds of Flax in use. – Similarity in the Dress of the Sexes. – Dispensations on the Subject. – Dyeing. – Variety in Dress. – Attitudes. – Legible characteristics of Internal change. – Mummy system. – Semi-Divided Females. – Girdles and Belts. – Transformations of Modern Costume. – State of Native Taste. – European Dresses. – How appropriated. – Fashions and Tastes ........... 171

CHAPTER XVII.

Opinions of the New Zealanders as to the Pursuits of Europeans. – Articles of Barter that meet with a ready sale. – On the importance attached to Time. – Feelings of the People towards Barter – On the Introduction of a Coinage and a Circulating Medium. – Spanish Dollars. – Their Divisions. – Money displacing Barter. – Weights and Measures. – Wily conduct of the Natives. – Trickery of Shipmasters, Effect of similar Freaks on Shore. – Variation in value throughout the Country. – Prices of European Goods in

CONTENTS.

Sydney and New Zealand. – The Price of Labour. – Expenses attending the erection of a Flax House. – New Purchases beget additional wants. – The Truism illustrated. – Remuneration for Native Labour. – Natives inured to Work. – Difference in the Employment of the People by Missionaries and Lay Residents. – Bodily Tactics. – Nautical abilities of the People. – Navigate in every Hemisphere. – Resemblance to British Seamen. – Native inclinations towards Farming. – Their Plantations .............. 182

CHAPTER XVIII.

Soils in New Zealand. – Their variety. – Mountains. – Geological Structure. – Plains. – Preparations for Farming. – Planting. – Inundations. – Draining. – Artificial Irrigation. – Seasons. – Farms visited by the Writer. – Incursions of the Pigs. – Singular Preventive to the Southward. – Early Implements of Agriculture. – The Materials employed. – Extraordinary value attached to Iron. – Voluntary Slavery. – Remarkable Compacts. – Operations of Fishing. – Methods employed. – Nets. – Their variety and extent. – Fishing Baskets. – Lines and Hooks. – Fishing Parties. – Spears. – Night Fishing. – Baiting. – Eel Catching. – Fears of the Fishermen. – Method of building Fishing Villages. – Variety of Fish around New Zealand enumerated. – Shoal Banks .......... 191

CHAPTER XIX.

The Construction of Houses. – Superstitions in connexion with them. – Inequality in Workmanship. – Ornamental Carvings. – House of Assembly. – Materials employed. – Omissions of Doors, Windows, and Chimneys. – Lodgments for Travellers. – Village Museums. – Flax-Houses. – Kumera-stores. – Houses for Canoes. – Cooking. – Provision Platforms. – Curious Aerial Dormitories. – Further Superstitions ........... 204

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XX.

Mechanical Invention in Canoe Building. – Formation of them. – Progress of Labour. – Deficiency of Implements. – Description of a First-rate. – Extraneous Ornaments. – Hieroglyphic Painting. – Paddles. – Incitements used for propelling Canoes. – Native Carpenters. – Rope and Sail Makers. – Painters. – Carvers. – Canoe Navigation. – Substitute for Canvas. – The Tiaru. – The Moki. – Canoes of Raupo. – Anchors. – Celebrated Ports for the Manufacture of Canoes. – System of Exchanges. – Artistical Tribes. – Favourite Designs and Demands. – Carved Boxes ........... 217

CHAPTER XXI

Superstitions of Mankind. – Religion of the New Zealanders. – Form ascribed to the Deities. – Their dissimilarity and independence of each other. – Flattering Unction paid to them. – Worship of the Ancients, and Typical Representations. – Powers attributed to the Atuas. – Offerings to them. – Temples erected to their honour. – Their Metamorphoses and Tastes. – Food of the Atuas and their Ubiquity. – Mishaps produced by them. – Nature of Offerings. – Causes inducing Personal Misfortune. – Mistaken ideas on Images. – False Devotion. – Instance of Religious Fears – Lodgement of a Spirit. – Wrath imputed to the Spirit of a Person Drowned ........... 231

CHAPTER XXII.

Instances of Impiety in Man and Beast. – Impious action of Marcellus. – Atonements Necessary. – Superstition of the Aurora Australis. – Discovery of a Head. – Form of the Gods. – Tenements Inhabited by Them. – The Reinga. – Pugnacity of the Atuas. – Solemn Appeals. – Death met with Recklessness. – The Taniwoa. – Attributes ascribed to Them. – Lizards. – The Native Ceres. – The Winds. – Suppositions attached to Them. – Pleiades, and Celestial Planets. – Superstitions on Rays of Light. – Native Inter-

CONTENTS.

polations and Opinions on Divine Revelation. – Investiture of their Deities with Mortal Passions. – Confusion in their Attributes. – Suppositions on the Creator. 239

CHAPTER XXIII.

On the Priesthood. – Adopted by the Aristocracy. – Their importance in War-time. – Auguries performed by them. – And Ancient Natives generally. – Anathemas. – Their supposed efficacy. – Ignorance of the Levites of the Atua they Address. – Are universally Consulted. – Anecdotes. – On the Shade of the Departed. – Mutual Jealousies of Priests. – Tithes. – Their inefficiency. – Priests are even at an Argument. – Are not Bigoted. – Value of Prophesying. – Anecdote. – A Lucky Hit. – Superiority of Judicial Professors. – A View of the Happiness promised Hereafter. – Subjects of Belief among the Natives. – Divination. – Universality of its practice at Home and Abroad. – Origin of the practice. – Prudence of the Native Warrior. – Objects for which Astrology is performed. – The system of Lucky Days, and their Antithesis. – Instances comprised in Augury. – Necromancy of Nations. – Oracular Denunciations ............ 247

CHAPTER XXIV.

Systematic Divination. – Scene of Native Magic. – Partial Starvation insisted upon. – Star-gazers. – The Man-fish. – Its Heterodoxy. – Working of Predictions. – The best method to ensure a Fair Horoscope. – Non-resistance to Temptation. – Effect of Fortune Telling. – Belief in a Magician. – Prophetic Weather Almanacs. – Apologies for a Mistake. – Illnesses Exorcised. – Casting Nativities. – Predestination. – Scape-goats. – Charms. – And Native Anodynes. – Consideration paid to Dreams. – Their Importance during War. – Supposed Converse of Divinities. – Visions. – Ghosts. – Shadow of a Shade. – Anecdote. – Omens. – Ominous Dreams. – And Unlucky Appearances. – Second-sight. – Forbidden Sacrifices. – A Connubial Mistake. – Evil-eye. – Giants. – Dwarfs. – Ogres .............. 259

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXV.

Religious Rites and Ceremonies in New Zealand. – When Performed. – How to Discover a Thief and the Weather. – Symbolic Representations. – Inspiration of the Priesthood. – Canonized Beasts. – Native Fears. – A Vegetable Animal. – Characteristics attached to Whirlwinds, Waterspouts, Rainbows. – Native Dignity. – How Aggrieved and Accommodated. – Propitiating the Gods. – Prohibition or Tapu. – Its effects on Life in New Zealand. – Nature of the Oby, Grisgris and Fetish. – Belief in Reliquaries. – Interdict on Rivers. – Payment for Non-observances. – Objects subjected to the Tapu. – The Poapoa. – Offerings for Transgressions .......... 270

CHAPTER XXVI.

The Makutu, or Bewitching Human Beings. – Its Success. – The Konga or Malediction. – Incantatory Rites. – Cannibal Orgies. – On the Anathemas of the Ancients. – Extraordinary effects of Sorcery. – Oaths of the People. – Reciprocity of Retribution. – Ancient Pledges of Fidelity. – Human Sacrifices. – Addresses of the Priesthood. – Wholesale Dissections. – Sacrificing to Moloch. – Method of its Performance. – Immolation of Children. – And Hecatombs of Human Beings. – Albinos and Victims Dedicated for the Month. – On Cannibalism. – General Disbelief existing on the Subject. – Reference to Writers alike regarded for their Ability and Veracity ........ 280

[Preface]

PREFACE.

THE favourable reception given by the public to my narrative of Travels and Adventures in New Zealand, has induced me to present in like manner, a more systematic description of the manners, customs, habits, and usages of the singularly interesting people, comprising its inhabitants, at a time when general attention is fixed on that country, as offering an emporium for industry, capital, and commerce.

There does not exist any branch of knowledge that affords a higher gratification to the generality of readers, than descriptions of distant nations, and the countries they inhabit. In such narratives, curiosity is not only pleasingly interested, but information obtained, which ultimately may prove of

PREFACE.

beneficial import in no ordinary degree. This remark refers to voyages and travels in general, but it applies more forcibly to New Zealand, it having already become a chosen home for some thousands of our countrymen, and presented for several years past, in its timber, fisheries, and agricultural produce, a mart for British enterprise.

In the volumes above alluded to, an endeavour was made to interest our legislators towards aiding by their support, the systematic colonization of those noble islands, already become an European colony without the aid or guidance, much less the fostering care of a mother country.

Many years have elapsed since the earliest British settlers in New Zealand have made the erect forest-trees subservient to the purposes of building, and its then secluded wilds, at that early period of its occupation by Europeans, deserted by its native inhabitants, but teeming with natural beauties, were pervaded with a solitary calm and stillness, such as is experienced in the chill frost of a winter's night, broken only by the chirping cricket, the feathered tribes of the forest, or their croaking neighbours in the adjacent marshes.

PREFACE.

These spots have been already invaded by the busy hum of British mechanics, whose homesteads now present the appearance of dawning villages and settlements, the early germs of rising towns and cities.

The daily-increasing value to which the English Colonies on the four several coasts of Australia and Van Dieman's Land have arrived, imperatively demanded from the parent country the early occupation of this important outpost, and despite of a powerful clique, adverse to the interests of their fellow-countrymen, who were enabled for a time to oppose with some success the duty of the government, yet its occupation as British territory has been officially announced, and it now would be found as difficult for an individual to personally stem a torrent, as for an interested party to restrain the rapid colonization of New Zealand.

Though personally opposed in sentiment, towards the Government of New Zealand being vested in the power of private individuals, who could only have a knowledge of the country from report, and not from actual experience; yet the thanks of every person interested in the colonization of New Zea-

PREFACE.

land must be awarded to the Earl of Durham, and the gentlemen who composed the New Zealand Company in 1825, fur their patriotic exertions in attempting to found a new mart for British enterprise, and sustaining in its pursuit, at the period referred to, a heavy pecuniary loss.

To the indefatigable exertions of this Company, on its revival in 1839, much of the interest taken by the government on this subject is to be ascribed; and though, I repeat, from the Crown alone do I wish to see the affairs of the colony administered, yet I nevertheless hope, that the sacrifices originally made by the steady promoters of the salutary measure, may not in justice pass unrewarded. My next attempt will be the description of such countries as merit the attention of Europeans, in reference to their ultimate colonization.

[introduction]

INTRODUCTION.

AN appendix of some length, containing refutations of a series of malicious attacks, equally unfounded as unprovoked on my part, made by persons interested in setting aside the colonization of New Zealand, or of obtaining place under Missionary patronage, or that of the New Zealand Land Company, was originally forwarded by me to Messrs. Madden & Co., with the manuscript of the following sheets; but those gentlemen having subsequently purchased the copyright, declined publishing the justification I had deemed as due to the public, regarding the aim of the slanderers to have originated in a feverish desire for notoriety, (certainly not an enviable one, but it is impossible to account for the morbid taste of some individuals,) and feeling assured that any reply I might make, or facts adduce, would tend to give the ephemeral importance that had been sought for by the calumniators aforesaid, (as the lawyers have it,) with anxious avidity.

Notwithstanding an enlightened jury of my

INTRODUCTION.

countrymen, directed by Lord Denman had given damages and costs in my favour, in an action instituted for one of those libels, yet I was desirous of proving to my readers the secret animus that had directed some persons, who drove a trade with religion, first to rob me of my former literary labours, and then to calumniate me, thinking thus to hoodwink the public from discovering the source from whence they drew their information, though it might reasonably be expected, that a writer who had casually entered the Bay of Islands on board a ship that from stress of weather was obliged to be put under repair, and remaining in that part for six days, could have no personal knowledge of the country or inhabitants, and any account he might give, except when indebted to travellers who have written on the subject, would be similar to a Frenchman entering a port in Cornwall, without any knowledge of England, its people, or language, and returning to Gascony , after a residence of SIX DAYS, and an intercourse with the lowest class of the place, and publishing HIS history and political views, without the most remote acquaintance with its judicial or political institutions.

The work preceding these volumes was written expressly with the views stated in the preface, to excite public attention towards the islands of New Zealand, by a statement of plain unvarnished facts. I laid no claim to literary merit, but simply that credit on the part of the reader, due to unimpeach-

INTRODUCTION.

able fidelity. I was also actuated with the desire of seeing a weaker people (morally speaking) protected from the ill effects of the intercourse consequent to the irregular colonization that had been carried on for a series of years. The advancement of my native land was a paramount consideration, as New Zealand presented a new and unlimited mart for commercial enterprise, adding not only to the riches of this country, but affording an enlarged opportunity for the enterprise of her industrious sons.

Those volumes, on their appearance, were immediately noticed by nearly forty reviewers, among whom, without an exception, I had not the pleasure of an acquaintance, and on whose unbiassed criticism were I to add more than my best thanks and acknowledgments for their esteemed opinions, a charge of egotism would result.

Actuated by the above motives, patriotic, if you please, I did feel, that though perhaps in a literary view ill qualified for the task, yet for the INTENTION in furnishing information of the existence and state of a country by which our redundant population might obtain a valuable homestead, in a land ample in its resources and splendid in its climate, deserved at least the good will of my contemporaries; but I was wofully deceived, as was discovered to my cost, the subject having become the prey of faction and party.

I have already alluded to one shameless indi-

INTRODUCTION.

vidual, who, unable to disprove a single line out of nearly 900 pages comprising my former volumes, to which he is deeply indebted, made an attack on my morals, probably expecting that he could eke out an edition of his pamphlet by such a factitious aid. Granting for argument that such false aspersions had been even true, in what manner could it concern the public, whether on the score of delicacy, I stood A 1 on the list, or was erased as being (naughty-cally speaking) cracked and unseaworthy. I came before the public as a writer who could adduce facts worthy of their serious attention, and not as a Joseph (Surface) in unseemly plight, with another tale of Egypt to tell.

In all new colonies (and few of the older ones are exempt) where society is huddled together, and the palace reared alongside the mud cabin, personal dislikes are fostered, while envy is aroused, and malice, with a hundred tongues, is busy, at the unpalatable prosperity of a neighbour, and probably few colonies can be adduced as examples, where such reprehensible feelings arise to a healthy perfection as in the settlements of Australia and New Zealand; consequently, for a stranger to visit those places, and give credit to the ex-parte statements that are clamorously obtruded on his auricular organs, would be actually evincing an utter ignorance of the habits and manners of a certain portion of mankind, but for the said stranger to turn eavesdropper, and not only deliberately put to

INTRODUCTION.

paper, but print, revise, and finally publish the said vulgar scandal, shows the hardihood of a heart naturally depraved and vicious, though tricked out in outward religious trappings, and a venomous disposition that can answer no good purpose , and were such a system to be adopted by travellers, the chaos of olden times would be PERFECTIBILITY itself, compared to such an unhinging of the forms and laws of society.

I beg to repeat, that my publishers, of whose conduct I must express my satisfaction, have requested me to refrain from further repelling the unprovoked malice I have alluded to, which is probably not only the best method of proceeding, but agreeable to my natural temperament, education, and turn of mind; and I would apologize in having recourse to this method of self-justification, in consequence of the long-protracted delays and enormous expenses attending legal investigations for libel.

Before concluding this subject, one accusation must not be passed over, made by a mendacious pamphleteer, on the strength of his character being unknown in England , in my having obtained from the New Zealanders "princely and cheaply-acquired territory – bought land for the merest trifle, and perhaps cheated them in the payment." I shall not follow so ill an example as to give a justification in the language of cant and mendacity used by

INTRODUCTION.

this person, for where facts are wanting, virulence, and fanatical intolerance is invariably substituted.

This statement, made with the self-assurance of its being wholly without foundation , would have met with no reply from me, had it not been noticed in a Magazine having a large circulation, which has induced me to make the following declaration. That my possessions in New Zealand consist of five several properties purchased in the Bay of Islands, for their water-frontage, the principal portion, seven years since, when the very supposition of that country being colonized in our time, would have been accounted Utopian and preposterous. The utmost extent of ALL those purchases TOGETHER, does not exceed 1100 acres, and when it is taken into consideration that many single landed proprietors in the Canadas, United States, New South Wales, and other colonies, possess from 1100 to 11,000, aye and 111,000, acres and even larger domains, our "princely estates" dwindle to a very low figure. Possibly I may be even excused from possessing 1100 acres, save by my envious opponent, when so far from buying land for the "merest trifle," I actually paid for some portions at the rate of 6pounds 10s. 0d. per acre to the resident native Chiefs, proprietors of the soil, and that I paid an EQUITABLE, FAIR, and JUST PRICE, is evidenced on my title-deeds, (copied from that made by William Penn with the North

INTRODUCTION.

American Indians) by, among other signatures, that of the informant of this traducer. This man, born at Peterhead, was a seaman before the mast of a whaling-ship, from which he absconded in the Bay of Islands, forfeiting his articles and wages. The Missionaries, seeing his wretched state among the natives, scarcely obtaining food or raiment, employed him in cutting the knees for a small cutter which they laid down about that time, which on completion was wrecked while intrusted to his care. He then insidiously habited himself in the garb of religion, which his actions repeatedly falsified, and has fed the natural venom of an aspirant for the loaves and fishes, by turning even on his masters, who fostered, clothed, and relieved him in the years of his distress.

This man is best described by the fact, that, he has learnt to sign his name since his arrival at New Zealand, a consummation that may be ascribed to Lord Brougham's schoolmaster abroad, as this neophyte had never the benefit of one at home. He was a sawyer for some years, at Wangaroa, and the Bay of Islands, and as for "cheating the natives of their payment," I am always willing to produce the newly-learnt, but ill-constructed pothooks and hangers, alias signature, of this informant, that the CONTRARY is the fact. In addition to the signatures, as witnesses, of respectable gentlemen, as to the honourable nature of my transactions with the native chiefs, I have

INTRODUCTION.

letters of the Rev. Henry Williams, Chairman of the Church Missionary Society, a gentleman as honourable and devout as these detractors (arcades ambo) are the contrary, relative to this subject.

The magazine reviewer closes his critique, that "Messrs. Polack, Fairburn, and Marsden, who have neither parliamentary nor family interest, would relish the idea of subjecting their titles to a strict revision." Mr. Fairburn must answer for himself; the Rev. Samuel Marsden is beyond the privileges of parliament; and the pamphleteer is the only person who has published the name of Mr. Marsden in a spirit of detraction, arising from envious malignity; he was a truly pious and devout man, and died in (I believe) 1838, aged nearly ninety years, passed in REAL usefulness, and to the thousands who knew him, such envenomed shafts fall harmless. He was senior chaplain of New South Wales for many years, which place he filled alike honourably to himself, and justly to his creed. I feel persuaded, despite the accusation, that he did not possess A SINGLE INCH of land in New Zealand, and his frequent absences from Sydney, from a happy home, to encounter, at his advanced age, vicissitudes in a barbarous country, were solely undertaken for bettering the degraded condition of the New Zealanders, I would recommend to his detractor the oft-repeated adage, De mortuis nil nisi bonum , and to adopt that of Beneficiis maleficia

INTRODUCTION.

pensare . In conclusion, I can only observe DECIDEDLY AND ENERGETICALLY, that NOW Or HEREAFTER, I challenge from any appointed authority the STRICTEST SCRUTINY as to the mode by which I acquired my "princely estates" in New Zealand; the EQUITY AS TO THE VALUE I GAVE for the said estates, at the time, to the absolute proprietors, and the ENTIRE LEGALITY OF THOSE PURCHASES I MADE, and SECURE IN THE HONESTY OF MY TRANSACTIONS, I regret not the want of the influence alluded to, but which induced me to place my title-deeds in the hands of the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Devon, at the select committee of the House of Lords, in May. 1838.

"Further this deponent sayeth not," as I can say, in truth, that in speaking and writing of men, I have mentioned their honesty with alacrity ; and when forced to mention their faults, have touched on them with regret, slightly, and with much reluctance, and should have left those clansmen "alone in their glory," had I not been solicited by various gentlemen, as to disposing, exchanging, and leasing my properties in the Bay of Islands, and consequently was imperatively called upon to expense (in part) and disprove the foregoing unprovoked as unfounded statements previously to attending to such requests.

It is irrelevant to my purpose to enter into a disquisition whether the lands of an independent

INTRODUCTION.

people (and acknowledged as such by European powers) may be purchased or not; suffice it, that notwithstanding the laws, customs, and habits of the New Zealanders, fully recognise the purchase, exchange and sale of all property, landed or otherwise, that vast forests and prairies, as extensive as counties in Europe, are depopulated; the former tenants of the soil having been extirpated by ruthless wars, the few surviving conquerors, not daring to cultivate their newly-acquired territories, even when possessed of numerical force to do so, fearful of being set upon in turn by the billigerent tribes of the neighbouring country, or that the produce they would sow might be reaped by an enemy. My native property has been purchased in a manner agreeably to the custom of the missionaries, the principal portion being bounded between the lands purchased by those gentlemen and the estate of James Busby, Esq., Her Majesty's British Resident, the purchases being made from the same chiefs on similar terms . This method has been pursued by the New Zealand Land Company, with this difference, that my property was not purchased until after a protracted residence in the close vicinity of the native proprietors, so that not a slave born on the soil was excepted in obtaining a portion of the purchase, whereas, the land of the company was bought by Captain Herd, after a few days' intercourse with the natives, to whose habits in selling land, and lan-

INTRODUCTION.

guage, he and his people were absolutely strangers. The purchase was nevertheless valid, as I resided twelve months in the vicinity of the Hokianga lands, and though several offers had been made to the chiefs of the district, for a resale of the property, they invariably refused their assent.

The price I paid to the chiefs in some instances per acre , seven years since, was twenty-six times the value now asked by the New Zealand Land Company, in London; superiority in the locality causes the difference. 1 In reference to land purchases I cannot regard myself as "the most offending soul alive," as the British government has during the last three reigns, and that of her present Majesty, been equally culpable in purchasing the splendid timber of the country, to furnish masts and yards for the navy, and flax for its rigging; also in the reign of his late Majesty, of respected memory, the independence of the New Zealanders was especially acknowledged by the British government, and a flag expressly presented to them through the medium of Captain Lambert, commanding His Majesty's ship "Alligator," and despatches were forwarded to the Admiral commanding on the East India station, to respect the said flag. Mr. Busby was further appointed accredited agent from the British government to the

INTRODUCTION.

natives of New Zealand, and in that capacity I placed in his hands, on printed memorandums, copies of my title-deeds that I had sworn to before A. B. Spark, Esq., magistrate of the territory of New South Wales, and similar copies I also placed in custody of the Reverend Henry Williams, Chairman of the Church Missionary Society, and my local agent Captain J. R. Clendon, American Consul.

In reviewing the past, whether as an artist in Europe, a ship-chandler in Australia, a servant to the British government (Commissariat and Ordnance) in Africa, or a traveller for personal gratification in America, I feel justified in concluding with the words of Lord Chancellor Erskine, when advocating the cause of a plaintiff in a case of libel, "It was the first command and counsel of my youth, ALWAYS to do what my conscience told me to be my duty, and to leave the consequences to God. I shall always carry with me the memory, and I trust, the practice, of this parental lesson to the grave, I have hitherto followed it, and have no reason to complain that my obedience to it has been a temporal sacrifice."

J.S. POLACK.

2 MACCLESFIELD-STREET, SOHO
MARCH, 1840.

1The Company charge twenty shillings per acre, engaging to return 75 per cent, for passage-money.

[Chapter I]

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS of THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

CHAPTER I.

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, HABITS, AND OPINIONS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS GRADUAL CHANGE AND PROGRESSION TOWARDS EUROPEAN HABITS. – EFFECTS CAUSED BY THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLONIZATION AMONG THE NATIVES – CONTRADICTIONS IN CHARACTER EXPLAINED – IN FLUENCE OF SOCIAL COMPACTS – EARLY MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE CONTRASTED WITH THEIR PRESENT HABITS – -OPPOSITION EVINCED TOWARDS THE EARLY VISITORS TO THE COUNTRY – NATIONAL INDUSTRY – ISLAND OF VICTORIA – PHYSICAL CONTRARIETIES EXIST-ING AMONG THE NATIVE POPULATION – THEIR ORIGIN – THE ISLANDERS OF AUSTRALASIA – CONDITION AND MANNERS, AND PECULIAR DlFFERENCE FROM THE NEW ZEALANDERS

THE manners and customs, habits and opinions, of the natives of New Zealand are speedily about to disappear. The present record of their sayings and doings will be among the few mementoes of a state of incivilization that is fast merging into the more refined condition of their European brethren. This moral emancipation arises from the extended intercourse (principally of a commercial nature)

that is hourly taking place between them. The emigrants, about to leave the shores of Great Britain, have been preceded by the unsatisfied settlers of Western Australia (Swan River and King George's Sound), many of whom have quitted that arid and droughty coast for the more genial soil of a country approaching in climate (yet superior) to that of their natal soil; and, since the knowledge of the proposed colonization of the islands of New Zealand by British enterprise has been circulated in the southern hemisphere, numerous merchants from the adjacent colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, and Van Diemen's Land, have purchased large tracts from the willing natives, who, independent of present comfort, feel authorized in disposing of portions of their soil as a guarantee that the remaining portions will be enhanced in value far beyond what a large territory would be worth, if left to native proprietorship, by the proximity of such valuable neighbours; and the assurance that the boundaries of their land, thus guarded, will descend to their children and posterity that otherwise might be wholly wrested from their possession (and every acre of the country affords such examples), from the hostility of neighbouring tribes, that form at periods, from concurring circumstances, a superiority in might or predatory treachery.

Every country and its inhabitants have separately their peculiar characteristics; the former, its climate and scenery, the latter, its government and

laws; but to civilization alone belong those moral characteristics upon which a country and people are dependent for their station in the scale of nations. It has been observed, that to describe the habits and manners of a people just emerging from the deepest barbarism is a task of rare occurrence, and the task is rendered yet more difficult on the score of fidelity, as the reader will peruse circumstances apparently contradictory in the moral character of the people described, which in all probability will be found difficult to reconcile; but it must be borne in mind that the education of the primitive savage is completed at a period when a European child would commence the first step beyond the tuition derived from "Guy's" well-known calf-skin volume, the former taking his share in all the politics of his native village, and for the instruction he receives from the vigorous warrior and hoary politician, communicates in return to the latter, a portion of his own infantile manners, and which peculiarly distinguishes the savage being from the civilized man, to the latest period of his life. It is intended in the following pages to give such an account of the manners, customs, habits and opinions, of the New Zealanders, their social and political condition, as will most interest the general reader, who will discover how rapidly they are emerging from the condition of their ancestors, and preparing to maintain, with credit to themselves, and importance to the British nation, their

allies, the highest rank among the aboriginal nations of the southern hemisphere.

The New Zealanders, when first discovered, were a ferocious and barbarous people, principally delighting in the practices of war, and solicitous to excel in the habit of making such grimaces and contortions of body and features, as would best tend to excite fear and horror in the breasts of their enemies; but an interval of forty years' partial intercourse with their more enlightened visitors, has gradually sapped the supposed indomitable ferocity of the savage warrior, who having once tasted of security and the blessings of peace, now wields with greater satisfaction the implements of agriculture, than ever he did those of war; and confesses that the angry war-speech and wildly exciting dance is attended with infinitely less satisfaction than that of an argument in driving a bargain in commerce and the hakari (dance) of the harvest-home. Until within a very few years, this salutary agency, arising from the intercourse with civilized man, was wholly unseen, but time has discovered that it was nevertheless felt. The earliest signs of the effect of this beneficial intercourse was discovered at Uwoua (Tolaga Bay), where Captain Cook met with much kindness from the natives, who had never seen a European before, rendered the more remarkable as he had met with an opposition (similar to that given to Caesar by the early Britons) from the resident tribes at

Turunga (Poverty Bay), a distance of scarcely forty miles south.

Within the last twenty years, Europeans, principally Britons, have located themselves throughout the country, even in those inhospitable islands situated to the south of the Island of VICTORIA; 2

yet the greater portion of the natives still retain a considerable stock of original habits as practised in remote periods of their history, and are in most instances strongly addicted to the superstitious observances of their forefathers. Unlike the inhabitants of the various islands in the South Pacific Ocean, who are as indolent a race of beings as exist on the face of the globe, the New Zealanders have ever been from necessity an industrious people, principally agriculturists and fishermen. The nation consists of two aboriginal and distinct races, differing, at an earlier period, as much from each other as both are similarly removed in similitude from Europeans. A series of intermarriages for centuries has not even yet obliterated the marked difference that originally stamped the descendant of the now amalgamated races. The first may be known by a dark-brown complexion, well formed and prominent features, erect muscular proportions, and lank hair, with a boldness in the gait of a warrior, wholly differing from that of the second and inferior race, who have a complexion brown-black, hair inclining to the wool, like the Eastern African, stature short, and skin exceedingly soft. In physical character the two castes differ in a great

degree; and probably, before intermarriages took place between them, the difference was as marked as between that of a European and a negro of the western world. The origin of the former must be attributed to the Malayan race, who are found to inhabit an extensive space of the globe, including the insular countries of the Indian, African, South and North Pacific Oceans. The second and inferior race arc evidently, from their habits and customs, descended from the same original stock that have occupied a portion of the same countries as the Malays, but are regarded by the latter as too abject in the scale of humanity to treat them otherwise than servants or a conquered people. These degraded people arc found in greatest numbers in the insular lands of New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Espiritu Santo, and adjoining groups, the Soloman Islands, Louisiades, and are identified as the Harafouras and Papuans 3 of New Guinea. The relationship between the above races and the New Zealanders is past all doubt, as a more marked re-semblance exists in their political and social institutions, religion, customs, habits, manners and opinions, and even conformity in a physical and moral point of view; and last, not least, language, than will be found between the peasantry of Cum-

berland and Cornwall in England, or Britany and Picardy in France. Without disturbing the oft quoted memories of those popular patriarchs (to antiquaries) Shem and his brethren, the investigations of recent travellers prove, that the isles have been peopled by the colonies that originally emigrated from Asia, and have so far increased, notwithstanding the existence of the most arbitrary of governments, that set no value on the lives of their subjects, and the most degrading domination of priestcraft, that enforced the merits of human sacrifices, as to spread themselves over the countries of the Yellow Sea to the Sandwich Islands, in the vicinity of the north-west coast of America. From the proximity of the vast island of Australia, it might be supposed, a portion, at least, of the people we are treating of had originally descended from its inhabitants; but this opinion is immediately set at rest by any Acquaintance with, the language, customs, habits, and manners of the two people, that differ so essentially as to repudiate the institution of a comparison. To persons inclined to pursue this theme, we would say, that the debased and abject condition of the Australian, the expression of features, form of body, habits of recklessness as to ideas even of social comfort, dissimilarity in language, no single sentence having the like tendency or sound, habits of perpetual migration, and absence of all government, are sufficient data to prove the different descent of the nations in question.

All voyagers and travellers, from the earliest of the Dutch visitors to those of the present day, agree in substantiating the fact of the unmitigated wretchedness and degradation of the Australians that inhabit the several portions of what might be termed an insular continent. 4 The marked difference in caste among the New Zealanders is observable in every country where the Malay and Papuan occupy the same soil, of which we may instance the Moluccas in Asia, and the far-distant Madagascar in Africa, the Andamans and Nicobars in the Bay of Bengal. The head of the brown or mulatto race is ornamented with a profusion of hair, flowing in ringlets on the shoulders, unless tied up at the crown; but in their inferior countrymen, the hair forms itself into spiral twists, dark, close to the skull, brown, when further removed, and ending in a red-brown. The full-flowing beard, incident to Europeans, but rarely adorns the human face divine of the New Zealander. Among the many peculiarities that are

attached to the native inhabitants of warm climates is, the scarcity of hair on the countenance; yet it might be expected that the prevailing heats would be favourable to the growth of this much-valued addition 5 to the human face.

2Singular to relate, the central island has existed hitherto unnamed; as a distinguishing mark it has been called Te Wai Poenenamu, or the Waters of Green Talc (rather an anomalous name for terra firma), from the time of Cook's survey; but that navigator repeatedly observes, this name is appropriated to a very small proportion of the country on the south-west, where the lake of Green Stone is situated. (D'Urville has placed it to the south-east. ) The country in the vicinity of Cook's Straits is called Kai Kohuda; the strait is also known as Rou Koua.
The immense area that occupies the central portion between those two districts is wholly unnamed; the writer, in consequence, with a presumption that may in some measure admit of an excuse, arising from dutiful feelings inseparable from a loyal subject, has bestowed the appellation of VICTORIA, after Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen of these realms, on this largest Island in the widely-extended Polynesian Pacific, with assured certainty that no modern Cook, be he subject or foreigner, will feel disposed to deprive this extensive country of a name, additionally endeared to an Englishman abroad without the pale of the protective laws of the dearly-cherished country of his birth. He has found it imperatively necessary, so as to be intelligible to his readers, to give a distinctive appellation to this country, that within a very few years will become as common ' in men's mouths as household words, " from its fast-increasing occupation of Europeans. '' – Residence in New Zealand, between the years 1831 and 1837. by the writer. 2 Vols. 8vo. 1838.

3Papua, from pua pua, or negro; a name given by the Malays to the Harafouras or natives of New Guinea.

4The writer has made six several visits to New South Wales, and the aborigines appeared to him, in every instance, to verity the language of Scripture, that wandering as they do, in small bands, exposed to the most trying climate of enervating heat and depressing cold, naked and bordering on starvation, the hand of the wanderer raised against every man, and those in return against his, furnish additional evidence of the difference of their descent from that of the New Zealanders.

5The above remark is applicable to the inferior animals inhabiting the torrid zone, and some philosophers, delighting in argument, have gone so far as to point out an analogy between bipeds and quadrupeds, from the scarcity of hair in both.

[Chapter II]

CHAPTER II.

LOCAL TRADITIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE KING OF HEAVEN AND THE COUNTRY. – THE ISLAND OF AI-NO-MAWE. – NATIVE ANTIQUITIES. – AN UNNATURAL DIVINITY. – – ORIGIN OF THE NATIONAL MYTHOLOGY. – DECRESCENCE OF CIVILIZATION. – ORIGIN OF THE NATIVE RELIGION. – ASTRONOMICAL SUPPOSITIONS. – ENJOYMENTS ASCRIBED TO THE DEITIES ON EARTH. – ORIGIN OF A VOLCANO, WITH ITS CAUSES AND EFFECTS. – BAD EXAMPLES FURNISHED BY THE GODS. – FORMATION OF THE SUN AND MOON. – MONUMENTAL TOMBS TO THE ATUAS – MAWE AND THE BOISTEROUS WINDS. – TRADITIONAL ORIGIN OF THE NATION – A MIRACULOUS EGG. – TRADITIONS PREVALENT IN THE BAY OF PLENTY. – THE EAST CAPE. – COLOSSAL MONUMENTS – EARLY COLONIZATION. – EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGES. EMIGRATION OF NATIVES IN 1835 – TREACHERY OF THE EMIGRANTS. – PRIMITIVE STATE OF SOCIETY, PROGRESS OF LAWS. – EFFECTS OF AN INCREASE OF POPULATION. – FIELD OPEN FOR BRITISH ENTERPRISE.

THE origin of the aborigines is variously accounted for even by themselves, and their accounts are so much clothed with absurd superstitions us render such stories wholly useless to the antiquary. At best, such researches, though interesting and curious, are certainly not practically useful. In all such traditions the circumstance of their being descended from two distinct races of ancestors, appears to have been forgotten, as it is never alluded to. The Malay or Mulatto tribes invariably assert their physical power over the darker or Papua race, and the latter, intuitively, by their habits and manners, verify the fact. Both races agree in part.

as to the origin of their mutual country. Mawe, the king of the starry world, it appears, similar in taste to his worshippers as much enamoured of the piscatory art, and one pleasant day he left his terrestrial abode at the Three Kings' Islands (Manawa Tawi ) to pursue his cherished amusement. His efforts for a length of time were unattended with success; he was about to quit the sport in utter despair, when a bite, "very like a whale," changed the intention of the disappointed deity. After much exertion of manual strength, he succeeded, by his powers divine, in raising above the surface of the water a portion of New Zealand; by the aid of some flax-plants that grew indigenous on the seaborn isle, he formed some ropes which he attached to various stars, and by aid of this purchase, he succeeded in raising up the various mountains and lands that now form the country: in so doing, various portions crumbled away that are now traced by the deep indents (bays and rivers) in the land, which from that time has ever been termed AI NO MAWE, the begotten of Mawe. The wonderful fishhook that accomplished this valuable feat (as it is about to prove as an appanage to Great Britain) was placed in a central situation for the admiration of future beholders. This may yet be seen, an islet off Ouridi, in Hawkes' bay, near Cape Kidnapper, lat: 39 degrees 40' S., long: 17 degrees 48' E., called to this day Mattou no Mawe (Fish-hook of Mawe). The native antiquaries are at variance as to the substance

made use of as bait; some tribes insisting that the divinity accommodated himself with a portion of his own ear, which has induced many of his followers to suppose this auricular feature to have been of inordinate length. Others again assert, that portions of his children answered for this miraculous pursuit, and that the fish-hooks were formed from their jaw-bones. Delighted with the effects of his patience and sport, which far outsped Mawe's most sanguine expectations, for he is invariably described by his historiographers, as a god of infinite phlegm and moderate pretensions, he hastened back to heaven, anxious to calm any agitation in his serail that might have arisen in the fair bosoms of his numerous ladies at his protracted absence. This effected, he hastily returned with his principal dame en chef , Innanui-te-po, who, it would appear, was apprehensive of the substance the wonderful fish-hook might again present to its master. The adventures of Mawe and his ambitious family on earth, bear a great resemblance to the adventures of Jupiter and Juno, Neptune and Proserpine, Mars and Pallas, Pluto and Eolus; the origin of such fables is lost in the gross traditions of the people, but probably they relate to the earliest of the colonial ancestry of the present descendants, who gifted with a portion of the knowledge of the civilized tribes from whom they emanated in Asia, communicated to their children a limited account of those arts and inventions, but, obliged by the

scarcity of animal and vegetable food in the new country, to devote the principal portion of their time, and that of their children, towards producing sustenance; and deprived of those monuments of art they had been accustomed to view in their own country; and unable to give in idea similar knowledge to their children, which had been familiar to them in substance, the latter gradually sank into the barbarism they have displayed for some centuries past: their superstitions accumulating as each generation was further removed from the earliest inhabitants, whose superior civilization, which they had imperfectly disseminatcd, inspired these unpolished children with a spirit of divine admiration. Probably aware that religious ceremonials would alone act as a check on a nation without the means of improving their uncivilized state, the dying patriarchs claimed in consequence divine honours, which they were enabled to effect by improving upon the unqualified devotion displayed by their admiring descendants. To this feeling, engendered by a crafty race to their followers, may be ascribed the heterogeneous and absurd fictions termed the Mythology of the Greeks, who borrowed the fables from the Egyptians, who originally were under obligation to the Phenicians and earlier nations, and finally adopted by the Romans, each nation felicitously accommodating the inconsistent mummery to heroes of their own creation. Mawe is the Jupiter ronans, the Hercules and Vulcan of

the New Zealanders. Like Saturn, he is said to have devoured his own children, save the visionary organs of the eldest, which were placed in the skies, the right eye forming the polar star, the left, the evening orbit. On arriving at his newly-raised territory, a thousand wonders attracted the attention of the divine pair; Mawe was perfectly enraptured with the ladies, and his better half of the gentlemen, who now crossed her vision for the first time. Mawe's acquisition appears at best to have been as unpropitious as the present of Jupiter proved to Pandora, for unconscious of the effects of fire, he raised some in his hands, but the agonizing pain induced him to fling it from him into the sea with such force as to cause the volcanic island of Wakari (lat: 37 degrees 30' 46 ' S., long: 177 degrees 14' 45" W.) to arise from the ocean, whose internal fires have never ceased since that period; the burning ashes, from which he had abstracted the cause of his pain, it is said, he dispersed with his feet, and in the places where they fell inland, have arisen the several volcanoes and hot springs that are found in the country. Nor did Mawe's misfortunes end here, for he was soon after discovered by the gentle In-nanui-te-po in a situation that would have been amply satisfactory to a jury in any action brought in the Consistory Court; in Mawe's case judgment went by default, and the obscene divinity was despatched by his wife, for his unlucky mistake in taking another lady for herself. His apotheosis took

place immediately. Anxious to retain in sight the scene of his pleasures and pains, his right eye became the sun, 6 and the same organ of his brother Toaki, became answerable as the moon. Mawe was buried on the mountain of Ikorangi (lat. 37 degrees 55' S., long. 175 degrees 55' E.) near to the East Cape, and as a monument, is worthy of the father of the gods. Mawe is supposed to look upon his people with peculiar affection, the elements are under his direction, whose fury he invariably assuages when possible. Among the most pugnacious, rank the deities who preside over the winds, one of whom directs each point of the compass. Ounui is named as the president of the South-West, accounted the most irritable and passionate of the conclave, and when that portion of the elements is still, the priests declare that over-ruffled, he is choked with his own infuriate bile, and though, under the superior influence of Mawe, who could wholly silence the god, but deprived of one eye, he can only attend to one half of those elements, which is made to account for the fact on his silencing the winds on one por-

tion of the compass, the opposite side taking advantage of his infirmity, commences its operations. Mawe is said to have principally feasted upon human flesh, fish having been his provender before the raising of New Zealand. His descendants claim his authority for revelling in the same horrible propensity. The traditions respecting the origin of the people are variously accounted for among themselves. Some tribes state that a large bird, whose enormous wings cast a fearful shadow of some miles' length on the ocean, suddenly while flying, allowed an egg to escape from her, on which the bird ascended with great velocity as if gladly released of a burden, and was soon out of sight. The egg lay for many days on the becalmed ocean, when it gradually burst its shell, and an old man and woman appeared exerting themselves to float an old canoe from the oviparous dwelling; they succeeded after some exertion, and entered the conveyance, followed by a boy and a girl, each holding a dog and a pig. On landing on New Zealand, which was wholly uninhabited, they hastened to build a house, but the young man, dissatisfied with the solitary life in view, intended to take to the canoe and again try their fate in hopes of meeting with a country inhabited by those friends from whom they were severed, but the shallow conveyance was pushed adrift by the young woman, and their progeny soon covered the face of the country.

In the Bay of Plenty, the origin is thus accounted for. At a very remote period a large canoe arrived from a far-distant country, in which were comfortably seated a number of divinities of both sexes, but with the sharp-set appetites of human beings. The only article of food brought with them was the Kumera (batata convolvulus ) which they immediately planted after the fashion of their people; the relators of this tradition profess to be descended from them.

The natives residing at the East Cape assign a different version of the origin of their ancestors, and the inhabitants further south, have another tale wholly differing from their neighbours.

These several relations have much affinity to the traditions of the numerous nations that have spread themselves over an immense tract of ocean extending eighty leagues north and south, from New Zealand to the Sandwich Islands, and full seventy degrees east and west from Tonga to Easter Island, where some colossal monuments in sculptured stone, yet exist, 7 attesting the former residence of a once

powerful and civilized people, of whose existence the present inhabitants are wholly unable to afford the slightest clue. This same people inhabit the Sandwich Islands and Marquesas, full twenty degrees from each other, and the latter isles are full thirty-five degrees from Tahiti.

The traditions of the New Zealanders forcibly point out the fact that they are indebted for their locality, to their ancestors having, from various causes, arising from accident or design, quitted their natal land; in the former case, through stress of weather, in the latter from motives connected with the government, to which they were in all probability inimical.

That such extraordinary voyages are of common occurrence, is known to almost every person who has visited the South Sea Islands and made inquiry into the history of the people among whom they have sojourned. In those interesting works, Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses , tom. 15, Voyages aux terres Australes, Thetenot, Hackluyt, Harris's collection, Purchas and similar compilations, innumerable adventures of Islanders renouncing a cruel thraldom, for love of liberty, may be found oft multiplied. A circumstance of this kind has often occurred in New Zealand, where tribes have vacated their native districts and removed themselves to a distance of some hundreds of miles, to enjoy their liberty unrestrained. In 1835, full five hundred of the native inhabitants of Port

Nicholson (Wanga nui atera ) in Cook's Straits, employed a shipmaster sailing out of Port Jackson; to remove them from that place, which had been made obnoxious to them in consequence of the savage barbarity of Rauparaha, the sanguinary chief of Entry Island (Kapiti ) situated at the entrance to the Straits, to the islands of the Chatham Group, (lat: 45 degrees 54' S., long: 176 degrees 13' E. ) They promised to fill the brig with flax, as a remuneration for his services. He conveyed them in two trips, and as soon as they arrived at the islands, the emigrants took the simple islanders for slaves, murdering and devouring numbers of them. The heartless fellow that conveyed the tribes was disappointed in his expectations, as no payment was given to him in return.

The extension of colonies of the aborigines in New Zealand has occurred from the same causes as peopled the great islands of Australia, Borneo, Sumatra, and New Guinea. Where numerous tribes reside in the same country, warfare and unceasing contention are sure to reign paramount, during which the belligerents are bought and sold, enslaved or murdered, without mercy. This anarchy is preceded by what may be termed the most primitive state of mankind, when a few families associate together at some favourite fishing ground, and form their village in the most sheltered spot in its nearest vicinity. As they improve in skill, and are enabled to preserve quantities of food for winter

provision, they invite their nearest neighbours to join them for mutual defence; such has been the commencement of some of the greatest nations that have now passed away; the Greeks, Carthaginians, Latins and Mexicans. The village thus enlarged requires a code of laws to protect the weak against the encroachment of his stronger brother.

The self-same love in all becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws;
For what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one will when many wills rebel,
HOW shall he keep, what sleeping or awake,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take ?
His safety must his liberty restrain,
All join to guard what each desires to gain.

Pope's Essay on Man.

An increasing population would naturally cause an extension of the nation, as the means of the earliest residents of the village would be incompetent to furnish them support; the lands in the vicinity becoming exhausted, and the fish, daily decreasing in quantity, would necessarily occasion an influential member to form another settlement, having unploughed similar advantages that were originally obtained at the earlier village. In a country like New Zealand, whose surface is covered with intricate forests, far-spread lagoons and marshes, a barrier at once would be presented to the native emigrant from pursuing a route inland; beside, the scarcity of indigenous sustenance would

occasion them to direct attention to the many streams and rivers that irrigate these noble islands, and abound with fish.

Thus have these people spread themselves over the country, from the Three Kings' Islands, 8 (lat: 34 degrees 12' 8" S., long: 172 degrees 22' 48" W.) to Foveaux Straits, 9 (lat: 46 degrees S.) At an early period of their history, wars must have been less known, as they have decreased greatly since Europeans have become acquainted with them. In treating of warfare we shall give the present decrescent state of the native population, and the field now open for British colonization, and aptitude of the New Zealanders to amalgamate with their more enlightened brethren and now owners of the same soil.

6We learn from Virgil, it was the belief of the Romans, that the Gods sent stars to light or instruct their peculiar favourites when in perplexity, and that their warriors and men of renown became stars after death, and were consequently deified. Suetonius tells us, that Julius Caesar was thus elevated after his murder, as the augurs announced the appearance of a new star at his death.

7Oblivion has also cast her veil over the nations whose religious zeal erected the ponderous temples of Ellora in India, of the Isles of Elephanta and Salsette, off Bombay. The pyramids of Egypt, as monuments of labour, may bear comparison, but in taste and beauty of sculpture, and as works of art, sink into insignificance. The antiquated monuments of the new world prove it to have been colonized much earlier than that of the old.

8Drie Koningen Eijlandt, (Three Kings' Islands), thus named by Abel Jansen Tasman, who discovered them on the anniversary of the Epiphany, 6th January, 1643. They consist of small islands, surrounded by rocks, many of which are out of water, about fifty miles from the North Cape of New Zealand, about N. N. W.

9Foveaux Straits, a dangerous passage dividing Stewart's Island from VICTORIA, the central island, named in 1816, in honour of Colonel Foveaux, Lieutenant Governor of Van Dieman's Land.

[Chapter III]

CHAPTER III

DIVISION OF THE PEOPLE INTO TRIBES. – ORIGIN OF CHIEFTAINSHIP. – CHIEF OF UWOUA, HIS CHARACTER AND DISCRETION. – IS MADE CAPTIVE IN BATTLE, AND BECOMES A FAMILY-MAN. – HIS PERSON ACCOUNTED AS SACRED. – EFFECT OF HABITUAL AUTHORITY. – TERM OF SLAVERY. – RECORDS OF POLYGAMY. – POWER OF A CHIEF. – HEREDITARY HONOURS AND APPELLATIONS. – VENERATION FOR GENEALOGY. – SINGULAR CUSTOMS. – SALUTARY FLAGELLATIONS. – NATIONAL EDUCATION. – IMITATIONS. – PRECOCITY OF CHILDREN. – GENEROSITY OF TRIBES. – AN UNNATURAL PRESENT. – CUSTOMS AT TAHITI. – RANGATIRA'S, SECOND GRADE OF CHIEFTAINSHIP. – MARITAL REPROACHES. – CANNIBALISM DECRIED. – IMPORTANCE OF MARRIAGE. – ACCESSION OF LANDS. – THE WARRIOR E'ONGI. – HIS ABILITIES. – POLITICAL POWER. – AN AMAZONIAN WIFE. – VALUE ATTACHED TO BIRTH.

THE population of New Zealand is divided into tribes, varying in numerical force from three hundred persons to three thousand. The government is nominally vested in the person of a chief, termed the Rangatira nui or Ariki , whose power is derived either from a remote ancestry, marriage with the daughter of a powerful chieftain, or from having raised himself by reckless acts of valour and superior sagacity in native councils above the several competitors for the suffrages of his tribe. As an example of remote ancestry may be cited, Kani o tekki rau , chief of the tribes at Uwoua, or Tolaga Bay, (inlat: 38 degrees 20' 45" S., long: 178 degrees 37'E. ) This chief was only remarkable for his extreme

friendship towards Europeans; in courage he was certainly inferior to many of his followers, being rather more inclined to patch up a peace than forcibly to assert his particular rights. He had, however, been forced into a war when a very young man, but discretion being his forte, and certainly the better part of valour, he chose rather to become a prisoner, than earn what some enthusiasts have termed deathless renown, in plainer terms, to be admitted within the probability of having a name mis-spelt in the Gazette; however, in the absence of the newspaper, Kani eschewing hastily the question, "to live or not to live," wisely chose the former. Nor was his choice confined to so sensible a determination, for he formed a serail from the families of his captors; thus suited he passed his leisure with praiseworthy composure at Poverty Bay (Turunga), residing in the camp of his belligerent fathers-in-law. Thus comfortably ensconced as a family-man, he resided some years, until an amicable arrangement took place, when Kani set forth, like another Jacob, from the place of his servitude, with his wives, 10 handmaids, children,

and a large stock of contributions obtained from his numerous and newly-made relatives. The life of Kani was never attempted by his savage enemies, even in battle, his person being accounted sacred in consequence of the numerous branches of his genealogical tree. He has often been reproached as a slave, 11 (taurekareka), a term that applied to a chief of spirit, would engender in his breast a determination to seek revenge that nothing

less than blood would appease; but our hero received the taunt with much sang froid , though ill-brooked by his immediate relatives, whose feelings towards this complacent leader were of pure affection untempered by respect.

Yet Kani could summon a commanding air, such as invariably attaches itself to chieftainship, and derived from the exercise of habitual authority. On the deeds of his parent, who had been a noted warrior (alias an infuriate cannibal), the degenerate recipient of his honours would listen with the deepest emotion, and as the primitive bard proceeded to recite minutely in prose the feats of reckless valour that had conferred a lasting renown on his race and tribe, the flush of a victor's pride would suffuse the countenance of Kani, who at the instant would think and feel the wish to imitate his renowned sire, but a host of political associations of the "glorious uncertainty" of which in earlier life he had already received a foretaste, inclined him, in addition to the naturally amicable turn of his disposition, to repudiate the desires of his turbulent followers, many of whom were bent for war, having an accumulation of grievances that, committed to paper, would have composed a formidable catalogue in folio. Luckily for Kani, if in his person he caused no serious emotions in the bosoms of his enemies (for like all respectable chiefs he had a full share), his followers were of a widely different temperament, and his desires

were only to be communicated to them it was well known, and war "to the tomahawk" would ensue.

The eldest son of an hereditary chieftain is termed Te Kai Rangatira , or heir apparent, the father bearing the appellation of Rangatira only. The "odour of sanctity" departs from the latter as early as his successor sees the light; the rank of the embryo chief, even thus early, being superior to his progenitor, inasmuch as he can boast of an additional branch to the ancestral tree. Such is the veneration paid by the obedient tribes to their newborn commander, that at periods even the parents are not allowed to have intercourse with him, or take food from the same basket, these cares appertaining to the priesthood, who at the earliest years of their charge, instil into his mind the 12 education that will direct his future propensities in life, such as inextinguishable hatred to his foes;

to bear predatory warfare against the weak, and circumvent by treachery the stronger powers he may have to compete with. By his parent and followers he is early initiated into the mysteries of distorting his countenance, 13 so as to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies: the war-dance then follows, and so apt are these unfledged warriors in learning the war-cries used in battle, and accompanying gesticulations, that we have seen many children of five years only, sufficiently precocious to put to flight a European child of nearly double that age. The child of a chieftain is regarded by his followers precisely as the Highlanders of the fastnesses of Scotland and Wales confided in their young chiefs. In New Zealand, presents are sent from various tribes to these young representatives of their people, either from friendship, pride of generosity, or as tribute to deprecate the ire of an enemy. When tribes are at warfare, distant from their villages, the most valued portions of the booty that may have been procured, has been forwarded by a courier (Karari ) from the army. In 1835, within a week or so before our arrival at Uwoua, a canoe had arrived at the village containing

six bodies of enemies slain. To present an imposing effect, the headless trunks (already eviscerated) were carefully placed over the gunwales of the canoe on either side, and the six hearts of the murdered people were thrust on the heads of spears, (hani's ), placed upright in the centre of the canoe. These mortal remnants were expressly reserved as presents to satiate the horrid appetite of the Kai Rangatira, then about six years of age. 14

The second form of chieftainship is attained by an inferior chief or gentleman (also a Rangatira ) entering into marriage with the daughter and heiress of an Ariki or Rangatira nui , or with the widow of such an exalted personage. In the absence of a salique law, the lady confers with her person the estates and hereditaments of her defunct parent or spouse. These acquired honours are not regarded in the same light as the legitimate rights of hereditary descent; in any martial bickerings, the newly-made chief is often reminded of the honours that have been conferred on him, and the superiority of the lady is made manifest. Much of this depends on the temperament of the spouse; if of an amicable disposition, he would need require an extra stock of resignation and patience, as the art significantly known as hen-pecking is not confined to the more civilized races of womankind; but if the recipient has the ferocious bearings that are supposed as best becoming a superior chief, such insinuations are rarely repeated.

The general feeling of a tribe towards such chief-consorts may be likened similar to such formed connexions in European states; the minor chiefs are raised to a greater share of importance as their leader is lessened in the admiration and submission of his followers. E'Ongi, the most celebrated name in the native annals as a warrior, gained the principal portion of his lands and subjects, in the

first instance, by some influential marriages, 15 until he and his connexions possessed a greater extent of territory, and containing a larger tenantry than had probably appertained to any former chieftain in the country. He was certainly the first warrior of his period; of remarkable sagacity, and possessing a tact for mechanical contrivances, and knowledge of fortifications, that at once raised him to rapid distinction above any other chief, independent of his political power and the influence acquired by his marriages. Yet, notwithstanding the stability of his power, which his rival competitors for supremacy, Pomarre and Korokoro, attempted often, but in vain, to shake; the wily E'Ongi paid much court to his ladies, especially E'Turi, who was sightless, but who always accompanied him in

his war expeditions, 16 denouncing, like a Pythoness, the enemies of her tribes, and urging the willing and aspiring warriors to battle with the enemy and enslave them. When an infirm chief, of but moderate prowess, is married to a superior chief wife, the engagement is accounted as ill assorted. The parent of inferior rank is often rebuked by his children and followers for the insignificance of his birth, and is not unfrequently called a slave. The wife almost invariably opposes the husband in favour of her children, and the former dares not assume any superiority, as the relatives of his wife are ever ready to avenge, even with his blood, any

unkindness shown to her or the children, the latter being regarded as less belonging to the parents than to the tribe in general. A chief lady is accounted as having greatly descended from her dignity when she bestows her affections on a commoner, and should her tastes fix on a slave, she loses caste fully as much as if the descendant of a Norman knight indulged her propensities in favour of her coachman.

10Polygamy has been encouraged by all barbarous nations. In New Zealand, as in Syria, it is customary for a man to marry two or more sisters, the eldest being accounted the chief or head of her family. Thus Laban promised Rachel to Jacob; but the conscientious heathen, by a stratagem, parts with the eldest sister first, excusing himself on the score, "It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the first-born." (Gen. c.29, v.26. ) It was necessary to "fulfil a week" previously to obtaining the younger sister. The revered patriarch appears to have made no exception to Rachel offering her handmaid Bilhah, (c.30, v.4. ) and a like happy resignation marked his pacific temperament by accepting Zilpah, the handmaid of Leah. (v.9. ) That a handmaid was yet a virtuous woman, we have the authority of Boaz. (Ruth, c. 3, v. 9, 11.) The taste for pluralities among modern barbarians, is not to be compared to the fashions of old. Solomon (1 Kings, c.11, v.3. ) had "seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines;" and from the history of the Moguls, the anxiety of many of them arose less from the affairs of state, than making up the complement of one thousand in their seraglios. Knolles states in his History of the Turks, that Sultan Selim doubled this figure, and that Achmet IV., at the time of his decease, had in his civil list sixteen hundred beauties.

11The term of Cookee is incorrect for that of a slave; this word is derived from the word cook, an office on board British ships, accounted as only fit for a slave by the New Zealanders – hence the term.

12 Education of the children of the Spartans differed widely from that of the New Zealanders. Among the former, an annual flagellation of the boys took place around the temple of Diana (though scarcely beyond infancy), until the blood flowed apace; those children that held out longest were treated with much respect. It was the practice of the parents to stand by, and, by frantic cries and promises, beg of them not to shed a tear. Despite of this not unsalutary system, the children were greatly beloved, and in all probability, the parents suffered most.

13At Tahiti, it was customary for the parent, at the birth of a child, to press the fore and back part of the head, like a wedge; impressed that such an aspect would be most felt by the enemy, and at once strike terror into them; but the effect must have been lost, as all parties presented a similar aspect.

14It has become a fashion, among a certain portion of readers, to decry narratives of a similar nature to the above anecdote; to such readers, who would solely oppose personal prejudice to assured facts, the writer does not address himself. His principal aim is to relate truths, not to sacrifice them to a fastidious taste, and to administer subjects for thought to the inquiring mind. To the reviewers attached to the leading literary and public journals, the writer is deeply indebted for the highly favourable, not to say flattering testimony, afforded by them on a former work, in his favour; but some of those intelligent and highly intellectual gentlemen have not failed to add their scepticism on the details given on cannibalism; but for attestation we would respectively refer them to the narratives of a Raffles, Cook, Marsden, Forrest, Drury, Spry, Harrison, Craufurd, Lemaire, Flaccourt, Rochon, Singleton, Banks, Leyden, Forster, Bougainville, D'Entrecasteaux, Duperry, D'Urville, Kotzebue, Krusenstern, Wilson, Labillardiere, and the various missionaries attached to the several Missionary Societies in the South Sea Islands.

15It was the custom of ancient nations to give a dowry (or payment to the father) for the wife. Hamor, in requesting the daughter of Jacob for his son, says, "Ask me never so much dowry and gift and I will give according as ye say unto me."(Gen. c.34, v.12.) Saul, anxious to mate David in his family, departed from this usual custom. (1 Sam. c.18. v.25. ) Among the Greeks no heiress was allowed to marry out of her tribe; if she neglected this, the patrimony was forfeited. The Roman women gave dowries to their husbands. The law of the decemvirs prohibited marriage between patrician and plebeian families, but within eight years the law was repealed.

16Women were accustomed to attend their husbands and relations to battle. Ovid says they habited themselves in the best dresses to attract the attention of the victors. – (Remedy of Love.) Juvenal exposes the martial propensities of the early Roman ladies in his sixth satire.

Oh! what a decent sight 'tis to behold
All thy wife's magazine by auction sold,
The belt, the crested plume, the several suits
Of armour, and the Spanish leather boots;
Yet these are they that cannot bear the heat
Of figured silks, and under sarcenet sweat;
Behold the strutting amazonian – ,
She stands on guard, with her right leg before,
Her coats tucked up, and all her motions just,
She stamps, and then cries, ah! at every thrust.
Dryden.

[Chapter IV]

CHAPTER IV.

RESPECT PAID TO CHILDREN BY THE ADULTS. – LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE, POWER OF A PARENT OR MASTER. – SYSTEM OF PRESIDENCY. – ABSOLUTISM OF FORMER CHIEFS. – POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH. – INCLINATIONS OF THE PEOPLE FOR AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS. – DECREASE OF POWER AMONG THE CHIEFTAINS. – READINESS OF THE NATIVES TO AMALGAMATE WITH BRITISH COLONISTS. – LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE TO THEIR CHIEFS. – EFFECTS OF LOYALTY ON THE LANGUAGE. – SACRED FEELING TOWARDS THE HUMAN HEAD. – RECORDS ON THE SUBJECT. – TRAVELLING IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. – CAUSES WHY CHIEFS RARELY BECOME CAPTIVES. – INAUGURATION OF STRANGERS AS CHIEFS. – PRESENTATION OF GIFTS. – ABILITIES REQUIRED IN A CHIEF. – THEIR REVENUES AND DUTIES REQUIRED FROM THEM. – REGAL INJUSTICE IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. – CUSTOM OF BESTOWING NAMES, – ANECDOTE. – MARRIAGE PRESENTS. – ANECDOTE. – TRAITS OF GENEROSITY. – SYSTEM OF BARTER AND EXTORTION. – ENCROACHMENTS. – HOW TO HANDLE A NETTLE.

THE primary origin of chieftainship has been established by certain men who have gradually asserted a supremacy among their countrymen by their superiority in prudence, courage and sagacity, and have been appealed to by the tribes as possessing in an eminent degree those valuable abilities. Thus selected from a body of persons, desirous of a form of government the office would in time become elective from few privileged families until distracted by parties, the most influential would become the hereditary dynasty. 17

Notwithstanding the great deference paid to the laws of primogeniture, 18 yet enemies taken in battle have been invested with the dignity of chieftainship, though virtually slaves to their conquerors. This has arisen from the valorous temper of the captured, who is accordingly enrolled into the tribe, some ladies of rank given to him in marriage, together with lands, slaves, dresses and canoes, as dowries. The new-made chief is regarded as incorporated in the tribe, his counsel is listened to in war, and his services accepted as a leader, though the approaching war is declared against the tribe of his relatives and former friends. This confidence on the part of the tribe has been but rarely abused by their new champion.

Each chief is the sovereign of his own district, which is often possessed by several tribes, each having a distinguishing patronymic, subdivided into several families, each subgoverned by the elder, or parent, who possesses unrestricted manorial rights, which pass in hereditary succession to the children or nearest of kin, including the females, according with the most approved system of primogeniture. The inferior chiefs exercise in their respective families the same authority as the Rangatira nui . The father is the magistrate of his family, empowered to take the life of his offspring or servants; but though the murder of a slave would not require to be accounted for, yet shedding the blood of the former is liable to be called to a strict investigation, the child (as before stated) being accounted as belonging less to the parents than to the tribe, who have often appeased their sense of justice by sacrificing the murderer.

The power of a chief is absolute over his wives, being enabled to deprive them of existence; but as in the case of putting a child to death, he is liable to suffer a similarly retributive punishment from their relatives. The power of the head chief is entirely dependent on his individual disposition. Thus the warriors E'Ongi, Pomarre the elder, Korokoro, Tarra, Porra, Titore, Muriwai, and numerous others who are now numbered with the dead, could, when living, collect on a war expedition as many followers as they required. If their sum-

mons was rejected or neglected, the allies carried war into the territory of the neutral party; but since the period of their exploits, a new system of politics and military tactics has taken place, the introduction of fire-arms and ammunition throughout the islands having equalized the strength of the people, who are now generally wearied of a state of life by which no possible benefit can accrue, and consequently have become more inclined to wield the hoe and spade for producing grain and provisions for the Europeans, than handling the once beloved musket, or working for many months at the tedious scraping of flax, for a small cask of gunpowder or equally trifling remuneration. The power of the chiefs has therefore taken a less arbitrary, less forcible, yet more salutary turn, gradually fitting themselves and their followers to amalgamate with British subjects, act as fellow-labourers in the same peaceful occupations, that can alone change their present decreasing state to that of an important integral portion of British subjects, increasing their now stunted and disunited population, and adding to their future comfort, security and happiness, that the knowledge of a just yet merciful religion will assuredly afford them.

The devoted respect paid to the chiefs by their followers is unequalled, except at the islands in the South Pacific. The name of the chief is held so sacred, that if it should happen to be a "household word," the latter is prohibited from being made use

of. Thus a chief named Maripi (knife) to the southward of the East Cape, the article was known afterwards as nekra . 19 Thus names arbitrarily made use of, and if applied to their usual signification would be pronounced pollution, has necessarily effected a great extension of language.

The hair 20 cut from the head or beard of a chief is

peculiarly sacred, the shorn locks being gathered with much care and placed in an adjoining cemetery, (Waitapu ) even the barber has to undergo a purification before he is freed from the prohibition (tapu } under which the operation causes him to labour. Every article of food received as a present to the head of a tribe, is put apart for the use of the chief only, and among the sticklers to old customs this personage is not allowed to enter the cabin of a flush ship (where the accommodations are arranged below) fearful of some person or animal walking over the sacred sconce. 21 The best made garments

are generally devoted to the use of the chief. A Rangatira nui is rarely taken prisoner in battle, his followers exerting their utmost courage to rally round his person, and even die in his defence. This extreme loyalty arises from the sacredness supposed to belong to the person of a chief, impressions instilled into the people by the priesthood, who are principally belonging to the aristocracy.

The honours of the chieftainship are not confined to the aborigines; as some Englishmen, and natives of the South Sea Islands, who arrived formerly in New Zealand, as sailors on board whale-ships, have been enrolled as native patricians: the act of naturalization principally consisting in being tattooed and enjoying a plurality of wives, who conferred their property in land and slaves on the new comer. The parents of the ladies, on such occasions, are made to feel the penalty inseparable to greatness, by bestowing handsome dowries on the husband; but property thus obtained is not assured to the foreigner.

Frequent visits of ceremony and congratulation await the chief from relatives and friends of his son-in-law; these persons receive, or expect to receive,

large presents, 22 such as muskets, powder, lead, clothes, trinkets, &c., and when they have exhausted the hospitality of their entertainer, return to their respective settlements with their booty.

The principally cherished qualifications in a chief are indomitable courage and generosity. Possessed of these passions, he is easily forgiven any crimes he may commit, whether militating against the liberty or property of his people. A chief thus endowed may rule like an autocrat with a rod of iron. 23 They derive a revenue from gifts (in

reality a tax) from the produce of the plantations, the fisheries, and all kinds of productive labour, and even of the spoils taken from an enemy, a moiety is often first offered to these august personages, who appropriate to themselves what may please them best. For a subject to do otherwise, if governed by an arbitrary chief, would be laying himself open to subsequent robbery, and a slave would probably incur the punishment of death. Yet the chiefs are more necessitous than any other class of their countrymen. Demands on their generosity are of continual occurrence. On a visit of state being made between chiefs, the host is not accounted as having acquitted himself of his duty unless he expends a quantity of presents on his visitors, consisting of dresses, canoes, large quantities of provisions, various in kind, and the best; in fine, every article of value he possesses, and this demand on his effects occurs so often, that the honour of having command is the sole sinecure attached to this rude seigniory. The various and interminable relatives that belong to the several wives of a chief, all expect in turn, proofs "oft repeated" of his generosity, especially if deprived of their substance by fire, or the contingencies of war. He is also expected to return expensive presents in return for trifling honours, which would have been gladly dispensed with. Instances of the kind are of daily occurrence. When a chief has, by his actions, rendered his name famous, and shed

lustre on his tribe, it is usual for the dignitaries of tribes in peace with them, to give the name 24 of the celebrated warrior to their offspring. On the latter attaining a few years, it is sent to its nomenclator

on a visit, as its friends are assured of its receiving numerous presents, as also its parents and conductors. A child of six years, and its friends, at one time accompanied us from beyond the East Cape to the Bay of Islands, on this same errand (a distance of 350 miles.) They staid on the visit about six weeks, treated in the most hospitable manner, and at their departure, were presented with gifts to the value of one hundred and fifty pounds.

On a great chief giving his daughter in marriage, a large dowry is also given with the lady, and on the son-in-law paying after-visits to this relative he receives large presents for himself and friends.

Kati, a chief of the Waikato river, married the daughter of Riwoa, a grandee of the Bay of Islands; on the departure of the former, he was presented with ammunition and dresses valued at two hundred pounds, of which he was deprived on his route homeward by the tribes at the river Thames (E'HorekeJ with whom his friends had been long at war.

These traits of generosity are solely to be attributed to the ruling passion of a chief, which is pride in the most aristocratical sense of the term; to gratify which, a variety of mean, unworthy actions are resorted to, that are often practised with effect on Europeans, who have had but a scanty experience in the country. Formerly it was the practice of resident traders to place themselves under the protection of the principal chief of the

district where they resided, and is yet practised at the southern part of New Zealand. On strangers or followers of the chief, wishing to barter their flax, provisions, timber, for the commodities of the trader, the chief would generally interfere, and demand for the produce offered for sale, a much larger valuation than the article was worth, or than was demanded by the owner. This system, once allowed, becomes an intolerable nuisance to the trader, who is threatened with loss of protection, (an absolute excommunication to a European, the tribe having liberty to plunder him of his effects for which he has no appeal) unless the chief is allowed to proceed as he wishes. Another annoyance is felt by the isolated traders, in being obliged to supply food to the chiefs, who affectionately make it a point to pay them visits at mealtime. Whether food be scarce or in plenty, this tax is put in force without the chief even supplying the least quota; on the contrary, even doubling the demands of the natives as the price for the provisions, that he may have an additional opportunity to ensure a gift to his friends at the expense of the trader. The encroachments of these men, who are aware of their power, often has rendered the residence of a European among the tribes, the most penible state of existence. The natives are excellent judges of character; and determination in the first instance to resist any encroachments, renders the trader to be regarded with more respect and

even affection than a contrary conduct would inspire. On British colonization spreading in the country, this annoyance will speedily disappear. In fine, the native in his present state, requires to be treated as an anonymous poet advises the handling of a nettle. 25

17In the Moluccas, among the Malays, of the same family as the New Zealanders, a system of presidency prevails, an officer being elected by certain chiefs from among themselves, in a kind of diet that is held by them.

18Great stress was paid to the laws of primogeniture by the ancients. The Greeks and Latins were particular on this head. The Mosaic laws were also well defined. Jacob used subtlety to obtain his brother's birth-right; and when about to die, he displeased his son Joseph by laying his right hand on the head of the youngest son Ephraim, when the eldest acquired that right by birth . (Gen. c.48, v.20. ) Among the Turks, and formerly the Northmen, it was less respected. Henry I. of England, obtained the crown in preference to Robert, his elder brother, and John retained the throne in preference to the son of Geoffrey.

19Among the Hindoos a prince is never called by his proper name. The Burmese account it a monstrous impiety to mention the name of the reigning prince; and such is the effect of superstition, that a Burman, when far away from his country, will shudder with unconcealed horror if requested to mention the name of his chief. Shakspeare asks, -"What's in a name?" a Hindoo will say, more than he dare tell.

20All the ancient nations entertained the most superstitious notions respecting hair. Among the Greeks none could die happy until some hair was cut from the head, which was hung up at the outer door, to denote that the family were mourning; the survivors also cut their hair, which they prided themselves on wearing long, and shaved their beards to denote the intensity of their grief; this was burnt on the funeral pyre, to induce the ghost of the deceased to be propitious. (Eurip.) Among the Egyptians, to let the hair grow was accounted honouring the Gods; and as an apology for a sacrifice, the poorer classes would cut off a portion and hang it on a tree, on the brink of a river, or in a temple. Among the Hebrews it was sinful to round the hair of the head, or mar the corners of the beard. (Lev. c.19, v.27.) The same is again enjoined: (Numb. c.6, v.5.) the Puritans forgot this injunction. Nero instituted the Ludi Juveniles to commemorate shaving his head; at first privately celebrated, afterwards publicly, with great pageantry. Suetonius says, that he enclosed the hair in a golden box, splendidly garnished with jewels, and consecrated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. Domitian, by way of varying his regal amusements, caused the hair and beards to be shaved of several of his philosophers. The ancient Magi cropped their heads. Some nations instituted the plucking of hair as a punishment. Henry II., of England, obtained a bad wife and a fine patrimony in consequence of Louis XII. shaving himself; and Peter the Great found greater difficulty in overcoming the aversion of his subjects to shaving, than he found in raising a splendid city (St. Petersburgh) out of a marsh.

21In the Polynesian Islands, the chiefs are carried on gala days on the shoulders of servants, the legs being clasped, and the hand of the former resting on the head of the servitor.
These bipeds proceed at a smart trot of six miles per hour, but the rider has his relays, who fix their hands on their thighs, bend the shoulder, and the chief quickly mounts another by slipping on the recumbent shoulder.

22The act of presenting gifts in the east is accompanied with much pomp and show; the custom is ancient. When Captain Cook was at Tanna, one of the New Hebrides, an hospitable chief named Paowang, approached with a present of fruits and roots, carried by twenty men, to make the offering appear more respectable; two men could have carried the whole quantity with ease. At the investiture of the sword (a kind of coronation,) on the person of Abdul Mejed, the present Sultan of the Osmanlis, handkerchiefs, with a thousand dollars tied in one corner, were presented by the Sultana Mother, Valide, to the French ladies present. (See also Judges c.3, v.18.)

23The chiefs of New Zealand are unable to commit such injustice to their followers as the kings in the Pacific Islands, whose servants would not only rob the inhabitants of their produce, but take their canoes for conveying the same away, and leave the unhappy owner without any substance. The very posts of the house were taken for firewood, the sufferer not daring to complain.

24Every nation boast of and take to themselves the names of their deceased ancestors. The Moslems yet preserve among them the names of Moosa, (Moses,) Ibrahim, (Abraham,) Ismail, (Ishmael,) Acob (Jacob,) Yusseff, (Joseph,) Daood, (David,) Suleyman, (Solomon,) &c. Among the Greeks, the descendants took a patronymic, as AEacus: then AEacidae, became the hereditary name. Among the Romans three names were generally used; also the praenomen, as V. for Virginius. In a family, if there were two sisters, the eldest was called Major, the second Minor. If there were more than two, they were termed according to seniority, Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta; or, at times, contracted, as Quartilla, Quintilla. Athenians and Lacedemonians took the paternal name as a mark of honour: those who could boast more riches than ancestry, took the name from their estates, as is customary in New Zealand, the writer having been called Paramatta from having an estate of that name, or Waitangi, from having property at that place. Similar cognomens are common in Great Britain. The ancients bore the same, as Uriah the Hittite. Some took the name of the father, as the son of David, or a grandfather, as Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; others from the tribes, as Judah of the tribe of that name. Many delighted in a long list of names, as Laban, who is termed by seven different names. A New Zealander will consume the alphabet many times to form a string of names to himself. The Spaniards and Portuguese indulge in similar tastes.

25

Tender handed, stroke a nettle, and it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains;
So it is with human natures, use them kindly, – they rebel,
But lie rough as nutmeg graters, and the rogues obey you well,

[Chapter V]

CHAPTER V.

CEREMONIES OBSERVED ON THE BIRTH OF THE CHILD OF A CHIEF. – CHAGRIN WHEN DECEIVED IN THE SEX. – INVENTION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. – DEITIES TAXED FOR MALIGNITY. – ART OF IMPROVING BEAUTY. RECORDS ON FASHION AND BEAUTY. – CURIOUS DENTITION. – BAPTISMAL RITES. – FORM OF PRAYERS TO THE DIVINITY. – TITHES. – EDUCATIONAI RECORDS. – OCCUPATION OF CHIEFS. – ALLOWED TO CHANGE THEIR TRIBE. – OBEISANCE OBSERVED TOWARDS THEIR WISHES. – A NATIVE TRAVELLER. – CONSEQUENCES RESULTING FROM A REFUSAL FROM SLAVE'S TO WORK. – CONDUCT REQUISITE TO OBTAIN THE FRIENDSHIP OF A CHIEF. – INTERMARRIAGES ACCOUNTED NECESSARY. – RIGHT DIVINE. – CHIEFS ACT AS AGENTS IN BARTER. – HONOUR OF A CHIEF, HOW COMPROMISED. – ANECDOTE. – FALSE CONCEPTION. – PROMISE OP RESTITUTION. – DOMESTIC TRICK ON THE WRITER.

THE birth of a Chief is celebrated with great rejoicings, congratulations and presents flowing into the laps of the parents from their relatives and friends. During the period of maternal gestation, the principal priest employs his powers of ariolation in prematurely discovering the sex and future qualities of the embryo chief, all which conclusions are accounted true as "proofs of holy writ." The chagrin of all parties is deeply manifested when the promised boy 26 happens to bear unequivocal proofs of belonging to the opposite sex, and the priest has

to tax his invention and cunning to prove that the divinity (Atua ) he had the honour of addressing, out of pure spite and malice, wholly unworthy a tenant of the spheres, had changed the sex of the child, to prove at once his potency and his unamiable propensities. The supposed Atua is then in public conclave soundly taxed with his malignity and dissimulation, and is promised the ban of the priesthood until he "betters his manners," for imposing on the sensibility and credulity of his devotees.

The child is no sooner born than he is either bathed in the sea (if summer time), or in fresh water in the winter season, and is taken to the verandah of the parental abode, where he is shown to his future followers. The beauty of his person is then attended to, some tribes rubbing the nasal promontory of their infants to give it a flatness and rich breadth of nostril truly African and Asiatic. Perforations are made in the lobe of the ears, and enlarged, by pieces of sticks, increasing in diameter, being successively inserted. The domestic history of nations proves that there cannot exist any standard of ideal beauty; for to confine our remarks to the South Sea Islands only, what would be termed the acme of elegance and fashion in one district

among the same people, would be repudiated with horror in another place. 27

On the infant arriving at its eighth day a cere-

mony takes place, somewhat resembling baptism. It is dressed in a new and handsome mat of silken flax, made for the occasion; the head decorated with feathers, and ornaments placed round the

neck. The family and friends carry the child in a kind of procession to the banks of the adjacent river, when the mother places her charge in the arms of the priest, who is generally the nearest in relationship. The old gentleman then mutters a long prayer at intervals, sprinkling the infant with water, procured by dipping some leaves in the river. The form of prayer is generally a request to the several Atuas (or immortal shades of departed chiefs, who have been ancestors of the infant), to initiate into the mind of the youngster the several feelings that will incite him to every action included within the bounds of roguery and rascality, that he may at least equal, if not exceed, the dead, who have rendered their names illustrious by the heroism (alias treachery and cannibalism) of their past lives; that the terror of his war-cry, and his performance of its accompanying dance, may alone strike terror into the heart of his enemies, and cause it to sink as rain disappears in the parched earth, or as a bird is obtained by a subtile fowler. An additional dip into the stream ends this ceremony, from which time the education of the infant commences.

Tradition is silent as to the origin from whence this ceremony is derived; but as the priests at such periods obtain a portion of their tithes, they feel interested in the continuance of any ceremonial that enables them to gather it. The food of the child becomes sacredly appropriated to its use.

The superiority of its rank is carefully instilled into his mind, both by the family and his future followers, who, it would appear, delight in fixing a yoke on themselves. The result of this installation is a dignity of demeanour that distinguishes the chief from his inferiors in rank; 28 and personal pride, that becomes eventually a distinguishing characteristic.

The Chiefs till the ground, paddle canoes, take to fishing, fowling, employ themselves at carving in wood and building houses, fences, canoes, cutting timber, with as much application as any of their followers. They are generally engaged on the public works of the village, such as erecting large flax-houses, mending the nets for fishing mackerel and snappers, oft-times a thousand feet in length, and undertake certain works that slaves or the inferior orders are not allowed to interfere

with, such as houses set apart for the kumera, and cemeteries for the dead, &c. On state or gala days, the chiefs assume, and are regarded as objects of, great importance, the symmetry of their muscular and well-rounded persons are shown to great advantage in the native dress, in which they move with graceful steps. Many of the chief females, on similar occasions, decorate themselves with flowers, and arrange their native garments so tastefully as to present an object that cannot be contemplated without admiration. On any chief, however, nearly related to the principal or Ariki of the village feeling agrieved, he is at liberty to leave his tribe and seek refuge, together with his wives, children, slaves, in that of another tribe. This is easily effected in times of peace, as the national opinion respecting hospitality would be averse to a refusal, even to a supposed enemy. But these new additions to a village are looked upon with an invidious feeling, as it is accounted among the native ethics, as the most ungrateful feeling for any person voluntarily to quit his natal village and friends. 29 If a chief or freeman feels

discontented in his own village, he never can better himself in any other, as he is subjected to be continually twitted for his conduct, which, agreeably to the sentiment of the people, can never meet with approval, but a visit of inclination, however lengthy, always meets with welcome.

The commands of a chief are generally attended to with much attention, and his desires generally obeyed, but if the feelings of his followers should be repugnant to accede to his wishes, he has merely to set an example in person towards accomplishing the reluctant task, and he is almost certain his people cannot resist following the precedent set them.

This subject has connexion with the preparing and planting certain grounds, the repairing of canoes or seines, which the generality of the minor chiefs account as unworthy of the labour required. Of course the slaves are obliged to work, as a refusal, formerly, was to risk their lives, but national

opinion being tacitly contrary towards protracted cruelty to slaves, the chief invariably attempts the having his desires complied with, from the willingness of the people, rather than coercion.

Europeans, resident in New Zealand, have always found it their interest to obtain the friendship of the principal chiefs, which alone enabled them to withstand the pilfering habits and annoying impertinence of the freemen and slaves. This new interest has given additional authority to the chiefs, who have assumed in consequence increased importance, as the people conceded to them the right to act so. To ensure their protection yet further, the new comers have married into their families after the national custom; and however such alliances may be found wanting in respectability in civilized countries, yet, in New Zealand, they are regarded as most binding for the time being, and the lady, so united, if guilty of any indiscretion, would be termed a wicked adulteress (puramu kino ), subjecting her accomplice to a severe fine (honour, in some cases, in New Zealand, admitting of a pecuniary salvo, as in more refined countries), and both parties to a sound castigation. No excuse is granted to her on the score of the propensities of her spouse for uxorious pluralities, it being equally the approved maxim of the country to punish the former and admit the latter.

The barter or commerce of a tribe is usually undertaken by the chiefs, who by virtue of their "right

divine," demand a larger price from the European whose interest they promise and are paid for to protect, and also mulct the poor vendor of a large moiety of the price thus obtained as a percentage for undertaking the intrusive commission. Yet the services of the Chiefs must be acknowledged, inasmuch, as no freeman or slave would attempt to steal from the premises of a European while under this protection, as any such robbery, however trivial, would be strictly inquired into, and consequently a heavy chastisement would be meted, as in such cases the chiefs lay great stress on their honour being thus implicated. But though these conscientious characters are thus alert eschewing the misdemeanours of their followers, they are remarkably lax in such observances in a personal view. An elderly chief named Kowai, who at one period of our residence in his district, afforded us protection, was requested to make a strict inquiry after sundry shirts, trousers, stockings, &c. that we found abstracted from the house; the chief pretended to feel greatly insulted that any European under his charge should have met with any loss, and instantly went in search of the offender, promising that when found, he should feel the full weight of his displeasure, but we afterwards discovered that the incensed Kowai himself had abstracted the missing articles, and on taxing him with his dissimulation, and the repose that had been placed in his protection, he made answer with

much naivete, that he certainly had pledged himself to protect our persons and property from any depredation his tribe might feel disposed to commit, but in alluding to his tribe, he had no conception of including himself. He then pretended to work himself into a furious passion at the very idea of our assimilating himself with the dregs of his people; but after some time consumed in displaying this species of Quixotism, and finding no effect of fear on our part to arise, he suddenly changed his manner, observed that he was merely joking, a practice he had been much addicted to from his earliest youth upwards, and promising to produce an early restitution in potatoes and kumeras, whose harvest was forthcoming. The protection afforded by a chief is generally of effectual service, except sometimes, as shown above, when they are individually concerned. 30

26The Arabs take such delight in having male children, that a friend will salute the happy father, "Ah, happy man, whose boast is in having a boy and not a female."

27Among the Mallicolese, (lat. 15 degrees 50' S., long. 165 degrees 27' E.) it is the fashion to compress the forehead backward, when in infancy, adding to their general disfigurement, by applying to their sooty skins the juice of the orange-coloured turmeric.
The Tikopians (lat. 11 degrees 40' S., long. 164 degrees 32'E.) cut off the joint of a finger or extract a tooth on the death of a relation.
At Nitendi, Santa Cruz, (lat. 10 degrees 30' S., long. 163 degrees 36' E.) Captain Dillon, in his successful research after the ill-fated De la Perouse, was greatly surprised at many of the islanders possessing teeth of an enormous size: unable to perceive any trickery in the matter, he was determined to purchase one, which after some difficulty he effected for the price of an axe. The native sat down very patiently until the implement for mastication was extracted, accompanied by a quantity of blood. On scraping away the outer substance, it was found to be composed of a concretion of lime and betel-nut (nux areca ) dust, and thus accounted for this extraordinary specimen of dentition.
Among the natives of the New Hebrides, (lat. 15 to 20 degrees S., long. 164 degrees to 168 degrees E.) who are very numerous, they have originally disfigured the head so much as to cause it to appear totally disproportioned to the human body. That the nether portion of the body should accord with their monkey-formed heads, a cord is worn tight round the stomach, which has a most disgusting appearance, the belly having the appearance of being cut in two. The ladies have conspired to render themselves equally hideous, a consummation that has rendered them objects of peculiar jealousy to their husbands. This people have not been inaptly likened in appearance to overgrown pismires.
Among the natives of New Caledonia, (lat. 20 degrees 10' to 22 degrees 30' S., long. 160 degrees 17' to 165 degrees 6' E.) who luxuriate on eating of earth (a kind of steatite), the only article of dress round their loins is so appended that a portion hangs down behind, giving the wearers an appearance of possessing a tail. The great Linnaeus was induced to believe in the existence of a race of people bom with such longitudinal formations, from the accounts given by a Swiss sailor, named Koeping, who mistook the fibrous cloth for such a graceful appendage to a canine wearer. This large island is so near to the reefs of the coast of New South Wales, that at the Northumberland Islands the open sea is less than fifty miles in breath. The mistake of the learned Linnaeus will certainly pass muster, when comparing his easy credence with the assertions of the Baron Heberstein, who in his commentaries on Russian history observes, that there actually exists in the northern parts of Muscovy, near the Oby river, bordering on Tartary, a nation he calls Leucamori , who sleep from the 27th November to the 23rd April (the historian is remarkable for his exactitude to a day), like toads, underground, and return to life despite of remaining as petrifactions for the seven months previous. The Baron was an Austrian nobleman, twice deputed as ambassador from the Emperor his master, to the court of Russia, and accounted as possessing the most scrupulous veracity.

28Moral instruction is inculcated into the children of the Chinese by the elders. The Hebrews were enjoined to teach the commandments to their children. (See Deut. c.6, v.7. ) Among the Chinese, Arabians, Persians, moral sentences are hung up in their houses, and among the latter, extracts from the Koran.
In the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, we find the females had sentences wove in the hem of their garments. This agrees with the Mosaic ordination, "And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them on the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." (Deut. c.6, v.9,10. )

29The writer in his travels encountered a native freeman in the city of New York, in the United States, whose village was in Cook's Straits. In the course of conversation, in which he was delighted in being able to "speak his heart" in his language, he said "A man can never truly love his country without first quitting it." On our remarking that he appeared much bettered in circumstances than he could have been as a simple freeman in New Zealand society, he answered, while tears came into his eyes at the recollection, "I own I hold no rank or even fortune in my own country, but dear is the place where we first see the light; the soil that has nourished us; the village where we have lived, loved, and are yet remembered. Be assured that he who has wandered from his native land, to seek wealth or honours, is like a chief habited in his festival dress, walking in the darkness of night, who cannot be seen." Domus amica, domus optima.

30The writer resided at the Mauritius during some years. At one time comparing notes of his expenses at the bazaar, or public market, with a brother official, in the Ordnance department,) he was surprised at the difference in the sum total of sicca rupees per mensem that occurred per contra in his account, and felt assured that the "cause of the effect" lay in the conduct of his peon, or Indian domestic, whose place was to make purchases of provisions at the Bazaar. On being charged with his "self-appropriating principles," which he did not attempt to deny, he answered that he followed but the maxims of his parents, to allow no other person to serve (rob) his master but himself.

[Chapter VI]

CHAPTER VI.

VENERATION ENTERTAINED BY THE NATIVES FOR THEIR ANCESTORS. – DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHIEFS. – ETERNAL ABODE. – WORSHIP OF THE LIVING. – NATIONAL OPINION ON EUROPEANS AND NATIONS. – PRACTICE OF HOSPITALITY. – SINGULAR NECESSITY. – TRIUMPHAL ENTRY. – NATIVE JESTING. – BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY. – CONSOLATION IN DYING. – LAST MOMENTS OF AN INFLUENTIAL CHIEF. – WAILING OF THE SURVIVORS. – RECORDS OF LAMENTATION AND CUTTING THE FLESH. – EUROPEANS SUPPOSED CALLOUS TO GRIEF. – ADDRESSES TO THE DEFUNCT. – ORNAMENTS. – FACE-PAINTING. – LYING IN STATE. – SACRIFICES OF HUMAN VICTIMS. – ITS DISCONTINUATION, HOW EFFECTED. – PROHIBITION OR TAPU. – CLOSING THE EYES AND SUPERSTITIOUS IDEAS. – SINGULAR CUSTOM. – ANECDOTE. – FUNERAL CHANTS. – FUNERAL DEPOSITS. – PROBABLE DISCOVERIES. – CURIOSITIES PRESERVED SACRED.

THE original feeling to which we have alluded that dictated the several generations of the people to esteem their earliest ancestors as divinities, has descended with similar force to their present posterity. The chiefs are accounted of divine origin by their followers, whose spirits after death are supposed to reign in an abode of the gods called Te Reinga , whose entrance is situated at the gloomy caverns beneath the sea-worn cliffs of the North Cape, (Muri wenua .) This disposition of the people, which is worked upon by the priesthood (who belong to the aristocracy) for their own purposes, induces a reverential awe towards their

persons, that serves the purpose of an aristocratical government. This system of living worship induces the native chief to become the proudest being that can be found among us powerless worms. The sacredness of his person has been already mentioned, but this alludes to native objects only, as a head chief is not supposed to be acting derogatory to his quality by carrying on his (sacred) back, a basket of provisions, if designed for the use only of a European; nay, he may with due deference to public opinion, carry (pekau ) pickback, the said foreigner, be his dimensions long or short, obese or shadowy, his hands resting on the sacred sconce of his divine carrier: a very young child is also granted a similar indulgence, but for a full-fledged native to attempt such a proceeding, would meet with most substantial effects of public opprobrium. During our travels in the country we had frequently to visit the native villages, though in a contrary direction to the route which we attempted to enforce for the purposes of trade; but at that period it was regarded as an act of insult for a European to pass within some miles of a village and not "just drop in" to see his native friends, and refresh himself and servants. On entering the primitive capital we have frequently been obliged to mount the back of one of the many villagers who clamorously insisted on having the honour of performing this service; partly to show our full confidence in the hospitality of the villagers, and to

avoid sinking some feet within the muddy streams that are found in the vicinity of villages, or from fatigue after a long ambulation on the sea-shore. These triumphant entries were accompanied with the shouts of the numerous residents of the village, who would pour forth, and with every demonstration of unfeigned joy, welcome the white man (pakeha ) to the village. Some of the chiefs, anxious to imitate so chivalric an effect, would mount the backs of their slaves, but the latter, unwilling to become "beasts of burden" to their masters, generally contrived to ease themselves of a nuisance they were unable to complain of, by adroitly stumbling in a soft oozy spot, where no bones could be broken however the dignity and appearance of the rider might suffer. These freaks, actually practised on a native, often serve as an amusement to frighten a European, these novel racers generally making the attempt when in a marshy place, where this most relished of jests tells best. Many such intended jokes often prove earnest ones, as the uncertain step of the carrier may light on a rolling stone concealed a couple of feet below the mud and thus cause both the horse and his rider to risk suffocation in the oozy spot.

If the birth and marriage of a chief is attended with, many ceremonies and rejoicings, with his death, it may be said, commences the aera of his future renown. The dying chief courts the silent state, that persuaded by his religious belief he feels

assured an undying state of immortality awaits him. A feeling of exulting pride cheers his last moments, as his apotheosis is about to take place; his soul becoming a protecting divinity to his followers and posterity on earth, his left eye ascending to heaven, transformed as a star in the same spheres as his progenitor Mawe and his progeny, have become before him. He gloats and prophesies numerous fanciful ideas, worthy an Epicurean, on the annual exhumation of his remains, when the valorous deeds of his youth, and the prowess he displayed of yore, will be sung in loud choruses by hundreds of his affectionate followers, interrupted only by tears of hopeless regret, that they can no longer do him personal honour in this life. At various periods we attended the last moments of several influential chiefs. On one occasion, a chief, resident to the south-west of the Thames, had been some months in a declining state, occasioned by consumption, a disease that has slain its thousands in New Zealand. On approaching him, he was unable to speak; his countenance was suffused with the hectic flush that partly indicates this afflicting malady, and precedes death. Suddenly his limbs moved in intense agony, hurried murmurs escaped from his lips, the benevolent feelings of every person present appeared irresistibly attracted towards the dying man, who shortly after sunk under his disorder. On this, the most lamentable wailing commenced, and the anguish of

the surviving wives and nearest relatives it is impossible to depict. Certainly, in the impassioned expression of passionate grief the natives surpass the Europeans, who are regarded by this simple people as a hard-hearted race, from their being less obstreperous in their distress. 31 The relatives, friends, and children, were all grouped around the corse, bleeding at every pore from deep incisions made in their flesh with muscle-shells, evidently feeling their loss most keenly, evidenced by bursting forth into touching cries and deplorable moans, at their deep and bitter bereavement. Some parties were literally drenched in blood. 32 The various

expressions that escaped them were demonstrative of unmitigated sorrow. "Now, " uttered one of the mourners, "the Natiawas tribes may rejoice,

the arm that so often chastised them is laid low; their children will no longer fear captivity, their warriors may rest from seeking hiding-places; their women will now rejoice, fearing no longer to die slaves in the village of their enemy. Now our beloved is no more; the Natiporo will plant in safety; the Maniapoto will fish in peace. O! chief, look down on us, now thou art become our protector in the Reinga ." During these laments, the body of the deceased was laid out in state by the priests nearest in relation to him. The head was ornamented with a profusion of the most valued feathers of the albatross, the hair carefully combed

The remains of Upokia a Chief of Wangari, lying in state.

and anointed with a profusion of shark-oil, and tied at the crown in a knot with a riband (pare ) of tapa. In the bored lobes of the ears, some white down from the breast of sea-fowl was hung pendent, and the face rubricated with a profuse quantity of red ochre (kokowai .) 33 A garland of white and pink flowers of the petalous kaikatoa , encircled the head. The face then received a wash of oil, several beautiful mats wove from the silken flax, and sent expressly by the relatives in honour of the deceased, were carefully thrown, on the body, which was placed in an upright position, leaving the head only visible. Several skulls and osseous remains of the tribes who had been enemies of the deceased were brought forth and ranged at his feet. The exhumed remnants of his ancestors were placed on a settle in the vicinity of the head. The preserved heads of the enemies killed in battle, placed on

poles, were stationed in the precincts of the burying ground (wai tapu ) that skirted the village. 34 In this instance the custom of murdering a number of slaves, in order to attend their deceased chief in the world of spirits, was not complied with, several Europeans residing in the vicinity, whose intercourse and remonstrances with the defunct, had induced him to desire that such a barbarous crime should not be committed at his decease. This was effected by working on the superstitious feelings of the chief, who was told that the blood of the murdered slave would demand atonement from him in after life. His several wives and slave concubines desisted from hanging or drowning themselves on the same principle, much to the annoyance of the priesthood, who view these foreign innovations as a prelude to the gradual decadence of native religious feeling in New Zealand.

Every person connected with the rites of burial are prohibited (tapu ) from touching any food, or being touched. Such persons receive their aliment

by being fed by their neighbours, 35 the former extending their jaws to the utmost limit (similar to a

Portrait of Tamaroa, a Chief of Kaipara.

lion rampant on a sign-board), the latter pitching, with exact nicety, the morceaux into the gaping reservoir, which an interdict forbids should be touched by contaction. After the chief has breathed his last, muskets are fired without intermission during the period he lies in state, generally three or four days, and should a cannon or swivel gun belong to the tribe, it is brought on this occasion into requisition. 36 The closing of the eyes, and every movement of the priesthood connected with the obsequies of the departed, are signals for deep bursts of unrestrained grief from the surrounding throng. As the messengers (karari ) deliver the sad tidings to neighbouring tribes, fresh arrivals enter the circle of the afflicted villagers, with presents to decorate the corse, who on such occasions only, are not received with demonstrations of wel-

come. Though the deceased may, during his life, have incurred the hatred of his friends or visitors, all now concur in grieving at his loss, as if society had received a deep infliction. 37 After the body has lain some time, it is customary among some tribes, to beat it with some wisps of flax, the priests uttering some unintelligible gibberish to drive away the evil spirits. On remarking to one of those sacerdotal sons on the folly of uttering prayers which no person living could understand, he answrered, "A sensible man will ever address the living in language the dead cannot understand, and the dead or spirits should be invocated in a similar manner, that the living should be kept in the dark and not have an undue advantage."

Chanting in chorus the pihe or funeral song, 38

then commences, broken only by the grief of the several relatives, who may be particularly struck with certain passages relative to the deeds of the deceased, now uttered in his praise. On the third day, the shell or bed is brought out where the deceased is to be deposited, on which fresh laments ensue, rendering the sound, even at some distance, appalling. Favourite muskets, mats, trinkets, gunpowder, and a variety of articles, valuable of their kind, are interred with the body, 39 the whole is car-

ried away by the priesthood, and deposited in the cemetery of the village.

Toki pu tangata – a native stone adze

31The great and very sore lamentation made for Jacob at the floor of Atad in Canaan by the "horsemen and very great company" that accompanied Joseph and his brethren, induced the inhabitants to name the place Oval Mitzrayim, (the mourning of the Egyptians.)

32The grief of the early nations of Palestine and the Greeks, was demonstrated by beating of the breast and thighs, tearing the cheeks with finger-nails; the men were less frantic than the women, whose passions are less easily subdued. (Dion. lib. ix, cap.18.) Solon forbade these rites. The Lacedemonians tore the flesh from their foreheads with pins. (Virg. AEn. iii. et vii. ) It was a general belief that blood-shedding was grateful to the ghosts of the departed. The Hebrews mourned for Aaron thirty days, (Numb. c.20, v.29.) and for Moses also thirty days. (Deut. c.34, v.8.) They wept with bitter weeping. (Jerem. c.31, v.5.) The Romans hired mourners (proficiae), as do the Moors of Barbary at this day, and the generality of Mussulmans. The modern Hebrews mourn closely seven days for their dead, termed sivan, and thirty days cease from shaving. The Jews in Barbary sit seven days with their jaws tied up, (except when requiring aliment, which is given to them, agreeable to Ezekiel, c.24, v.17.) Being fed by others not included in the prohibition, is similar to the tapu of New Zealanders, who sit with their garments over their face, after the first burst of grief has subsided. Several nations shaved their heads at such periods. (Jerem. c.48. v.37. ) The Ludi funebres was instituted for the rich Romans, male and female, who provided for it in their wills.
The cutting of the flesh appears to be almost coeval with the earliest mourning. Elijah mocked the heathens who "cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them,"(1 Kings c.18, v.28. ) The Arabians cut their hands to this day. These practices were common to the Chaldeans, as alluded to by Isaiah. The Romans killed cattle to feast the propensity of ghosts for blood, (Virgil.) Among the Greeks mourning continued for a long time, the corpse often lying in state a fortnight. Achilles was kept seventeen days (Homer's Odys.) Three days were the least allowed for chiefs; the bodies were never interred at night, it being accounted improper; evil spirits being abroad. The same feeling actuates the New Zealander. The decease of a youthful Greek was greatly lamented: their interments took place at morning twilight, the calamity being accounted as too great for the sun to behold.

33All nations of olden times painted the faces of the dead. According to Dio, in his life of Nero, the face of the murdered Britannicus was daubed over with a whitewash, to prevent the livid discoloration of the face being seen, arising from the poison given to him, but the truth was manifested by a heavy rain washing the paint off. Among the Romans, if a face was distorted in death, it was buried with a covering, as was Scipio Africanus; and in a mask if the head was crushed by accident, as in battle. Such obsequies were termed larvata funera . The faces of women were usually painted. All the ancients anointed their dead. (Psalm 23, v.5, Eccl. c.9, v.8)

34It was customary among the nations around Palestine, and in India, to sacrifice a number of slaves, that their blood should propitiate the deities.
The funeral of Jonas, king of the Comans, (a desperately bad people, who were afterwards destroyed by the French,) who died while about receiving baptism, was celebrated by eight of his courtiers and twenty-six of his most valued horses, being suspended from trees around the defunct.

35Ancient Hebrews laid their regal dead on beds of "sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art," (2 Chron. c.16, v.14); the interment was conducted with much magnificence. It was enjoined, that all persons passing a funeral should follow the procession to the grave, who became in consequence "unclean," equivalent to the native tapu , until they had washed themselves; to touch food without doing so would have been accounted unholy. (Numb. c.19. ) This was the law of purification, yet practiced by the Hebrews in England to this day.

36None but the nearest relations among the Greeks and Romans had the privilege of closing the eyes of the deceased. It was accounted a perquisite of great value, to inhale the last breath of a dying person, whose passing vigour it was expected would enter the person of the inhaler.

37Spartans and Lacedemonians fanned the body with leaves and consecrated hair, to forbid the approach of evil spirits. After interment they frequently threw odorous flowers or wreaths on the tombs for the same purpose, a custom that has descended to the Eastern and European continental nations of the present day. The Egyptian and Turkish females throw sweet basil, and myrtle. At Aleppo and many other Mussulman cities, large gardens of the latter are planted for this express purpose.

38Funeral chants accompanied the obsequies of the ancients. Among the Romans they had three epicediums chanted in the procession at the pile and grave. Funereal songs in praise of the dead were called naenia.

39At a future period many aboriginal curiosities will be discovered by the European colonists in tilling the ground, that will give much satisfaction to the antiquarian, as the New Zealanders have been from time immemorial in the habit of burying with their dead the favourite axes and implements of stone, that were highly prized by their chiefs while in this existence. The removal of such articles, some few years since, after once deposited in a sacred place, would be accounted the height of impiety and sacrilege either by a foreigner or native; the former would be subjected to lose every article of property he might possess, the latter to death. But this feeling is now fast giving way, but the knowledge of the places where those precious articles have been placed is lost, the priesthood only originally knowing the secret, and they are long since numbered with the dead. In 1835, an influential priest was bribed by us to dispose of an ancient adze, called toki pu tangata by the people; it was extremely ancient, and had been buried in a sandy soil for many years; the place of its interment was only known to the priest, who had noted the spot by the branching of a particular tree called Rata . We afterwards discovered, that had the circumstance been known of the priest having sold it, probably the infuriated sticklers for sanctity would have sacrificed the seller to their resentment. The adze was formed of a blue granite inserted in a handle of the rata or red pine-wood, carved agreeably to native taste. This instrument from disuse, is scarcely to be met with in the country,

[Chapter VII]

CHAPTER VII.

OFFICES OF THE CHIEFS. – SACRED VICTUALS. – AN EUROPEAN CONVERT. – ANECDOTE. – ACCLAMATIONS OF GRIEF. – SERVICES OF THE PRIESTHOOD. – FEAST OF EXHUMATION. – CEREMONIES UNDERTAKEN BY THE PRIESTHOOD. – THE NATURE OF THE PRAYERS. – REQUESTS PUT TO THE DEITIES. – RECORDS OF SIMILAR FESTIVALS. – DIFFERENCE IN FORMS OF COMMEMORATION. – SACRIFICES OF HUMAN VICTIMS. – CAUSES OF ITS DISCONTINUATION. – FESTIVAL IN HONOUR OF TI KOKI, AN INFLUENTIAL CHIEF. – NATIVE PREPARATIONS. – ART OF BEAUTIFYING. – NEW USES FOR EUROPEAN GARMENTS. – MODERN FASHIONS. – FEMALE DECORATIONS. – RECEPTION AMONG THE VILLAGERS. – MOUNTING. – NATIVE HORSEMANSHIP. – CUSTOMS OF STATE. – SALUTATION. – HOW TO OBTAIN A LION'S SHARE. – NATIVE TON. – A GLANCE AT A NATIVE CARNIVAL. – PAINTED PEOPLE. – PUBLIC INTRODUCTIONS. – THE DANCE OF WELCOME. – NECESSARY PREPARATIONS AND INTRODUCTORY MOVEMENTS. – THE HAKA. – IMPLEMENTS MADE USE OF BY DANCERS. – EFFORTS OF THE LADIES. – FEATS AND SONGS ACCOMPANYING THE DANCE. NATIVE GRIMACE. – EFFECT IN TIME OF WAR. – THE TANGI, OR LAMENTATION. – THE PLEASURES OF GRIEF. – FEELINGS ENGENDERED BY ABSENCE.

THE food of the Chief mourners at an haihunga is not allowed to be cooked by the slaves, to whose office such labour is generally assigned, but the nearest relatives of the defunct perform this necessary service, a portion of which is set apart for the inanimate remains. The latter is called sacred food (poapoa , or kai tapu no te tupapaku ) and for a mortal to partake of it, would be accounted an action of the most sacrilegious character. To such an excess has the religious feeling of the natives

been brought on this subject, that we have heard a European, who had resided many years in the country, exclaim, with superstitious fervour, that nothing could induce him to partake of provisions 40 over which so many prayers had been ejaculated and had undergone so many ceremonials. On remarking that such prayers could have no connexion with the addresses we pay to an invisible Creator, he replied, that residing many years among the people had in part effected a great change in his opinions, for he had heard the native priests promise many things that had actually come to pass, and that there must be something in it . We concluded by observing, that where a class of men have studied the winds and their effects from infancy, they would certainly be enabled to make "pretty particular" shrewd guesses as to the probable state of the weather in the course of a day or even a week, and when they were hourly requested to foretell what would probably happen, they stood a fair chance of hitting at times on the truth, especially as they were aware of the habits of their

clients from earliest infancy. A dubious shake of the head, though there was little in it , proved, that habit and banishment from civilized society had effected a deplorable change in the man.

On the shell and body being deposited in the cemetery previously to quitting the place, the numerous mourners again burst forth in loud wailing, and excoriating their bodies, a mournful rivalry subsisting among many of the relatives as to whom the greatest quantity of blood shall be drawn, torrents of tears and unavailing howls appropriately chiming in the melancholy chorus. Many give vent to their grief in loud expressions: "Ah! why was I not taken from this life rather than you, O beloved chief." The wives will say, "what is our country now to us, since we are deprived of you; who will now be kind to us, who can supply your place, there being none left like unto you?" The priests then finish the ceremony by uttering loud orations in praise of the deceased; his warlike deeds are exaggeratedly dwelt upon, and his religious reliance on the priesthood are spoken of in the most indulgent terms, the loyalty of his followers is also recommended; here the orators are often interrupted by renewed sobs and exclamations from the crowd, "he was too good for us; we were not kind enough." The priests then add a good word for themselves, detailing their care of the deceased from his early years, that they consulted the oracle for his good only, that they bewitched (makutu ) his

enemies and strengthened the hearts of his friends, and having carefully watched the corse, since the lamented moment of his death, that evil spirits should not touch him, or that pigs, dogs, or rats, should not dissolve the consecration (tapu ) with which they had enveloped the corse. These orations ended, the crowds depart, and the actions, &c. of the deceased only are spoken of until the exhumation (haihunga ) takes place, about one year after the decease of the chief.

This festival is a religious institution from time immemorial, sedulously attended to by various tribes to commemorate the actions in this life of the illustrious dead. The bones of the deceased warrior are taken to the river 41 (which is consecrated

for the time, no person being allowed to paddle or canoe on it, or bathe therein), and after being scraped clean with muscle-shells from all extraneous flesh, are well washed and replaced in the cemetery, where they remain untouched until the period of the haihunga (festival of exhumation), when the priesthood in solemn procession remove them to the vicinity of the village appropriated as the scene of the festival. The primitive clergy while undertaking this sacred office, join in an antistrophal chant, in which the warlike actions of the deceased are elaborately dwelt upon; this posthumous flattery being the more exaggerated as the spirit of the deceased is regarded as apotheosised, and is expected to watch with feelings of much self-complacency on the proceedings of the festival instituted to his honour. During these prayers (Kauwau )

the chanters contrive to slip in some requests for themselves, recommending the spirit not to forget the annoyances he received when on earth from such a person or tribe (naming them coupled with anathemas), that now he has an opportunity to revenge himself and tribe, and farther invocate him not to forget himself so far as to neglect profiting by the opportunity; also that the crops of the requisitionists may increase, in proportion as those of inimical tribes may decrease; one will demand a good marriage for his daughter, or a settlement in life for a son; another that the jealous feelings of his wife may be changed so as to admit of a plurality of helpmates in the house of the chanter. The bones are then deposited in a new mat, and placed on a scaffold (wata ) about four feet from the ground.

Sometimes the haihunga is given in honour of a number of deceased chiefs, belonging either to the same tribe, or a collection of two or more friendly tribes, who associate the bleached remains of their dead, that consist of the various (scraped) ossifications of the human body. The skulls are also entirely denuded of the flesh, and the whole powdered with red earth (kokowai ). In the vicinity of these remnants of mortality, are placed the preserved heads of the enemies of the tribes taken in battle or predatory warfare; these are generally decorated with feathers and circlets of twisted grass (wakaou ) that are said to be picked up near sacred places (Wai

tapu ) and left by the shadowy spirits of deceased chiefs, as they flit on their destined way, that leads to the Avernus of this singular people.

The commemoration of the haihunga differs greatly at the present period, from what took place formerly, when it would have been accounted as the height of sacrilege and impiety on the part of the surviving relatives, if they omitted the sacrifice of a number of slaves whose services were to be given to their chief in the world of spirits. For a chief to enter his new abode, without feeing ushered by a number of slaves and wives, was accounted the greatest indecorum that could possibly exist, 42 but from the scarcity of slaves during late years, or

rather from the profits accruing from their employment in rearing pigs, and planting provisions, cutting timber, and cleaning flax for their numerous European visitors (their services being at a premium), these butcheries, that were conducted "wholesale, retail, and for exportation," have ceased: – wholesale, from the number of miserable victims sacrificed; retail, from being served up in a cooked state to these anthropophagi by piecemeal; and for exportation, as portions of this monstrous aliment were preserved in baskets and despatched to several relatives or friends, who from absence on other business, or illness, were unable to do justice to the inhuman repast on the spot. The ostensible reason for practising the haihunga at the present day, is less for an exhumation of dead bones, on whose efficacy in being serviceable, the ideas of the people have undergone great change, from their intercourse with Europeans for many years past, but rather for the continuance of a public banquet, and the fair or general market, which this festival has been the means of introducing. 43

An account of the haihunga of Ti Koki, a much esteemed warrior, one among the many we attended, will best serve to describe this festival. Some native chiefs in our employ, who belonged to the tribe giving the feast, invited and accompanied us. Taking advantage of the flood tide, we rowed to the river Kauakaua , until it contracted so much in breadth, we were obliged to make use of paddles; about a mile further, the stream became too shallow for the boat, when the natives, who had decked themselves in European duck frocks and trousers, stripped themselves of the latter, which they left inside the boat, manually propelling it, thus lightened, for the distance of a quarter of a mile; we were then obliged to land. Previously to proceeding to the village where the festival was to be held, distant about half-a-mile, the natives staid to arrange their painting and dressing. The gentlemen arranged the hair of each other, and being all sons of chiefs, placed with the gout of connoisseurs the plucked feathers of the albatross (Uianui ), gannet (tara ), and other sea-fowl in various parts. Red paint, (kokowai ) was much in requisition; a quantity of the mixture was arranged in a broken calabash, into which some of these antipodal exquisites absolutely dipped the entire head and face,

representing the diables vivant in Der Freischutz. One of them had painted one half of his face longitudinally with this mixture from the back of the head, forehead, downwards to his throat, the opposite half being rubricated with charcoal-dust, and the whole washed over with rancid shark-oil. The effect of the red and black joining in the centre, which was executed with much exactitude, so that each side of his nose wore a parti-colour, that was ludicrous in the extreme. As to the purposes the European articles of dress were put to, were, to that say the least, certainly foreign to the intention of the manufacturer in Glasgow, if they came from that emporium of industry, or of London if "town made." One gentleman sported a black worsted stocking on one arm, and a white sock on the other; his nether man was encased in a pair of inexpressibles so arranged that the front buttoned up behind, leaving exposed to view "an insertion" in the "unmentionable" seat that proved it had not been repudiated too hastily by its original possessor Another, whose sole article of dress was the apparition of a fashionable body coat, had encased his ample chest within it, but though the perspiration streamed from every pore, this tight fit was buttoned, the wearer gasping for breath at each respiration he took; the rest of his person was in puris naturalibus . Another wore a shirt round his naked loins, as a pastry-cook would an apron, and round his throat a pair of duck trousers was tied in lieu

of a handkerchief, another party had put on a woman's gown, whereas his lady (for we had the dear sex with us) sported the trousers of her spouse, that from the natural turn of her temperament was far from inappropriate. Some other articles of faded apparel shrunk from the stature of their former possessors, by continual ablution, completed the arrangements of the rest of this unique suite, who saw nothing inappropriate in their appearance, but from its droll inconsistency no European could resist from laughter. The ladies had decorated their glossy ringlets with oil, and inserted the pretty flowers of the kaikatoa and towai in their beautiful tresses, which hung down on their backs in profusion. They made no use of the red earth. With the exception of the lady in trousers, they had dressed themselves in gowns and check shirts, over which were thrown their native garments, wove from the silken flax, which descended in ample folds to their feet. On these preparations being completed, the gentlemen loaded their guns, whose locks and butts had been carefully burnished, and on arriving in the vicinity of the village, discharged them. On the report reaching the ears of the villagers, a number of them rushed forth to ascertain who the new comers were, and on replying, a European, a shout was raised, "A white man! A white man!" (E'pakaha! Epakaha! } This cry was reverberated a thousand times among the in-mates of the village, who rushed forth waving

boughs of trees, garments, and discharging their ammunition, which was returned by our party. Between the village and the place where we stood, a broad rivulet irrigated the valley, at the brink of which a number of our hosts presented themselves, vociferously insisting on the office of carrying us across on their shoulders. The claimants for this dubious honour, became so numerous and unruly, that we had nearly fallen from the crupper of one of these steeds, but finally got a safe passage across, borne attending supporters keeping us up behind, while each leg and foot was detained in the custody of two stout fellows who insisted on their detention. As we approached the village, a number of stout natives, wholly denuded of dress, rushed forward in a tumultuous manner to meet us, hallooing and roaring to the utmost extent of their well-practised lungs, a welcome, (airamai !) The ladies also screeched in chorus a warm reception, and the dogs, those harbingers of joy and grief in a native village, with an instinct peculiarly refined, howled their welcome to the new comers, whose particular notes they recognised with affectionate avidity.

On entering the village, a lane was formed of the immediate followers of the head chief, who sat on the ground with his back leaning against his hut, surrounded by a circle of venerable men whose white flowing beards and gray heads attested the salubrity of the climate, and the fortune that had attended the tribe in escaping from the lures of their enemies

and the "glorious uncertainty" of battle. E'Ruku, the chief, in conformity with the custom of his people, sat in state to receive us, and though undistinguished by any peculiarity in dress from his attendants, his rank was easily recognised by the dignified bearing, acquired by an habitual exercise of authority. After pressing noses for a few seconds, the chief expressed his gratification at the visit paid to him. The old gentlemen around also expressed much satisfaction at the presence of the "whity man, " whose presence was peculiarly agreeable, and whose tobacco was infinitely more so. This favourite narcotic was immediately requested by the attendant chiefs, but this grateful present was given to Ruku, who immediately gave a portion to each of his surrounding nobles, until instead of the "lion's share," he retained not enough to satisfy an infant. The venerable Goths were aware of this, but regarding us as the jackall on the occasion, and consequently provider for the lion, very coolly pocketed (if a small pouch three inches square, suspended by a greasy cord from the neck, deserves the term) their share, after priming their pipes for a present supply. Ruku with some earnestness regretted that he had wholly forgotten himself, but felt satisfied he had been enabled to supply his friends, even at the consequent loss he must individually feel. Aware that as long as any of this much-valued production remained in our possession, attempts would be made to procure it, we gave the

chief all that remained, who, assured that no more was secreted behind, appropriated it to himself. We were afterwards introduced to the ladies of the several chiefs, that were included in the circle, whose nasal members we pressed with a vigour that argued the respect felt towards the individual, and assertion of the courtesy prescribed by the native ton . A glance at the company in this native carnival may not be deemed intrusive. The countenances of all the males were rubbed with the red kokowai that had been powdered fine and mixed with oil, whose foetid effluvia obliged us gladly to move to windward. Many had also enriched the crimson stains with broad bands of blue earth (parakawahia ), that encircled the eyes like spectacles, a band across the nose serving to unite the colouring pigment. All present were decorated with feathers, some old chiefs having their heads resembling those unhappy wights who are tarred and feathered. Each of our retinue was presented to Ruku and the conscript fathers, who sat in conclave around him. Each presentation was accompanied by the pressing of noses (e'ongi ) and expressions of "Friend, welcome; how are you all," &c. "Ekoro airamai tenarakokoe" in a whining tone, as if each were about to condole for the loss of their entire generation. The last who approached was a nephew to Ruku; they remained fast locked in mutual embrace, tears on both sides falling in plentiful effusion from their eyes and nose, that

afforded me much satisfaction in having already pressed the now indecorous proboscis of the chief. On these requisite salutations being performed, the natives prepared for the dance of welcome, without which a guest would account he had been but indifferently received. All the males doffed off their native garments, the villagers forming one party, and the visitors another. The males had purposely denuded themselves entirely. After pursuing each other like mad-fellows for some time, interchanging blows, some of which were no sinecure, they separated from each other and hastily formed themselves into ranks, taking opposite places. This, from long practice, was immediately performed, when they rushed past each other to secure opposite places. In this melee various knock-down arguments, as such rough play has been termed, were discussed. The recipients appeared to return it in good earnest, with sticks, paddles, short spears, and whatever lay in their reach. After this had continued some time, each party returned to their places, not omitting in this dos a dos movement, to give some sly hits to the opponent in this play. The dance (haka ) then commenced amid the discharge of artillery. Each party formed an extended line of three ranks; the entire body of performers were mixed together, without reference to the rank they individually held in the community. The males were armed with muskets, which they brandished with much adroitness, so as to display the burnished

stocks, on which much care had been expended. Those who were unable to procure this much-valued weapon, sported bayonets fixed to long spears, paddles, and even rail fencing (taiapa ). The females, single and married, widows and handmaids, added their efforts to this dance of welcome; but in order to give due effect and prepare for the exertion, they had stripped themselves to the waist, leaving their budding charms exposed to the gaze of their comrades, whose attention, be it said, was wholly confined to the dance. From the waist was appended a long garment of silken flax, that answered every purpose modesty could require, except when in the eagerness of the wearer's exertion, some treacherous belt betrayed the fidelity reposed in it, and let fall the only covering that otherwise answered every purpose, as long as it remained in the position assigned. In the chant that accompanies a dance, proper time was kept, as admirably tuned was the responsive chorus, whose effect must be heard to be appreciated, when issuing from the lips of a thousand performers, who at the same moment, to give increased effect to the sound, accompany the voice with a clap performed by the flattened right hand on the left breast, the whole body of performers apparently actuated by one well-timed impulse. The implements in their hands are instantly brandished, accompanied by shouts, yelling, howling, "long and loud," that threaten hard to destroy the auricular organs of the audience. At

the same time their countenances are distorted into every possible shape the muscles of the human face can admit of, a leader giving a new grimace which is adopted instanter by all the performers, in the most exact union, rolling the eye-balls to and fro in their sockets, that at times the ball becomes almost inverted. This feat has the most diabolical appearance where a stain of blue pigment encircles the orbit of vision. The long tresses of hair worn by

both sexes, streaming loosely in the wind, and encircling countenances of a demoniacal cast, has an appearance that recalls to mind the Saxon traditions of our ancestors, or an army of Gorgons whose looks were reputed to change into stones those on whom they cast a glance, whose tresses were snakes, one of whom (Medusa) was placed by Perseus on the aegis of Minerva. The tongues of the performers were thrust out of their mouths, with an extension that rivalled the well-known chameleon, a feat accomplished by long habitual practice from early infancy. The whole effect gave an insight into the strong emotions these dances must produce in times of war, in raising the bravery of a party, and scaring an antagonist, as also heightening the implacable hatred the belligerents must feel towards each other. The opposite party returned the compliment in similar style, the old seigniors acquitting themselves as nimbly as their juniors. When the dance ceased, the lamentation (tangi ) commenced, in which this singular assemblage dissolved into

OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. 89

tears, wailing and gnashing of teeth, with a promptitude equalled only by the transformations produced by the wand of Harlequin in a pantomime, or a ruthless enchanter in a fairy tale. The tangi on this occasion related solely to the loss of the deceased chief, and persons who had been gathered to their fathers during the year.

These lamentations extend to either sex. The method of performing it is by two persons sitting on the ground, when they press noses for some time together (at best an unpleasant coalition, but in cold seasons a perfect nuisance,) and giving way to grief, by recalling to remembrance the virtues or endearing actions of the dead. With heads enclosed and hid within one garment, entwining each other, they burst forth simultaneously into a paroxysm of tears, giving vent to their absorbing grief by dismal moans and wailing. After this has continued some time, they join in a loud chant interrupted by liquid streams issuing from the eyes and noses, commemorative of the past, the happiness that has vanished, and probable mishaps of the future. This Jeremiad is taken up by turns, groans are interchanged, and they work themselves up into great affliction.

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 . The suitor for this display of misery has no sooner expressed his desire, than, with the vacillating habits of these people, the whole company instantly squatting down on the ground, have commenced crying with all "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. This rite reminds us of those observed by the ancient people of Palestine, whose names are even blotted from the list of living nations, the practice of which an indivisible and bountiful Providence forbade a continuance.

40The Anglo-Saxons feasted "right royally" on the death of a thane or chief. In many instances the corpse has been hindered from burial until the "mourners" had absolutely made sure of having eat up every article of property the deceased had left behind. The violence and rude conduct of the guests will not admit of conception at the present day.

41Removing of bones occasioned a solemn feast among the olden nations. Roman superstition regarded the dead as unhappy, if any ceremony was omitted in their obsequies; and their vengeance was accounted complete, by refusing burial to the slain of their enemies. The infamous Sylla willed that his bones should be burnt, fearful that the faction of Marius would violate his tomb, as in like manner his soldiers had treated those of Marius. The curse of Shakespeare on him who removed his bones, arose from a feeling that has attached itself to all mankind. The modern Hebrews are so scrupulous on this head, as to bury one person only in a grave; and when the cemetery is filled, the place is locked up, and can only be again made use of by a layer of earth several feet in depth, being heaped over the old ground. By 2 Chron. c.28 v.27 we find, the remains of a bad king were not allowed to be placed in the tomb of his ancestors. Jehoram and Joash for their ill-conduct were buried privately (2 Chron. c.21 v.20; c.24 v.25.) A diseased man was not honoured with ceremonies at his funeral, for of Uzziah, king of Judah, they said, "He is a leper." (2 Chron. c.26 v.23.) The Egyptians held what might be denominated a public inquest on the dead body as to the character of the defunct, and no coffin or embalming was allowed to a wicked person.
Greeks and Romans placed in the mouths of their dead an obolus to bribe Charon for a passage across the infernal Styx (Lucian), and a cake of flour and honey to appease Cerberus. (Virg. AEn. vi., 420.)

42Sacrificial honours are not paid to slaves; but on the contrary they are murdered as victims to appease the manes of the departed. Among the Greeks it was usual, on burning the body of a chief, to cast a number of human victims in the flames, with abundance of costly presents and perfumes, gums, &c. The body of a general was burnt with his spoils taken in war, and a number of his captives (Homer). The Romans at an early period never burnt a body without company, and to satisfy the taste of the ghost for blood, a number of cattle were also sacrificed. (Virg.) Independent of human sacrifices, whole flocks of cattle were consumed at the altar. Particular laws as to conducting the various offerings are detailed in the holy writings. Among the Greeks a hecatomb was sacrificed at one festival. Solomon sacrificed on one day 20,000 oxen, and 120,000 sheep. (1 Kings c.8 v.63.)

43Feasting enters into all the religious ceremonies of barbarous nations. St. Augustine was remarkably successful in making converts of the Anglo-Saxons; the secret, according to the venerable Bede, appears to have been, in consequence of the Pope recommending to the saint to ordain that certain festivals should be permitted to them, so that they might devour as many oxen to the glory of God as the new converts had been accustomed to consume in reverencing the devil.

[Chapter VIII]

CHAPTER VIII.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FEAST. – VARIETY OF THE FARE. – HUMOURS OF THE FAIR. – SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE FESTIVAL. – NATIVE AUCTIONEER AND FOREIGN IMPORTATIONS. – NATIVE MANUFACTURES. – DISPUTATION FOR BARGAINS. – CUSTOMS IN FAVOUR OF FEMALES. – ITS CONSEQUENT EFFECT. – MODERN INFLUENCE OF THE SEX. – GRACELESS CURS. – EFFECT OF ROBBERY. – NEWLY IMPORTED SPORTS. – UNCOMMON DRESS. – THE KIEVIKIENI BIRD. – SNARES FOR ITS CAPTURE.

WHILE these laments were the order of the day, we went to the place where the feast or rather market was allotted. A long lane was formed on an extensive level plain, fifty feet in width, by two high walls, formed by perhaps upwards of ten thousand baskets of potatoes, kumeras, Indian corn (Holcus indicus ], tarro (arum }, water melons, turnips preserved, (kou ) steamed kernels of the native fruit, (karaka ) baked roots of the ti palm tree, (korou ) a quantity of dried cod, eels and other fish, also of shell-fish, bundles of fern-root, onions, peaches, grapes, &c. Against each portion sat the proprietor and his friends, who had erected a few stakes to windward, matted with bushes in place of a booth, as protection against wind and rain. In addition to the above fare, were a number of pigs of various age and size, easily distinguished from

the piercing shrill squeak to the huffing and sonorous grunt of their formidably tusked great progenitors. On entering this scene of gaiety the most clamorous sounds issued from every point; hard dealers squalling their dissent from a price required; a few coteries dancing a variety of hakas; others who prided themselves in approaching the maniere anglais , were giving imitations, as exaggerated as ridiculous. Some few amused themselves by a foot-race, wrestling, boxing, in a knowledge of which they decidedly failed. Throwing reeds or small spears at a target, took the attention of another party; balancing spears on the palm of the hand, pipes on the nose, reeds on the forehead, muskets on the breast, also had their admirers; climbing trees, flying kites, learnt from Europeans, served to amuse the boys, while others again, anxious to become proficients in the arts, made attempts to picture ships, men riding on pigs, canoes, and numerous obscenities on the exterior of the baskets, in red earth and charcoal. Several old gentlemen "bearded like a pard," were stretched at full length playing with round pebbles, the primitive school-boy game, known to vulgar ken as "up the spout;" two other elders were scientifically engaged applying a sharp blade of grass across the sensitive noses of two irritable cats, this stimulating feat attracted the attention of many bystanders, who were betting which of the two could retain poor pussy longest, or which apply the grass most

judiciously . Ever and anon were to be seen, perched on the top of a pyramid of provisions, a stentor-lunged native, who had visited Port Jackson, and was imitating the "sayings and doings" of the auctioneers in that colony. Each party had their audience, for a vast concourse had assembled from distant districts as at annual fairs in Europe. In addition to the produce above mentioned a number of pigs ready broiled, roasted, boiled, and baked, were also exhibited for sale, whole, in quarters, and in portions, for present sustenance, or export; birds in a cooked state were also exposed. Nor were the purchases from Europeans forgot to be exposed; muskets, powder, dilapidated clothing, that would have instinctively shrunk from an exposure even in Monmouth-street, tobacco, soap, spades, hoes, the favourite tomahawk, axes, iron pots, also empty bottles, tin canisters, cartridge-boxes, lead balls, and bullet-moulds, were to be seen, creditable specimens of native ingenuity, in the form of stocks for broken muskets, handles for hoes, spades, helves for axes, carved bowls (na powaka wakiro ) for holding feathers and little trinkets, hand-nets, fishing lines, &c. and a variety of articles as the shop-bills have it,"too numerous to particularize." Amid the hubbub and humours of these fairs, disputations for bargains are loudly contested for. Every seller has predetermined to demand a larger price than he can possibly expect to obtain, and the buyer at first offers much lower,

than he probably expects will be taken, and thus the jabbering of both parties, who concede a something , but accompanied with slurs and jokes on the hardness of each other's heart (nakou pakeke. } After giving way on both sides, they approach nearer to a fair price, when an agreement is made. Rarely indeed is the "biter bit," in these transactions. The ladies, of course, are not apathetic spectators in this display, the customs of the country permit them to enjoy themselves as much as they like without the restrictions placed on them, as in the East, and demi-civilised states in the North, where groundless jealousies cause them to be immured almost as closely as Britons would confine the ferocious animals. 44 In New Zealand they eat with the

men, accompany their lovers, husbands, relatives, and friends, to a feast or a war expedition, influencing the several tribes, by taking an active concern in all business of life. They are consulted alike in public and domestic affairs, bring large dowers to their husbands, and even join the war council, which they at periods aid by their deliberations. At the Haihunga, a grateful opportunity was afforded for conversation, which, carried on without intermission, added not a little to the din, which would have stunned the ears of any being but a native. As a private tete a tete was out of the question, every person was obliged to screech their sayings, opinions, and discussions, which, among the ladies was generally confined to articles of dress and ornament recently imported by the Europeans, the appearance of their ladies, the belles and beaux of their own circles, their own individual hopes, fears, wishes, longings, &c. New sources of uproar continually occur, thus a half-starved cur, instinctively alive to his own wishes and longings, watching the moment his vehement mistress turns her back to reiterate some dogma or proposition, steals slily to the savoury cooked pork exposed for the gratification of another kind of customer, and with the tug of an enthusiast purloins the envied morsel; he in turn is pursued by his own kind, proving that among the canine race, there is no honesty among thieves, this new fracas engages the attention of the women, who no sooner

discover the cause, than hasten to add the effect, by following the lank herd, stick in hand; in this pursuit the children follow, running their bare and tender feet among wood, and splinters, and cockle shells, which are strewed about the plain, the refuse of many a meal adding not a little to the noise and bustle of the fair. The company continued to arrive, and as every new comer was recognised, the terrific yells of the tangi ascended in chorus, making "confusion worse confounded." The dresses of some of the new company were of motley appearance; one fellow elicited shouts of wonder and applause, having been supplied by a European with an enormous nose, (mask,) whose rubicund and ample proportion was a theme for renewed delight and merriment. The elders were bedaubed with oil, red earth, and blue clay; and one grotesque monster had painted his forehead, nose, and chin, a bright yellow, obtained from the bark of a tree, every other part of his face and person being of a glaring fiery red. Mats made of dogs' skins sewed together, were displayed in great number, and a small garment of the feathers of the Kievi-kievi bird was sported with great pride and state by the wearer. 45 As the afternoon began to close,

before the cooks began the functions allotted to them; about three hundred yards from the lane where the motley and numerous company had assembled, a number of pigs, who had not been silent spectators of the stirring scene, in consequence of being exposed to the barking of the many dogs, without whom, society in New Zealand would not be accounted as select, now gave their last plaints under the hands of the butchers, who perform the operation by drowning or strangulation, that the blood in the animal may be preserved, the law of "never waste," (kaore maumau) being most sedu-

lously attended to. 46 As the shades of night encompassed the place, the assemblage gathered together in small circles, generally with some blazing fagots in the centre, which glaring on their expressive countenances and animated forms, heightened the romantic effect of the scene.

44Women appear to have had a similar influence among the Britons before and during the invasion and domination of the Romans in Albion. The power of Bo-adicea was second to none of the warlike chieftains of her times. In the Island of Celebes, at the present day, they are raised to sovereign authority, and at periods when the government is most turbulent. Several tribes of the Buges nation (Malays) in the Moluccas, rejoice in the "short-coated" government. At Madagascar, a portion of whose people are descended from the same oriental family as the New Zealanders, the queen, Ranavola Manjaka has reigned since 1828, during a period of uncommon turbulence. Both in New Zealand and Madagascar, the writer has found, from personal experience, that eloquence and loquacity are ' not the exclusive properties of European ladies.

45Kievi-kievi (Apterix australis) is covered with a hairy feather, similar to the skin and feathers of the Cassowary, and like that family (Rhea) is destitute of the accessary plume. Its beak is similar to that of the Curlew, of a yellow horn-colour, several long hairs projecting from its base. It is made use of by the bird, for grubbing in the earth for worms, on which it feeds. It is the largest of the land birds of the country. The bird is very tough in flesh, and worthless. It is entrapped by parties that sojourn for the night in unfrequented forests and swampy grounds, where it loves to dwell; a large fire is kindled and a crepitating noise made by breaking small twigs or sticks, which strange noise approximates to the voice of the bird, to induce them to leave their nests, which are formed in the holes of trees or under deep imbricated roots. Attracted by the fire, the birds make towards it, the sudden glare of which confusing them, renders them an easy prey to the fowler. Dogs have been often sent in pursuit, but have often suffered much from the powerful talon of the bird. It is called Kiwi-kiwi from its peculiar note. It burrows in the ground, the powerful spur on its leg assisting the bird. It is found throughout the country, especially near the East Cape. (Wai appu. )

46It appears to be a custom among all the ancient nations in honouring their renowned dead, to give feasts to the surviving friends of the deceased. (Eze-kiel c. 24, v. 17. ) Among the Persians at the present day large sums are expended for this purpose. Hamlet is made to complain of the funeral baked meats being desecrated to the unhallowed marriage of his mother, and similar feasts to an Irish wake are customary in the provinces of Great Britain.

[Chapter IX]

CHAPTER IX.

SUBJECTS FOR ORATORICAL DISPLAY AND LEGISLATION. – SUITING THE ACTION WITH THE WORD. – RECORDS OF FEASTING. – A WARY ORATOR. – DEPRECIATING AN ENEMY. – NEW READINGS OF TALES AND TRADITIONS. – A COMICAL NARRATOR. – A CIRCLE OF CHORISTERS. – EXTEMPORE EFFUSIONS. – THE EVENING MEAL. – A CIVIC DISPLAY. – HOSPITABLE CARE OF STRANGERS. – DISCUSSIONS OF POLITY. – EFFECT OF REFRESHMENT. – ON FUTURE WARS – MAJORITY VERSUS MINORITY. – PROPOSITION FOR A FISHING EXCURSION. – IRRITABLE IN-UENDOES. – AGRICULTURAL LOCALITIES. – PRO AND CON. – A MAGICIAN INCULCATES THAT DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR. – COGENT REASONING. – TANGIBLE ARGUMENT. – HOW TO PUNISH AN ENEMY. – MEMORABLE MISHAPS. – TURN OF A DEBATE. – FURTHER SPORTS. – THE BREAKING UP AND DEPARTURE BY LAND AND WATER.

IN one circle an elderly politician was running to and fro delivering a speech, on the necessity of curbing the arrogance of an inimical tribe. On describing the debtor side of the account that existed between them and the enemy, the old orator quivered with rage and ferocity, stamping the ground with his feet, as he turned on either side of the primitive arena, 47 he brandished his well bur-

nished tomahawk above his head with exciting vehemence, his eyes glared with the fierceness of a demoniac; after exhausting himself for some time, he finished his theme amid reiterated shouts of applause, which this agile councillor appeared to receive with much self-complaisance. He had no sooner replaced himself than another hoary senator arose, whose arguments coincided with Moetara, (the honourable member) who had just spoken. However, remarked this logician, with due deference to the enviable experience that had elicited the last observation, he (the present orator) felt bound to dissent from it, as in the actual number of chiefs slain in the last encounter with the head-eating ruffians, (pukokohua ) the tribe (he had the honour to address) had signally gained the advantage; far be it from him he continued, to add a word that would lessen the just resentment that burned in the breasts of his audience, yet in his hearing, it must never be said, that they were worsted by an enemy, whose ablest warriors could be trounced singly by one of their children, bowing around and raising his short spear about three feet from the ground, alluding to the height and size of the truculent little heroes he had just applauded. We left this gentleman enforcing his arguments by action and gesture as is customary with the native Demosthenes. Another crowded circle of persons were intently listening to the tales and traditions that were being delivered from the

mouth of an aged priest, whose ready inventions admirably supplied the hiatus produced by forgetfulness or prevarication. These new readings appeared greatly to delight his primitive hearers. This Druid sat at the head of the circle, a space being allotted to him, to aid his narratives by action; some of his allusions heartily tickled his friends, and the old narrator was unable at times to resist shaking his sides at his own drolleries. Another circle was engaged in chanting chorus in the whining, drawling tone, usual to the native chorister, each apparently striving to give the loudest nasal accompaniment possible. In the centre stood the principal solo, who detailed the subject of the song by expressive gestures typifying the emotion of the hero.

Many persons grouped on various parts of the plain, were amusing themselves with strains on the native flute, producing sounds that could never have recalled an Eurydice; children delighted each other by shaking dried calabashes filled with pebbles, emitting a mournful, abominable sound. On visiting these several groups, they struck up extempore effusions in solo, that ended in chorusses, generally descriptive of the Europeans, their residences, adventures in leaving their own country to visit New Zealand, their superiority over the natives as evinced in the construction of their ships, government, clothing, implements, power, &c. These various avocations were suddenly interrupted by the wel-

come arrival of the evening meal, at which the orators sat down to discuss with a determination as intent as they had uttered their previous speeches. The feast was brought to the several circles by the slaves of each party in small neat (freshly culled) flax baskets, small ones being appropriated to the chiefs, and the larger ones to the freemen and slaves. The display consisted of potatoes, kumaras, fish (fresh and preserved), cockles, clams, muscles, limpets, crayfish, oysters, mutton-fish, turnips, the ti palm, pork, baked and broiled, pigeons in great number, &c.; and a November civic anniversary in Guildhall forms but an indifferent comparison in describing the justice done to the viands, that disappeared shortly after presentation, as if by magic, or the satisfaction the aforesaid sleight of hand (and mouth) diffused among the throng. The usual hospitality of the people at such periods was not forgotten; all strangers who had arrived minus provisions, were amply supplied, and also such as had by previous gluttony devoured the ample quantity they had originally brought with them.

After supper, the previous avocations, that had ceased from the interesting cause just described, recommenced. As the Haihunga was now drawing to a close, the affairs of the tribe were discussed with much interest and animation. Some of the orators exhibited great compass of voice, and commanded attention by bellowing forth their opinions in voices resembling thunder, which might be

heard at a great distance. This might be attributed to the priming they had just received. The action they employed was also discernible at a distance, from the strong lurid light of the blazing fires, that cast its red gleams on the bold bronze athletic forms that danced with oratorical intensity up and down the circle of the family of the deceased, round which a large concourse had assembled, from the interest all felt in the subject under discussion, of which foreign and internal polity formed the principal themes. The first debate on a future war with a foe whose numbers were small, passed in the affirmative, "without a dissentient voice," until one of the most clamorous of the majority recollected in good time, that though the tribe in itself could be easily subdued, yet they were allied to such powerful friends, who would readily arm in their behalf, that it would be the height of impolicy to make the attempt; this instantly caused the "glorious majority" to sink rapidly into a "fearful minority," which was the ultimate result of the debate. On some names being rehearsed of valiant chiefs, who would be put into the scale against the valorous assemblage (then debating) who would have rather put the said chiefs out of the scale into their ovens, a large fishing party was next proposed, to take place within six weeks from the time of the Haihunga, (a kind of annual Hegira among these people, ) this was carried in amity; some angry discussions

arose as to the number of slaves each head of a family should take to the scene of action, but this was also arranged after some mutual sneers and irritable inuendoes. An elderly matron then arose, and requested information respecting the intentions of the Seignory as to the locality of the farms (na mara ) to be cultivated. After pointing out certain districts, which she apprehended as being eligible, she sat down, on which a young lad arose and dissented from the lady; "by planting so near our homes," said he, "our enemies (severally naming the tribes, which he enumerated by marking the tips of his fingers) will look on us as poltroons, that we fear to move from the precincts of our fort; (tiapa no taku pa;) this has been our reproach too long. No, it is better that it be said we fear not to plant in sight of our enemies, rather than the slander we are now reproached with, of not daring to plant but within our fences." After this substance being repeated several times, the speaker sat down, when the old magician, who by a sentence had changed the majority into a minority, arose, and after running up and down the ring, collecting his thoughts, commenced in a low tone. This wary politician suggested to the worthy audience the truism, that "discretion is the better part of valour," and though individually averse to allow an inch of ground in favour of their cowardly foes, yet, according to his experience, he must observe, that the potatoes were equally excellent, whether

planted close to the fort (pa ) or at a distance. The Indian corn they had tasted that day lacked not its usual sweetness from having been produced on friendly ground, and he felt bound to add, that the Kumaras served up at supper had diffused among the present company unalloyed satisfaction, at least he spoke from his own internal feeling, and believed, (looking around him) from that felt by his audience; and though he (individually) burnt with a desire that scarcely admitted of repression, (here he raised his voice in alto, the pitch ascribed to Stentor,) to annihilate at one fell swoop the enemy, who were an absolute excrescence to any well behaved community, yet the planting of provisions in their vicinity was not the method prescribed by their ancestors to punish an enemy. "No," continued the excited narrator, "when their warriors, slaves as they are, are absent at the coast fishing, or when the greater number are planting inland, which we can always ascertain, then we shall be enabled to obtain our desires, then shall we have payment (utu) for the loss of our warriors." (naming certain chiefs who had been slain in former years, while engaged on predatory excursions.) This expert warrior, whose legs it was reported had done him in earlier days most acceptable service, then detailed a number of mishaps that had befallen the tribe in his remembrance, and concluded by appealing to his friends as to the anxiety he had ever felt to assist in punishing, but certainly not

feeding the enemy. He voted on the side of the old lady, who felt desirous of reaping what she might plant. It was then arranged that the land last planted on should lie fallow, and some alluvial ground that had been neglected some years, distant yet further from the camp of the enemy, should be put in preparation. The discussions having ceased, the younger portion of the company entertained themselves in dancing, singing, wrestling, running races, squabbling, mock fighting, and real quarrelling. At such periods it is impossible for a native, much less an European, to obtain the least sleep, as the amusements are kept up until sunrise next day, when the company begin to depart. Such of the natives whose villages are inland, take their route, preceded by their slaves, loaded with quantities of provisions presented by the family of the deceased or their friends; to such families whose route is by water, they await the flooding of the tide, and convey their presents into their canoes.

47This method of perambulation, employed by the New Zealanders, is accounted absolutely necessary to give anything like an oratorical display; it is supposed to aid the effect in enforcing an argument.

[Chapter X]

CHAPTER X.

DEPOSIT OF THE PRIESTHOOD. – RECORDS OF THE DEPARTED. – THE DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. – THE TAWA MOA, OR SACRED FIGHT. – ATTENTION PAID TO THE LAST EXPRESSION. – SUPPOSED PROPHECIES. – MODERN DISCOVERY OF ANTIQUITIES. – NATURE AND CAUSES. – CUSTOMARY PROHIBITIONS. – POSTHUMOUS HONOURS. – ITS RECORDS AND VARIETIES. – CEMETERIES IN NEW ZEALAND. – IMPIETY IN THEIR VIOLATION. – PUNISHMENTS IMPOSED ON THE DELINQUENT, AND THE SILENT INDULGING CURIOSITY. – ITS SUBSEQUENT EFFECT. – SUPERSTITION IN FAVOUR OF ROBBERY. – LOSS OF LIFE IN BREAKING A PROHIBITION. – ANECDOTES. – WEAKNESS VERSUS CUNNING. – IMPURITY OF GAZING. – DYING CHILDLESS ACCOUNTED A MISFORTUNE. – RECORDS OF THE FACT. – BOASTS OF A VICTOR. – DEATH OF AN INFLUENTIAL CHIEF. – HIS CHILDREN REPROACHED AS WANTING IN DUTY. – CAUSE OF UNAPPEASABLE FEUDS. – SUPERSTITION OVERCOMES REVENGE. – A VARIETY IN SACRED WARFARE. – INDISPENSABLE REQUISITE FOR A DEAD MAN. – MAKING GHOSTS TO SERVE THE DEAD. – A TOMB NEAR KAIPARA.

THE bones of the chiefs, in whose honour the feast has been given, are reconveyed to the cemetery, great care being taken by the priests that no person espies them in that sacred place. 48 It is ac-

counted a sin in any person viewing a corpse in the coffin, however accidental; and the priests are so attentive to their functions in this matter, that it requires the eye and intellect of no common observer to discover whether these men are the dupes of superstition or deceivers only. A strict tapu is

thrown on any person who touches the body of a dead chief, and in the south-west part of the North Island, the surviving relations discharge several rounds of ball-cartridge towards the villages of their enemies, for the soul to lie at rest, and which alone can dissolve the tapu . This ceremony is termed tawa moa , a sacred fight. A great variety of articles are also interred with the deceased, 49 comprising almost every thing the defunct peculiarly delighted in.

On the approach of death the nearest survivors

hang over the dying person, anxious to catch the last breath of the deceased, but rather from force of affection than superstition. 50 The last words of a chief or priest are attended to with peculiar earnestness, from the supposition that a spirit of prophecy (or rather the absence of lying) will issue from the lips of the man about to enter eternity. 51

The personal apparel of the dead is never made use of by the survivors; and to such an extent is this method of veneration, that frequently the honse of a deceased person is prohibited from ever being again inhabited, and when in mind the wood is not

allowed to be desecrated for fire-wood, or even taken away. 52 The dead are probably more honoured in New Zealand than in any other part of the globe, as however ill a chief may have behaved in his lifetime, he is yet buried in the cemetery of his fathers.

The cemeteries of the New Zealanders are regarded with peculiar fear and veneration. The least violation of any portion of the precincts of

the dead, is accounted the greatest crime that a human being can commit, and is visited with the direst revenge of a surviving tribe, 53 to be atoned for only by blood or loss of property. If an animal happens by chance to feed on one of these places, where the herbage flourishes best, it is immediately killed. A native has never deliberately violated the burial-place of his fathers, it being implicitly supposed that such an act would bring disease and death on the criminal. 54 If any person were to see such an act, and kept the same secret, he would suffer, if it became known, as a participator in the affair; few if any would hazard the punishment that is supposed to await such conduct. Europeans, who have visited New Zealand, have been induced to indulge their curiosity by opening the tombs of a native cemetery; the object that meets the eye are skeletons of the chiefs, male or

female, each being equally honoured after death, fastened with flax cords in an upright posture, a quantity of articles, such as muskets, tomahawks, &c., placed on either side. We remember some instances of Europeans being discovered in opening a tomb. They had been unable to effect their object unseen, and had scarcely time to gratify their curiosity, when a hue and cry was raised by a girl who had remained alone in the village. On the news reaching the chiefs, who were planting at some distance, consternation seized the weaker intellects, while avaricious cunning dictated to the more powerful, that an admirable opportunity was now afforded them to demand a heavy payment; in each instance this might have been effected, had not other chiefs inimical to them defeated their intentions, by taking part with the Europeans; however, both parties were obliged to pay, what was accounted among the people a large sum, in muskets, powder, and blankets.

The sepulchres were taken away, and the bones taken to the river and carefully scraped with muscle shells, and washed in water, from the impurities that the gaze of unhallowed persons had caused. They were again gathered, carefully placed in new mats, and, finally, replaced in another receptacle at some distance.

For a native chief to die childless 55 is accounted

a direful misfortune, to avoid which, adoption is often resorted to. The utmost boast of a victor is, in having destroyed the children of bis enemy. On the death of the celebrated E'Ongi, his children, fearful from the many enemies their father had created, that the body would be stolen from them, as they could then muster in numbers, were about to place it in the ancestral cemetery the day after he died, thus depriving it of the honour of lying in state. It was opposed by some powerful chieftains, one of whom reproached them for their pusillanimity. "How is it," he said, "I have only just become acquainted with those who are unworthy of an illustrious sire, and wish to bury him alive!" Among the singular laws of the country, a chief

who steals the body (tupapaku ) of a rich man is entitled to a large portion of his property. In times of war, the greatest insult, causing unappeasable hatred and determination for revenge, is by either party ravaging the cemetery of the antagonist. But on a party conquering, after indulging themselves in all the lust of cannibalism, superstition triumphs over their animosity and revolting barbarism, and they erect monumental effigies

Na Raoui, or Sepulchral Effigies [Nos. 1,2 and 3].

Na Raoui, or Monumental Effigies. [Nos. 4,5 and 6]

(raoui ) to denote the place where an enemy, remembered as having been a former friend, or, perhaps, a relative, had been slain and devoured. When any valiant chiefs have fallen in battle, they are interred in the cemetery, with all the honours these people can bestow. A number of muskets, leaden balls, cartridge paper, and charges of gunpowder, are buried with each person. This is also termed arming for a sacred fight, (tawa moa ,) it being accounted among native superstitions an indispensable requisite for a chief to be provided with arms and ammunition to fight his way to the world of spirits. At such, burials most heart-rending barbarities prevailed, slaves being deliberately murdered to serve the spirit (wairua ) of the warrior in the next world. In honour of such men the festival of the Haihunga was established, the anniver-

sary being religiously attended to. 56 Some of the tombs are erected, considering the scanty resources of the people, on a large scale.

The preceding Raouis or native effigies in honour of the dead were sketched at various places.

1. From a cemetery at Taohara, on the west side of the river Kaipara, where a battle was fought in 1826, between the inhabitants and the allied tribes of the north, under E'Ongi and Muriwai, in which the former people were entirely scattered and nearly exterminated, and the country has ever since lay desolated.

2. From a Wai tapu on the banks of Waima, a river estuating in Hokianga.

3. On the banks of Mahurangi, river Thames.

4, 5 & 6. From a burial place at Tokomaru misnamed by Cook, Tegado.

The following was erected to the memory of Tuwhenua, an invincible Amazon, who formerly flourished on the banks of the Wairoa (long waters) at Kaipara, and dedicated to her prowess by her tribe, previously to their extinction.

Tomb erected to the memory of Tuwhenua, a female Chief of Kaipara.

48Nations are more remarkable for the unqualified respect with which they honour the departed, in the ratio as they are sunk in barbarism. Among the instructions of the age-stricken Jacob to Joseph, he said, after ensuring his obedience by an oath, "Deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place." He again said "Hearken unto me," and he did so. (Gen. c.47, v.30, 31.) He again repeats the injunction of "bury me with my fathers," adding, "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, and there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah." (Ibid c.49, v.31.) The subsequent burial and mourning at the field of Atad is impressively described in chap. 40. ibid. Joseph also enjoins his descendants to the same office. "God," said he, "will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." (Gen. c.50, v.25.) We find this performed in the days of Joshua, (c.24, v.32.) The dead body being placed in coffins, was only performed to persons of distinction among the Egyptians. They were enclosed in chests, and placed in niches; many of these coffins were of stone. The custom of carrying the corse to the burying places of the relations, is as customary in every part of the globe at the present day. Among the Romans, Greeks, it was often done. In Madagascar, the writer, while on a visit to that country, saw the return of an army that had been despatched from Tannafouche to the South. They had brought with them, in addition to their booty, the bones of their comrades enclosed in baskets, that had fallen in the battle.

49The excavations daily progressing in various parts of civilized Europe, expose to view numberless articles deposited in the tombs of the renowned dead. Implements, warlike munition, &c. display the taste mankind has ever had to have deposited in the silent tomb, the favourite memorials of past life. The warrior is known by his armour, the priest by his mouldering crosier and signet-ring, even the labourer by the implement of agriculture. Among the Egyptians, the works of Champollion, Rosellini, Maillet, Denon, and a host of authors, demonstrate this taste to have been a ruling passion with that people. In South America, innumerable are the earthen-ware jars, with the figure of the Sun displayed on them in the depositories of nations, dead, the sole memento of people whose name is lost in the womb of time. These remains are numerous in Peru. The tumuli of the Romans in Britain, the cromlechs in Scotland, the cearns in Ireland and Wales, the barrows in North America, all possess deposits, originally placed with the feeling that actuates the New Zealander when interring his dead.

50It was customary for the Greeks and Romans to burn the bodies of their illustrious dead, the ashes being gathered in costly urns. On the funeral pyre, valuable spices were thrown, that the aroma from them should overcome the foetid effluvia of the mortal remains. The Egyptians in some instances did the same.

51This opinion is also derived from ancient tradition. Among the Hebrews, much reliance was placed on the last words of a dying parent. Jacob, on his death-bed, says to his sons, "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in your last days." (Gen. c.49, v.1.) This prophetic feeling has been usually assigned by classic authors to their principal heroes, who are made to foretell the death of each other to the end of the chapter.
Among the Hebrews and Romans it was customary to destroy the bed and such furniture as was principally made use of by the deceased. Among the Persians at the present day, this custom, is not unusual.

52The method of honouring mortal remains widely differs in various countries. In Europe, respect is shown by the mourners being habited in black; in China, white is prescribed as most becoming. Among the Turks a series of ablutions. The Hebrews formerly cast ashes on their heads, and yet rend their garments. The Greeks beat brass kettles to drive away any unhallowed spirits having command over the body: and the better to preserve the soul of the defunct, his last breath was carefully inhaled by a survivor. Among the Northern warriors, the favourite sword was placed under the head. In modern Europe the military or naval trophies of the deceased are carried on the shell that contains the dead body. In Asia, the survivors refuse nourishment for several days, and the mourner who can desist longest, is accounted the most affected. The cutting and wailing we have described as accompanying the death of a chief in New Zealand, is in common with all the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. The Turks, similar to the French, and other nations on the Continent, plant flowers on the grave, and convert the cemeteries into gardens. Such cemeteries are often visited by surviving relatives.

53It has been stated that the lamented Cook met with his death at Hawaii, in consequence of his people taking away a portion of fencing that had belonged to a cemetery, which had been actually sold to him as firewood without the knowledge of the chiefs.

54Among the Javan thieves this feeling is regarded less conscientiously. In Java a superstition exists, attaching to the earth of a new-made grave the most soporific power. This belief is so universal, that when a robber is desirous of plundering a house, he cautiously procures a portion of the new-made grave, and throws it into the house he has decided on robbing; the plundered implicitly believe in the fiction.

55We have already related the veneration paid to the memory of an ancestor. This feeling among the ancients is forcibly related in 2 Samuel c.18, v.18, where Absalom rears a pillar which he names after himself, saying, "I have no son to keep my name in remembrance." The Jews continually invoke the names of the three patriarchs, as the Moslems do that of Ismail, David or Solomon, yet from principles of veneration only. The former account the curse "to die childless," or "the soul to be cut off among Israel," as the heaviest anathema that can befall them. Notwithstanding the charming Houris' promised by Mohammed, his followers lay great stress on ultimately resting in Abraham's bosom. The Hindoos believe that the greatest happiness in after-life, depends on prayers being said to their memory by their children. An anathema of a modern Hebrew may be translated, "May he never be mentioned by his children."

56Anniversaries have been instituted among almost every nation to the manes of the illustrious. The Turks are particularly attentive to this subject. The Hebrews invariably say prayers and give alms in memory of the departed; also a lamp, fed with olive-oil, is kept burning, which it would be accounted an insult to the deceased to employ for any other purpose. The Persians also mourn the death of Prince Houssain, grandson to Mohammed; his tomb near Babylon is yet visited by them. The Romans employed mourners (praeficiae) to attend and give effect to a chamber. The Moors, in Algiers, have a similar habit, and the Arabs have borrowed the custom. Many of the ancient nations of Palestine made use of caves and excavated rocks as receptacles for their dead. The Greeks did the same.

[Chapter XI]

CHAPTER XI

MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS, AND REPRESENTATIONS. – CEMETERIES, WHERE SITUATED. – RECORDS OF ANNIVERSARY AND PILGRIMAGE. – SEPULCHRAL POSTS DESCRIBED. – SUBSTANCE. – FORM. – CHILDREN, WHERE DEPOSITED. – TOMB OF THE FATHER OF POMARRE AND MURIWAI. – FEARS OF THE POPULATION. – HAUNTING SPIRITS. – DOCTRINES OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION. – ANECDOTE. – COLLOQUY BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND A PRIEST. – RELIGIOUS BIAS. – SUPERSTITION OF A GUIDE. – DISCOVERY OF A LARGE MAN IN THE BODY OF A SMALL BIRD. – THE PIWAKAWAKA. – SYMBOLIC EMBLEMS TO COMMEMORATE DEPARTED GREATNESS. – RECORDS ADDUCING THE FACT. – INVESTITURE OF DEITIES WITH HUMAN PASSIONS. – STATEMENTS OF THE SAME. – EMBALMING AS PRACTISED BY THE NATIVES. – RECORDS ON THIS SUBJECT. – SUBSTITUTES FOR CONJUGAL PARTNERS.

THE cemetery of a chief is not complete without a, number of carvings on wood garnishing the place. The designs do not come within the resemblance which the Mosaic dispensation wholly discourages, not "having any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth."

The following cut is taken from the Waitapu erected to the memory of a chief named Mawerangi of Maungakahia, a beautiful valley between Hokianga and Kaipara.

Family Cemetery of Mawerangi, a Chief of Mangakahia.

The Waitapu of a native village is generally selected amid a cluster of trees, among which the karaka (a laurus) fruit-tree, is generally found; of course the fruit is prohibited from being eaten. The lovely evergreen (these trees being perennial) and bright yellow fruit, are strongly contrasted with the monuments (raoui ) painted red, that told the tale of the departed. One of the sepulchral posts was nearly thirty feet, the upper part carved into the resemblance of a man, having an expression similar to the ancient Egyptian cast. This figure was represented as perched on a figure with a grotesque countenance, the tongue stretched out as far as the post permitted the member to be ex-

tended, a favourite display with a native artist. The eyes in these figures are inlaid with pieces of the pearl mutton-fish-shell (paua ) each in size to a teacup, the knees formed to project outward, and the legs inclining inward, the feet joining together.

The raouis ' are also made from old canoes, that are no longer allowed to be made use of. The following was placed, by Pomarre, a chief residing at the Bay of Islands, on the tomb of his father, on the estate of Okiato.

Monument to the Memory of the Father of Pomarre.

Children are generally buried in old boxes, or between two pieces of a canoe, and placed securely among the branches of trees, even the bones of adult chiefs are deposited in small boxes, after being scraped clean, and then fixed on top of a stout pole. These emblems of mortality are all painted red with the kokowai , and when on the decline, are repainted, and surmounted with numerous feathers. The tomb of Muriwai a celebrated chief, was one of the largest wai tapu erected among this people.

Platform erected for the Remains of an Influential Chief near the East Cape.

The house in which the bones were deposited had the appearance of a large watch-box, with a shelving roof; it was surrounded with wooden figures as large (but not as natural) as life. Round the top a head-board (maihi ) was affixed, on which a number of obscene figures were carved. The whole was painted red, with a profusion of feathers.

The superstition of the natives adheres so strongly to them, that perhaps not a single person could be found among them, to approach at dusk, near to a wai tapu (literally a sacred place). No sum could tempt them. The spirits (wairua ) of departed chiefs are suspected to haunt the place, and as they are not assured in what form, and firmly believing in the doctrine of transubstantiation, not a bird, however small, can approach those silent places but he is invested with divinity.

We were passing one of these sequestered domains on a journey from Poverty Bay (Turunga ) to Tolaga Bay (Uwoua ,} when we stopped to notice the symbolical carvings on a large tomb, 57 at the

moment a small bird called Piwakawaka struck up its vocal strain, which sounded as peculiarly plaintive in the deserted place. Taura, a chief of those parts and a priest, instantly said, "That is a God

(Atua ) of the place, he is displeased at our disturbing his rest, let us away; we know not what he may do should he be angry. " "Are the native Gods so very revengeful and for a trifle?" we inquiringly demanded. "Very," was the answer. "A friend of mine, went once close to a wai tapu, and six months after, a branch fell on his shoulder as he was felling some trees to make space for a log to form a canoe, it happened in Hawkes' Bay; (Wairoa ) another person I knew, for the same cause, was within a few moons after drowned while bathing, the river god (Taniwoa ) took hold of him. What other cause could it have been," demanded the sagacious narrator, without referring it to a cramp that had seized the luckless wight. We continued our journey, unwilling to offend the rooted superstition of this guide; we essayed however by quiet argument to prove how erroneous such thoughts were, and how unjustly he acted towards a merciful Creator. We next inquired if he knew which of the departed chiefs it was who had just addressed us. Taura replied, he thought he could tell, the voice of the bird resembling a deceased chief named Tupia, who had been a remarkably large-sized man. "Then how could the great Tupia enable himself to enter the little bird, 58 with

a body the size of a karaka, [a fruit as large as an olive] where at best he must feel extremely incommoded." To this the priest observed, "that doubtless Tupia had been minus food for so lengthened a period, that he had shrunk to almost nothing." 59

The New Zealanders have a method of embalming their dead, that is a custom not peculiar to themselves though the method they undertake to perform it may be. 60 The head and body is eviscerated and cooked in an oven after the native method of preparing for preservation the head of an enemy, after which the body is well stuffed

with flax scraped carefully. These native mummies have answered the purposes of the embalmers for many years, but the custom is only practised to the south of the East Cape, where the original manners of the people have been less tinged, if not wholly altered, by the connexion formed with Europeans.

57It has been the custom of all nations to distinguish the resting-places of their illustrious departed by symbolic emblems of the profession and deeds of renown transacted in this life; also to inter the corpse in one part of his patrimony; thus Joshua was buried in the border of his inheritance; (Judg. c.2, v.9.) and in commemoration of the miracle of the sun standing still, (Josh. c.10, v.12,) a blazing emblem of that luminary was sculptured on his tomb. The Greeks and Romans especially patronized such sculptures, and the grave of Aschimedes was discovered by a soldier, by the representation of a globe and cylinder surmounting the tomb of this father of science. In Europe, the custom is continued, but on an inferior scale, that can bear no comparison with that of the classical ancients. A religious man we see represented by faith; an honourable one, by hope; and the benevolent by charity. The tomb of the soldier is surrounded by flags, cannon, pikes, and some bushels of marble balls. The sailor professionally, by his ship, and his faith, by the anchor. The ancients, while thus attentive to the dead, were anxious of conveying moral lessons, and even beacons of safety to the living. This has been followed in Europe. At Reculvers in Kent, the church was erected with two towers, in memory of a noble lady who was shipwrecked, and as a guide for the future mariner. On the tombs of the Romans a single word often sufficed; "Quiescere" or "Cujus ossa bene quiescat" from thence termed "Quietarium." The British nation are certainly not wanting in respect to the dead, but our brethren in the United States cannot be accused of being too particular. We have travelled more than once (during our sojourn there) by the railway between Boston and Providence, part of the road traverses through a burial ground, to form which, a quantity of mortal remnants were exhumed, to practically make use of the national motto, "Go a-head, " – it is decidedly a national reproach.

58 A Muscicapa flabellifera; (fantailed fly-catcher); its little body is scarcely larger than a walnut, though it spreads its little tail to a radius of six inches. It is very beautiful, and always on the wing. Plumage, black and white; food, small insects. It is the scourge of sand-flies (namu ) and mosquitoes, (waiwai-roa ). The birds of New Zealand are very numerous, but generally of small size; many of them have beautiful voices, possessing a delicacy of tone extremely pleasing. The traveller at earliest dawn is roused from slumber by the sweet voices of a variety of beautiful birds on the wing to pursue their daily labours. The bushes are literally filled with them, their varied note resounding through the woods until sunrise. The heavy dews that fall during the night give a freshness to every thing in nature. The wild pigeons (kukupa) flock in numbers through the solitary woods.

59According to the Greeks they invested their Gods with the passions of human beings. It was at times customary, on the death of a beloved friend, for the survivors to curse and accuse their deities of cruelty and envy; and this extravagance was carried to such an extent, that not unfrequently their altars were pulled down, and the sanctuaries pillaged. (Eurip.) Every person acquainted with the mythology of the Romans (borrowed from the Greeks) are aware, that every bad passion that has reigned in the human breast was attributed to their deities, who made use of their supernatural powers for the worst of purposes; to mention a tithe of them would be irrelevant to our purpose. The revenge and envy of Apollo causes the flaying of Marsyas; the various metamorphoses of Jupiter were undertaken for the most obscene purposes; and even the panders to such lusts were admitted in the theogony of the people. Were the deities of the Romans to play a portion of such, tricks in our metropolis, our tread-mills would be crowded to overflowing with them.

60Embalming among the ancients was the last kind act a relative was enabled to perform. The Egyptians carried the art to perfection. A number of ceremonies attended the performance, and the deceased lay in state forty days. When Jacob died, we learn that "Forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed, and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days." (Gen. c.40, v.2,3; c.50, v.26.) The earlier Greeks and Romans burnt their dead and preserved the ashes in costly vases. A rude method of embalming, more resembling the practices of the New Zealanders than otherwise, was employed by the Lacedemonian women in order to preserve the memories of their husbands and children; also figures in wood, or clumsily modelled in clay, were made, to ease the minds of those wives whose husbands were gone to battle, during whose absence the dummies were dressed and decorated, and embraces were lavishly bestowed on the inanimate proxy.

[Chapter XII]

CHAPTER XII

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS AMONG THE NATIVE FEMALES. – PRACTICE OF STAINING THEIR LIPS. – WOMEN, THEIR INFLUENCE AND STATION IN SOCIETY. – EXACT PERSUASIVE ELOQUENCE. – VARIOUS SITUATIONS IN LIFE. – NEGLECT OF EDUCATION AND ITS EFFECTS. – POLITICAL BIAS. – DIFFERENCE IN THE TREATMENT OF THE FEMALES IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. – ASSERTIONS ON THE DECADENCE OF NATIONS. – MODESTY AND RESERVE. – ANECDOTES. – PRECAUTIONS USED IN BATHING. – DECORUM WHILE IN COMPANY WITH STRANGERS. – INVIOLABILITY OF A BACHELOR. – BEAUTY OF THE WOMEN. – PERSONAL MANNERS. – ON MARRIAGES, DIVIDED INTO THREE SYSTEMS. – AFFIANCING. – ANECDOTE. – INFAMY OF CELIBACY. – SINGULAR PUNISHMENTS AWARDED TO BACHELORS. – MADE LIABLE TO AN ACTION. – HONOURS BESTOWED ON MARRIED PEOPLE. – ANECDOTE. – NOVEL METHOD OF PERPETUATING FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN FAMILIES. – READY COMPLAISANCE OF A FATHER AND HUSBAND. – AGE ASSIGNED TO OLD MAIDS. – RELATIONSHIP IN MARRIAGE. – BETROTHING. – AT WHAT PERIOD. – COURTSHIP. – ITS CONTINGENT DANGERS. – MARRIAGE OF HALF SISTERS. – ELOPEMENTS. – DANGER ACCRUING FROM THE PRACTICE. – ON PLURALITY OF LOVERS. – ANECDOTE. – CEREMONIAL OF MARRIAGE AND FORCED NUPTIALS. – HYMENEAN RITES, HOW CONDUCTED. – FEASTING. – FRIENDLY ROBBERIES AND CASTIGATION. – CONCUBINAGE. – FAMILY DEBATES. – MARRIAGE PRESENTS GIVEN AWAY. – CONJUGAL COMMERCE, ITS CESSATION. – PRIMITIVE METHOD OF TAKING A WIFE.

THE marked difference in the two amalgamated races that comprise the population in New Zealand, is more remarkable in the female sex than in the males. The Malay is easily distinguished by her regular and not unhandsome features; hair long, and of jetty blackness and profusion; teeth regular, the extreme whiteness being set off by the unpleasant fashion of staining blue lines on the lips, a practice now becoming obsolete. The forms of

these females are often found to be very handsome, and calculated to interest the traveller in the welfare of the person. The opposite race are more numerous, possessing the hair in spiral twists, ebony complexion, flat nose, full lip, and projecting mouth, that is recognised in the natives of Papua and Africa. Women in New Zealand are not held in the sole light as being creatures of convenience, and consequently victims to the unceasing caprice and ungovernable passions of the men, as forms a prominent characteristic among the inhabitants of the Australasian Archipelagos. Among the established native families, a bride or sister demands fully as much persuasive eloquence from the male supplicant as most ladies are accustomed to exact in civilized countries; and during courtship the intended Benedict has been heard to utter language imbued with a refinement of sentiment that has fully substantiated the fact, that where woman possesses that influence in society which is her due, whether regarded as the affectionate mother, the kind sister, the loving bride, devoted wife, or officiating nurse, whose intense anxiety on the suffering, imparts yet more interest to her character, the civilization of a nation progresses. It has been justly stated, that where the education of women is neglected, a nation can be but half happy. In Europe, their influence in politics is unseen to the sight, but are nevertheless the soul itself of almost every undertaking, their secret influence being the

spirit of nature . The warlike Spartans were governed by their females. In note 59 we have related the mighty efforts of the Ethiopian king, to keep the political bias of the ladies of his kingdom within bounds.

The superior civilization of the New Zealanders compared to the Australians, (the most degraded of the human race,) arises from the different treatment of their females, and history has invariably taught us the assertion, that absolutely the rise, progress, and decline of nations, has depended principally on the treatment of the weaker sex, which has consequently shaped their conduct in social life. These truisms are rarely admitted to their full extent, or how much the very manners and even politics of an age depend upon the domestic conduct of women. Man is certainly superior to the sex in physical force, but in mental fortitude, refinement and elevation of sentiment, his inferiority admits not of contradiction. The modest reserve 61 and decorum observed by the New Zealand female is invariably evinced before strangers by a timidity and pleasing bashfulness that must compete with

similar feelings that distinguish ladies in the most civilized circles of Europe. 62 This reserve is car-

ried to such an excess, that the writer when travelling in the various villages of the people, was always received by the ladies with their heads enveloped in their garments; and often when habited in one small mat, the wearers have been put to the utmost stretch of their inventions to conceal their heads and faces, and yet keep other objects inviolate from the gaze of a stranger. In bathing, which is often performed by a number of young females in company, great care is taken that none of the male sex should disturb their amusement, and should a

prying Acteon break the prohibition, sea-weed and any material in reach, is placed so as to guard the person from intrusive glances. Often when we have met with travelling parties, the ladies hastily covered themselves, though to European ideas, such trouble would appear wholly uncalled for, as some of them had passed the grand climacteric, independent of being repulsively unbearable from being rubricated with the offensive odours arising from rancid shark-oil, and carrying a portion of foetid Indian corn for provision. Such charms, of course, could not have attracted the most wanton eye, or shake a bachelor's opinion in favour of celibacy.

The females of the superior (Malay) race, have in general clear olive complexions, and in numerous instances, much pretension to beauty. They are fully alive to the attraction of their persons, and are not wanting in employing such means to improve their persons as the primitive nature of a native boudoir will admit. They are cleanly in their persons, and delight in coquetry, and among the higher families love, not money, is required, to render them propitious, as is often the case among nations yet more civilized. But such imprudence is not participated in by the parents, who look to the rank and means the lover may possess, and much depends whether the lady is required to fill the place of head-wife, or second, third, fourth, and so on in the list. Of marriages there may be said to be three systems in vogue; the contract formed with the

first wife being pre-distinct from any after connexion, when the females are generally under the domination of the first; and, lastly, handmaids, or women raised from slavery to the marital embrace. Marriages take place very early in life, 63 and affiances or betrothals, often take place among friends before the objects spoken of see the light.

Among brothers and relatives, in order to cement and perpetuate friendship, it is often arranged that if the one party has a girl and the other a male child, their marriage shall take place at an early period. The writer was often requested by elderly chiefs and their wives to allow their daughters, children perhaps, five years of age, to be affianced to a son or younger brother, inquiring of us if we could accommodate their paternal wishes with either, and promising that the most rigid tapu should be placed over the young lady when she should arrive at years of discretion, and that nothing short of a refusal should militate against the tapu with which she would become invested. In one instance fearful that the friendship thus begun should decay from the lapse of years that would intervene between the consummation of their wishes and the present moment, we were requested to take to wife a lady related to the chief, whose rank was observable from the dignity and gracefulness of her demeanour, and the care she had taken of her person; as in beauty of countenance, complexion and feature, reminded the European spectator of the beauteous women of the Moors and Spaniards. This offer was termed the perpetuation of friendship . 64

At sixteen a female without her lover is regarded as an old maid, a character regarded, at best, (in New Zealand) with much suspicion. 65 At be-

trothals a handsome feast is provided by the family of the lady. Too near an affinity is carefully guarded against, and the marriage or intercourse between brother and sister, or nephew and aunt, would meet with as much animadversion as in Europe. 66

Betrothing generally takes place before the children are enabled to judge for themselves, the parents expecting, from the unrestricted intercourse that takes place among families, that to direct the inclinations of their children is sufficient; the influ-

ence of parental remonstrances seals such affiances, and the parties, the male at fifteen, and the female at ten and eleven, commence cohabitation, and not unfrequently become parents within the year. In marriages resulting from betrothal the inclination of the female is rarely consulted, and despite of any aversion she may conceive against her future spouse, she must submit. Many females at the age of five years have been affianced to some old men rather fitted to fill the relationship of great-grandparents than lovers; yet on arriving at an age suitable to native opinion, the espousals have taken place. In some instances the lady has eloped with a lover, whose agility has outstripped or set at defiance that of the old pantaloon; but though unable personally to pursue the chase after such Gretna-Green alliances, his means or rank has armed a host in his service of relatives and retainers. On the parties being discovered, each receive a sound castigation, if the lover be of rank, but should he belong to an inferior family, he is either robbed of all he may possess, or murdered; the old discarded lover then takes the lady, without being particularly annoyed at the trick played upon his honour, proving, as Shakspeare has it, "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of a nature all compact." – Midsummer Nights' Dream , A.5, S.1.

If a native lady has two or more lovers, rank and precedence is often preferred; but should she feel impartial, without bestowing a preference, a feud

takes place between the lovers, assisted by their relatives, and the conqueror seizes the lady, as the Romans of old obtained their Sabine wives. We witnessed many such marriages; they generally take place early in the morning, the disputants enforcing their claims on the evening previous. At one period, while courting the behest of Morpheus, we were awoke by a loud din and scuffle among the villagers, who were running about in great confusion, armed with clubs, tomahawks, cartridge-boxes, belted round the waist, and fighting in flying groups with each other. Many severe blows were taken and returned in good earnest. After this combat had continued about half-an-hour, the weaker party gave in, and the victors celebrated their prowess by shouting and dancing, in which the vanquished afterwards joined. The bridegroom then conducted the lady to his hut, the priest gave his blessing, (consisting of a hope that the marriage would turn out prosperous,) and the parents of the lady indulged the family of the bridegroom with a feast, in which the subject of love and war was discussed with the oratorical displays those people delight in. At these hymenean rites the rivals appeared to have dropped all animosity: some lyrics were sung by the old people, that savoured much of the lax strains the natives are wont to indulge in. The amorous deeds of youth were recounted with monstrous exaggerations by the old men, who informed their audience that the females of "their

day" were unable to withstand their invincible attractions. It is customary for these hoary satyrs to apportion a part of the feast for such strangers as sojourn with them. In many of these scuffles the females often fare badly, the friends on one side trying to detain her, the Tarquins on the other side being equally desirous of securing the object. The general and approved form of marriage is extremely simple; when the proposed union takes place, the lover conducts the lady to his hut, and the wife thus introduced into her house never quits it but as mistress of the place. The property of her husband becomes equally her own, and the same feeling of mutual intercourse follows this primitive ceremony as among civilized people. The most singular part of the ceremony follows; the marriage is no sooner consummated than a party of friends (nearest in relation to both husband and wife) attack the hut, rob the place of every moveable article, and often leaving the inmates nearly personally naked; a sound drubbing is also bestowed on both parties. All the provisions they may possess, though comprising the winter stock, are entirely taken away by the remorseless marauders. This ceremony is not confined to the rite of marriage, but on an occasion of any misfortune befalling a person, he is also made to suffer the severity of the law. The ceremony of marriage differs from a state of concubinage inasmuch as the lover steals to the hut of his mistress, but should he

take her to his house, the marriage is complete. 67 64 In cases where the young people leave the subject to the experience of their parents, the old people debate on "settlements," similar to civilized marriage-brokers. 68 On the part of the gents, they are as flippant and forgetful of their moralities in their converse as the privilege of age will permit; whereas, the females rate the speakers for introducing such palpable inuendoes. When a village beau becomes desirous of addressing an object of adoration, he generally waits the opportunity of the

coast being clear of the parents and friends. On such occasions, if he lays his plans well, he becomes successful; but we have seen females who have disliked such wooers, 69 resist with a determination perfectly amazonian, especially when the lover has been of the same rank in society. Weddings are never entered into during the lying in state of a deceased chief, nor even for some time after his obsequies have been performed.

61Mr. Burchell speaking of Hottentot females in the most savage state, observes, "The natural bashful reserve of youth and innocence is to be seen as much among these savages as in more polished nations, and the young girls though wanting but little in being perfectly naked, evinced as just a sense of modesty as the most rigid and careful education could have given them. "

62The Tatar women of Kasan, according to Kotzebue, fly from the sight of a stranger, or conceal their heads within their garments. Women in the East are never seen unveiled, any conduct contrary to the strict observance of such custom was treated with much severity, and in many cases death. The Chinese first views the face of his lady after the marriage-ceremony is performed; and the Catholic ceremony of a lady "taking the veil," as being metaphorically united to her Saviour, is probably taken from the Hebrew ceremony of marriage, when the lady is obliged to enter under a canopy, veiled. The conduct of king Ahasuerus in ordering the queen Vashti to appear before his court, whose moralities were unbended; being in similar condition to the king, "whose heart was merry with wine," argued less contempt on the part of the lady, than strict observance of the customs of the period; and the hapless woman was condemned to death; as the men were fearful of petticoat supremacy. The edict that followed confesses as much, "For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes." "All the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small," and finally the ladies of the kingdom (comprising 127 provinces) appear to have been so restive in loyalty to their liege lords, that we learn (Esth. c.1, v.22,) that letters were despatched in all the provinces "to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house." A veil is indispensable in the East, (Song Solom. c.5, v.7.)
M. Daru in his Histoire de la Republique de Venise, (tom. 5,) attributes the decadence of that country to similar causes "la corruption de moeurs les avait privees de tout leur empire, on vient de parcourir toute 1'histoire de Venise, et on ne les a pas vues une seule fois exercer la moindre influence," and to the members of such societies as boast in repudiating marriages, several of which now exist in the United States (1840) we would say, that the society which exists without the genial influence of woman is self-degraded to an extent we may scarcely divine; and that nation which affects to regard with contempt the true legitimacy of her right divine, as the mother of our race, the nurse of childhood, the object of our earthly adoration in riper years, the dear, inexpressibly dear partner of our future hopes and fears, and when more advanced in life, the truest friend we find in mortal kith or kin when we fall into the sere and yellow leaf of life, the society who can affect a feeling contrary to these truths, are past religious or political redemption, their want of sympathy is want of gratitude to an all-wise Creator. We must regret that our "small still voice" is wanting in eloquence on such a subject.

63Among the Spartans celibacy was deemed tantamount to infamy. One of the punishments rigorously enforced on old bachelors, was, being obliged to walk naked through the market-places during the most frosty weather the winter afforded. (Plut.) Nor was this all; the miserable wretch was obliged to croak (it could not be termed singing under such circumstances) verses derogatory to his character, and the justice that marked his punishment in disobeying the laws. Thirdly he was debarred appearing at the public exercises where the virgins (in puris naturalibus ) contended for the prizes. This nation, so remarkable for their veneration to their elders, were not allowed to pay any to an old bachelor, on the score of being unable to leave children who would honour the young men, when they waxed in years. Even victorious warriors lost the "odour of repute" unless they possessed a marriage certificate. Thus were the laws made to avoid allowing the "worm to feed on a damask cheek." A further enactment was actually made, rendering a man liable to an action if he refused to marry at an age prescribed by the law. (Plut. Pollux.) Polygamy was not allowed. Married persons were highly favoured; the father that had three children was allowed much indulgence, and he that could boast of possessing four, was exempted from paying any taxes.

64The following method of binding friendship has never, we believe, been practised publicly, even by the most barbarous nations of modern times; we extract this passage in the life of Cato, from his biographer (Plutarch): "Quintus Hortensius, a man of signal worth and approved virtue (!) was not content to live in familiarity with Cato, but desired also to be united to his family by some alliance in marriage. Therefore, waiting upon Cato, he began to make a proposal to take Cato's daughter Porcia from Bibulus to whom she had already borne three children, and make her his own wife, offering to restore her after she had borne him a child, if Bibulus was not willing to part with her altogether, adding, that though this in the opinion of men might seem strange, yet in nature it would appear honest and profitable to the public, with much more to the same purpose. Cato could not but express his wonder at the strange project, but withal approved very well of uniting their houses. When Hortensius, turning the discourse, did not stick to acknowledge that it was Cato's own wife which he really desired. Cato, perceiving his earnest inclinations, did not deny his request, but said that Phillip the father of Martia, ought also to be consulted. Phillip being sent for came, and finding that they were well agreed, gave his daughter Martia to Hortensius, in the presence of Cato, who himself also assisted at the marriage." This "loan of a wife," was of Grecian origin, being one of the complaisant laws of Lycurgus; sanctioning such brutality that must have sapped the best intents of social life.
Byron alludes to this fact in Don Juan, Canto 6, v. 7.

"Heroic, stoic, Cato the sententious,
Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius. "

65Courtship in the East, where the lax temperaments of the sexes admit not of being placed in juxta-position is undertaken solely by the mutual parents of the parties.
The intercourse of courtship is somewhat dangerous in countries where the inclinations of the young people are neither restrained by example, discipline or moral education.

66Among the ancient Hebrews, a man was allowed to marry the daughter of his father (half sister). Sarah stood in this relationship to Abraham; this was afterwards forbidden (Levit. c.18. v.9.) The priesthood were forbidden to take "a widow, a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot," (Levit. c.21, v.14. ) On the death of a brother, without children, the survivor was necessitated to marry the widow, that the name of the deceased should live among the tribes. (Deut. c.25, v.10.) A similar law existed among the Greeks. The Turks obey this law, but are not enforced to do so. Among the Egyptians, brother and sister were allowed to marry. The kings frequently married their own sisters. Virgil terms Juno the wife and sister of Jupiter. "Jovisque, et soror et conjux." AEneid.

67The marriages among the early Hebrews appear to have been equally primitive. David, in taking Bathsheba to wife, "sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife." (2 Sam. c.11, v.27.) Abigail and Abinoam were taken with a similar absence of ceremony. (1 Sam. c.25, v.42.) Among the Abyssinians, the king commands the object of his choice to be brought to him, which done, finishes the (sans) ceremony. For feasting see Judg. c.14, v.12.

68This practice is similar to the custom of the Gauls, who on marrying their daughters were expected to make large presents of cattle to the relations. The Latins and Romans were in the habit of making presents of gums, perfumes, costly clothing, to make a showy appearance; and a money, containing much alloy, was coined expressly to throw away among the crowd. The Hebrews make great rejoicings at a marriage; some glasses are broken, either as typical, that the union shall last until the glass can be made whole, or to repress extravagance of joy, which the glass on a floor presents.

69In the seraglio of the Sultan, all commerce ceases with the principal Sultana, as early as she may have borne a child. The present commander of the faithful Abdul Mejid has determined to act contrary to this unnatural custom, though otherwise a strict Mussulman.

[Chapter XIII]

CHAPTER XIII.

MARRIAGE INTERDICTED ON DEATH OF RELATIVES. – ON CHASTITY. – SOLECISM IN HABITS. – SINGULAR FEATS TO BOAST OF. – PUNCTILIO. – BRIDES MADE BLIND. – THE LIVING UNITED TO THE DEAD. – REMARKS OF TRANSIENT TRAVELLERS. – CHASTITY OF MARRIED FEMALES. – ADULTERY, ITS PUNISHMENTS. – JEALOUSY. – POLYGAMY, ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND EFEECTS. – THE SUPERIOR OR CHIEF WIFE. – THE SECOND WIVES. – HANDMAIDS AND SLAVES. – CAUSES OF DOMESTIC DISQUIET AND INTERMINABLE QUARRELS. – ALLOWANCE OF PLURALITIES. – READINESS OF THE NATIVES TO IMPART INFORMATION. – NARRATIVE OF A CHIEF IN PURSUIT OF AN ADDITION TO THE SUM TOTAL OF HUMAN HAPPINESS. – BECOMES ENAMOURED OF A VILLAGE BELLE. – APPARENT JEST AND PALPABLE TRUTH. – WARY CONDUCT OF THE WILY CHIEF. – WELL-FOUNDED ALARM. – CHANGE "FROM GRAVE TO GAY." A HEN-PECKED MATE. – SPIRIT OF RIVALRY REVIVED. – A RELUCTANT CONSENT.

MARRIAGES are rarely entered into if any of the relatives of the parties should have lately died. 70

The absolute meaning of chastity in New Zealand has wholly a different signification from that given in civilized society. We have mentioned that the modesty and reserve of the young females

induce them to retire from the gaze of a stranger. 71 Yet an unmarried female may indulge in any liaison without committing any solecism on the manners of the country. 72 Many married men have boasted to us of their wives having before marriage been deemed sufficiently attractive to become the wives pro tem , of Europeans, and Kaka, the principal chief of Kaihu, actually counted with the tip of his fingers, the number of shipping his wife had frequented for the purpose of distributing her favours; as the number progressed, the old man stroked his well-bearded face with much glee, appealing to the sum-total, as undeniable proofs of the charms his wife had possessed, of which some remains were certainly visible.

The reports of transient travellers, some of whom, actually tarried on board ship nearly a week, within a New Zealand harbour, have unjustly remarked, that the favours of the married female can

be obtained for a paltry object, at any period. Such statements are silly assumptions wholly without foundation. Such favours are as difficult of attainment as in any civilized country, the punishment of death being awarded as the penalty to either party infringing the marital bond, 73 which is tenaciously held as a sacred ordinance; in addition to loss of life, the horrid lust of cannibalism in general overtakes the culprit. Of late years this sanguinary code has received some amendment; an "utu " (damages) being accepted, which does away with the crime in some degree, though the female loses caste, and is known until her death as a wicked adulteress {puremu Kino .)

The passion of jealousy does hot much disturb the breast of a New Zealand husband; but this passion reigns paramount in that of the wife, who frequently has some dozen of causes to entertain the unpleasant feeling. This is caused by that bane of all social happiness – polygamy, whose evils appear to have been felt since the creation of man-

kind, and has existed in New Zealand from the period of its earliest habitation by man, a custom introduced from Asia, the hot-bed of this taste for pluralities. This state of life, notwithstanding the antiquity of the habit, is greatly abhorred by the females of the country; unhappiness and incessant brawling is the sole benefit that accrues from, a society, all of whom feel it their interest to hold the greatest aversion to each other. Many of the chiefs have long since discovered that one wife in some instances is more than sufficient. On a chief marrying sisters, the eldest becomes the head wife, and should the husband leave his residence on an excursion likely to be prolonged, he is accompanied by one of his wives, or as it has frequently happened, when he leaves solus, he returns with an additional one, obtained from the village he has visited, who is inducted into the house as his wife. The life of an inferior wife (or rather slave) is the most miserable that can probably be conceived. They are deprived by the jealousy of the chief wife from all connubial enjoyment, and are literally the handmaids of the elder wives of their husband. Nuptial intercourse between these poor degraded creatures and their nominal husbands is rare, both parties being apprehensive of the jealousy of the head wives. Another cause of domestic annoyance is caused by the false machinations of the latter in attempting to instil into the mind of the polygamist, the unfaithfulness of the new comer; so that a

scene of proving and disproving is continually being acted. Then the women become mutually jealous of their husband and each other; and, however comfortably the old patriarchs were enabled to manage their wives, the difficulty appears insurmountable in New Zealand.

Thus family quarrels become interminable, property becomes wasted in making presents to the thousand and one relatives of the women, while new claimants to bed and board are multiplied. It has moreover been found to be the primary cause of bloodshed and infanticide; and as long as it continues to be the custom of a country, domestic strife will be unceasing, and passions become engendered in the human breast, whose turbulence ends in irreconcileable hatred, bloodshed and unnatural confusion. Every man is allowed to have as many (or more) wives as he can maintain.

While residing on the banks of the river Maungamuka (river of the flax mountain) at Hokianga, frequent opportunities were afforded us of inquiring into the manners and opinions of this primitive people. In every instance they have willingly afforded every information that was inquired of them, and in cases where their knowledge was at fault, (as on the subject of religion and a future life) with much adroitness they substituted fables, that evinced a degree of mental capacity that at no distant period, will be the principal means of enabling them to break through the trammels of superstition

and barbarism in which they have but scarcely begun to emerge.

Desirous of becoming acquainted with the manners of a native when obtaining a second wife, and preserving the new canditate for matrimonial honour from her infuriated companion, we requested of (Te) Wata, an influential chief of the district, how he was enabled to manage this seeming difficulty, as his first wife was known to be a firm disciple to the tenets of Xantippe, never rejecting a chance to show a temper, that would have sadly tried the meekness of a native Job. After demanding a piece of tobacco for the detention of his time, he was about to commence, when critically, he found his pipe had become unserviceable. After satisfying this new demand, he said, that he had married very young, and certainly passed some years very happily. Having thus discovered the pleasure that arose from marriage, in preference to celibacy, he suddenly felt determined to obtain a renewal of his delight, by doubling the pleasures of his life. This wish was accelerated by the sight of a beautiful girl who resided with her parents in a neighbouring village, who had taken without resistance the semi-divided heart of our informant, at a harvest-home (hakari ), where he had personally assisted. He accordingly made offers to the lady, who was desirous of settling in life, and nothing loth, he was accepted. Thus assured, the great difficulty was to break his intention to his spouse. Some time

elapsed before he could gather courage to do so, and he commenced his manoeuvres by sounding her disposition, alluding to the subject in apparent jest, calling her his chief wife, (credula res amor est ) on which the lady laughed heartily; after a pause he grew bolder, (for he had the fear of ten talons before his eyes, with which nature had armed his antagonist) on which the dame flew into an ungovernable rage. On this, the wily chief pretended also to become similarly outrageous, professed himself unable to live happy with such a shrew, and finally told her, that, what he had originally spoken innocently in jest, he would put into execution. Here the narrator chuckled heartily, with evident satisfaction, at the recollection of his successful management. The lady fell into a paroxysm of tears, that would admit of no consolation. She expressed her determination of calling in her relations to interfere on the subject, on which her tormentor laughed, observing that he was only profiting by the example they had shown him. Yet, nevertheless, he felt many symptoms of alarm, as her friends were rich, so offered to compromise by giving her the best mats and dresses he possessed as renewed indications of his love, and promising before her relations, that her children only should have the inheritance of his property in land, canoes, arms, &c. The wife, perceiving that tears were fruitless, suppressed her anger, and attempted a more soothing method; but the sage was deaf to her

solicitations, and held out, as he found the Rubicon was passed, and pretended that she had brought it on herself by her own unhappy temper; observing that his first remark was in jest, and the intention of changing their condition was wholly foreign to his thoughts, but now he felt determined to pursue his promise, being decided not to be henpecked like Kaitoke (a peaceable old soul whose wife habited the inexpressibles) who had been repeatedly the subject of laughter to them both. His next step was to try and gain her consent, but on this head, the afflicted lady preserved an inflexible dissent. He now essayed to coax in his turn, but she turned a deaf ear to all that he could say or invent; in vain he assured her of his indelible love, (as he was desirous of showing her friends that he had obtained a consent, in case they expressed themselves dissatisfied, as also to preserve peace in the house, which could never be obtained as long as her consent was withheld,) in this dilemma, he named several females, which his wife listened to with apparent apathy, until he slily mentioned one towards whom he knew his wife to bear an unappeasable animosity, a spirit of rivalry having formerly existed between them. At mentioning this long-hated name, the wife pronounced her veto with much bitterness, uttering execrations without exceptions against all her kindred; but the wary fowler having discovered the way to obtain his desires, stood out, that on that female he had fixed his wishes. In vain the wife

stormed and raved, until, dissolving in tears, she promised to give her consent to any one rather than the rival he had proposed, who if suffered to enter the house, she felt determined to kill herself. After apparent self-affliction, he promised to forego the desires of his heart, and take Parre (who was the real object of his wishes) to which the wife gladly consented, rather than his taking her rival home, who (unknown to her) was equally the object of aversion to the skilful general.

70The Romans were equally punctilious. Ovid says: –

"Go, Hymen, stop the long expecting dames,
And hide thy torches from the funeral flames,
Thy presence would be fatal while we mourn,
And at our tombs must other tapers burn. "

71In India, the bride is sacredly kept apart from being gazed upon by the company. At Aleppo, a singular ceremony blinds the lady among the Hebrews. The rabbin closes her eyes with a solution of gum-arabic, the bridegroom only is allowed to open them.

72The Lacedemonians and Spartans accounted a married life as the greatest boon that they enjoyed in this life or could hope for after death; consequently, when any of their young men died unmarried, persons were hired to be married to the corpse, that his spirit might rest from the ban of celibacy.

73The punishment of an adulterer is given in Numb. c.25, v.81. Draco, whose laws were written in blood, decreed death to both culprits. Solon, whose clemency forms a remarkable contrast, permitted the incensed husband to do what he pleased. The Persians shaved the heads of the guilty, and poured hot ashes over tbem.
The early Romans marked the forehead of an adulterer, and the generality of their libidinous women.

[Chapter XIV]

CHAPTER XIV.

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES. – CAPTIVE WOMEN. – AND LIVING SCAPEGOATS. – ARRANGEMRNT OF FAMILY COMFORTS. – EVILS OF POLYGAMY TO SOCIETY. – FRACAS AMONG SLAVES. – ADOPT THE MANNERS OF THEIR MISTRESSES. – HANDMAIDS AND CONCUBINES. – DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE. – RESPECTIVE RANK TAKEN BY MISTRESSES IN A HOUSEHOLD. – FEMALE SUPREMACY. – ARDOUR OF FEMALE AFFECTION IN NEW ZEALAND. – SELF IMMOLATION OF WOMEN. – CONDUCT OF RELATIVES ON SUCH OCCASIONS. – ANECDOTE. – LYING IN STATE. – FAITHFULNESS TO EUROPEANS. – PRIDE AND OBSTINACY OF CHIEF FEMALES. – WIDOWS. – DIVORCE, ITS INSTITUTION AND CAUSES. – RECORDS ON THIS SUBJECT. – MEANS OF PROCURING SEPARATION BY MEN AND WOMEN. – RESULTS OF THE SYSTEMS. – CONDUCT OF WIDOWS ON THE DECEASE OF THEIR HUSBANDS. – LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS FOR MARRIAGE.

THE same caution is not always required from the husband in taking an additional rib to himself. Women captured in battle are taken to wife by the captors, when the latter feel interested in so doing, otherwise they become slaves, literally hewers of wood and drawers of water. A woman raised from slavery to the embraces of her master, gains but little by the exchange of condition (if such it can be called,) as she becomes the scape-goat on which the free women and children of the house vent their spleen and ill-humours.

The next care that engaged the attention of Wata after obtaining the consent of his wife, was to protect the new addition to his family comforts from being insulted on being inducted into her new and somewhat equivocal home. To effect this he was continually declaring of the outrage he had done his feelings; to soothe which the prima donna promised to receive her new relation.

In the sacred writings, the evils of polygamy are distinctly visible to the reader, between the mistresses and the handmaids. 74

Nor are quarrels confined to the married women. As soon as a new wife makes her appearance with her slaves, the servants of the previous wives take umbrage, and aping the manners, and adopting the feelings of their respective mistresses (as is customary among more civilized folks) regard themselves superior to the new comers, in the same ratio, (but with more insolence) as the earlier wives contemn their successors. This is only avoided when a difference of sexes among the slaves induces a conjugal arrangement, which is the only way such an incongruous household can be managed. Among the women, the greatest possible animosity, jealousy, quarrelling and fighting, at times prevail.

On feasts being given, or when a fishing party is proposed, the first wife is accounted mistress of the ceremonies, and is looked up to with deference accordingly. At such periods, mutual good offices take place among the wives. The eldest is pleased and flattered with her supremacy; the juniors are delighted to get peace and quietness at the expense of a little self-infliction.

The cruelty practised by the senior women, in the absence of the husband, is as vindictive as degrading to human nature. Should the hapless woman be in the way of becoming a mother, means are used to disappoint the husband from becoming a parent. If they prove unsuccessful, an attempt is made to make the husband believe the poor woman has been unfaithful to him during his absence.

The ardour of affection or rather devotion, that has been exhibited by the sex in New Zealand, has never been surpassed at any period or in any country.

Until within the last seven years, the native wife immolating herself at the death of her husband was a common occurrence that elicited no surprise. This suicide was effected by hanging, drowning, strangulation, and even starvation, rigorously abstaining from food, and so far from the relatives interfering to prevent the practice, it was customary for the family to form a rope of flax, and give it to the victim, who retired into the adjoining bush and put a period to her existence.

In India, when the heart of a devoted victim to the suttee of her dead husband misgave her, the poor wretch was dragged and thrown headlong into the flames; instances frequently occurring where the frantic sufferer has rushed from the blazing pile, enveloped in flames: but rarely self-immolation was forced on the benighted women in New

Zealand; yet it was solemnly inculcated as a paramount duty for the head wife, at least, to sacrifice herself, in order to accompany her husband on his road to the Reinga . A chief named Parenui , died while we travelled on the west coast of the Northern Island, on which three of his wives sacrificed themselves. To aid this family in their eternal route several slaves were murdered to assist their master in future existence. The females were laid in great state by the side of the husband; the slaves were immediately buried, as such sacrifices are not per-

Profile of the mortal remains of Pakanai a female Chief of Hokianga, arranged in state.

mitted to be devoured. Some melancholy occurrences often took place in consequence of the false intelligence hourly promulgated among the people. If a wife has heard that her husband had been killed while absent on a distant expedition, she has taken a cord and hung herself. When the news proves false, the messenger (generally a slave) is murdered for his conduct. Innumerable anecdotes could be adduced to illustrate the fact of immolation in New Zealand. The feeling of devotion that leads a woman to commit such a crime has often been transferred to their European partners, who have in general showed a good example to the native husband. Many a female has twisted her rope of flax, determined not to survive her lover, who has been prostrated on a bed of sickness. Many females, personally known to the writer, have departed in this manner from existence.

As the head wife generally committed suicide, but little commiseration was felt by the surviving women, who in some degree felt disinthralled from a life that had been made miserable to them in the extreme. The pride and obstinacy of chief women, are scarcely credible; many have committed suicide on their inclinations being thwarted, or their stubbornness resisted; hanging and drowning has generally been resorted to. The widow of a deceased chief rarely marries again; and yet more rarely below the rank held by her first husband. A slave

wife is allowed to re-marry, but she remains a slave in the family.

Divorces, or putting away of wives, are not of unfrequent occurrence among this people. 75 This may arise from a variety of causes; as the decline of conjugal affection, barrenness of the wife, or introduction of new claimants to the titular honour. A husband has been induced to separate, from his children being ill-used by a step-mother, or the act of infanticide on the part of a mother.

Many other causes induce separation among the New Zealanders: extravagance in squandering pro-

visions, idleness, too much coquetry, infusing suspicions of jealousy, and refusing to admit a sleeping partner in the conjugal firm. The method pursued to effect a divorce, if sought for by the lady, is simply seeking shelter among her parents and friends; and should the husband be desirous of breaking the connexion, he is satisfied as to the step taken by the wife; this is a divorce enabling both to marry; but should the husband regret her absence, he first employs persuasion, and should he disregard the power of her friends, employs threats; but if the woman should continue to remain obstinate, he tries to waylay her, or calling some friends to his assistance to enable him to effect by force, what he has found to be ineffectual by entreaty. In this the feelings of the wife are not consulted; she is often made to suffer severely in person. One party being anxious to force her away, the other to effect her detention. When both parties are willing to separate, the property of both is fairly divided, and they can marry when they please. 76 If they have

children, much discussion arises, as to whom they belong; but if the father insists on claiming them, his right prevails. Divorcees have been known to kill their children, to obtain a separation. A female once divorced is freed from future insult from her late husband; should he, regardless of custom, continue to annoy her, he is liable to suffer severely for his conduct from her relations.

On a female becoming a widow, whether possessing affection or not for her husband, she utters the most frantic cries, throwing herself with marks of unconsolable agony on the inanimate remains, tearing her hair, excoriating her face, arms, breast, with her finger-nails or muscle-shells, until she absolutely becomes undistinguishable from blood and filth. The other women also, made widows by the same stroke, join in with similar howling and lamentations. Huddling together, they cover themselves within a garment, yell in chorus tones of distraction and sorrow, scorning any attempt towards being comforted. Should they re-marry at an after-period, a priest is consulted, to divine whether the future husband is likely to become the survivor or not. 77

[Only a footnote on this page]

74A handmaid, according to Scripture, is an anomalous character admitted within the statutes of European society. They appear to have been placed in a situation, between a wife and a harlot. Sarai requests Abram to go in unto her maid Hagar, "that I may obtain children by her." Abram, with a complaisance that peculiarly distinguishes the era, immediately does so, and Ishmael is born. Hagar, who is an Egyptian slave, mocks at the barrenness of her mistress, who causes her from severity to run away. (Gen. c.16, v.6). Hagar is certainly not accounted an harlot. After the death of Sarah, Abraham marries Keturah, (supposed by the Mishnah to be Hagar,) who bare him six sons. (Gen. c.25, v.2). Yet they are termed immediately after, "sons of the concubines," who received gifts and were sent away expressly eastward unto the east country, away from his son Isaac, who receives the patrimony, (v.5). Ishmael is not sent away, the two brothers assisting at the funeral obsequies of the patriarch, (v.8). Bilhah aud Zilpah, handmaids (born slaves) to Leah and Rachel, were mothers to four of the twelve princes of Israel (Gen. c.30, vv.3 to 12), they received a blessing and patrimony equally with their brethren (Gen. c.49), nor is any mention made of jealousy arising in consequence of their birth. Trials of jealousy were instituted among the Hebrews. (Numb. c.5, vv.14 to 35),

75The laws of the early Romans forbade any female to leave her husband; but the men were allowed that liberty. (Plut.) However, the weaker sex appear not to have suffered very materially from this onesided enactment, as it remained a dead letter nearly 600 years; the first person taking advantage of it, being one Servius Spunus (a name well merited). This unjust law was in after years abrogated. (Servius.)
Divorce was permitted to the Hebrews (Deut. c.24, v.1.) for circumstances similar to the causes of separation among the New Zealanders. Among the modern Hebrews the law is rarely taken advantage of, though an infected breath is accounted a sufficient cause for divorce. The female was not allowed to sue for a divorce by the Mosaic ordination; but this was set aside in the time of Herod the Great, when Salome, the King's sister, set the example, which was directly followed by Herodias, both rejecting their husbands. (Josephus.) The princely historian complains of meeting with similar treatment from his wife.

76Among the Hebrews, a divorcee could not marry until the expiration of ninety days, giving time to ascertain if the female was in the way of becoming a mother. This ordinance is observed with so much exactitude, that divorces have been known between married persons from contrariety of temper; but after a short separation both parties have discovered that they could only live happy in the company of each other, and after the lapse of a month, have requested to be again allied in marriage; but this has been resisted by the Rabbins, as being contrary to the law; the parties have consequently been obligated to wait the expiration of the ninety days.

77According to Tully, the haruspices among the Romans, previous to a marriage taking place, a number of days in the year were accounted unlucky and unfitted for the celebration. The worst period was the month of May. June was accounted as extremely favourable. Ovid alludes to this, where seeking to obtain a husband for his daughter: –

"After June's sacred Ides my fancy staid,
Good to the man, and happy to the maid."

[Chapter XV]

CHAPTER XV.

EMPLOYMENT OF THE WOMEN. – METHODS OF IGNITING WOOD. – RECORDS OF THE OCCUPATION OF THE SEX. – AND ITS ANALOGY TO MARRIAGE. – METHOD OF PROCURING FIRE WHEN TRAVELLING. – FAMILIARITY OF DOMESTIC INTERCOURSE. – PICTURE OF A SLEEPING APARTMENT IN A VILLAGE FAMILY. – PRIMITIVE FURNITURE – EXTRA LODGERS. – CHANTICLEER AND HIS MISTAKES. – VILLAGE SCENES. – DOG CHORUSSES. – PURSUITS OF THE VILLAGERS. – OCCUPATIONS OF THE MEN. – THE TIMBER TRADE. – METHODS OF FELLING HEAVY TREES, AMD CONVEYING THE TRUNKS TO THE WATER. – TIME AND TIDE TO REMOVE THEM. – RIVERS IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE employments of the New Zealand females, are equally performed, by the superior chief or her slaves; 78 with the exception of cooking, cutting

wood, and fetching water. Their occupation during one day will explain the usual routine throughout their lives; which to a European would be accounted extremely monotonous. The people rise very early, generally before day-break, when a slave is called to bring a fire-stick to light the grateful pipe, which from morning to night is in universal request; this is performed by two pieces of wood being taken out of a basket that hangs in

the cabin; a groove is hollowed in one stick; the other being pointed; the latter is rubbed to and fro, with much vigour, when a smoke arises from the friction, and soon after ignition takes place. It is rarely that the fires are wholly extinguished in a village, as the people delight in sitting around a cheerful hearth: and it is usual when a family have their fires extinguished to send to their neighbours for some burning embers. Another method of obtaining fire when travelling is to place some priming (powder) in the pan of a musket-lock, closing up the touch-hole, against which a piece of old mat or dried flax is placed (previously made soft by friction), the trigger of the piece is pulled, which communicates some sparks to the novel tinder, and a flame produced by gently waving the flax to and fro. Should the morning be too early, or cold, the villagers sit round a fire in the hut, discussing the intended plans of the day, or relating the past. In addressing each other familiarly, the words friend, (ekoro ,) sir, (emara ,) my love, (ekoma ,} are interchanged, as among people boasting supreme civilization. Let us look around at the interior of a sleeping apartment in a village. At one side a board that formerly appertained to the side of an old canoe is placed on its edge by wooden pins on either side beat into the floors; answering as a division for the beds; the mattresses of which are formed of soft fern, or a couple of mats of rough flax. The sheets consist of a single mat,

similar to split rattans, and a blanket covers the whole; a small log of wood, or a mat rolled up answers for pillow and bolster. These beds are ranged on each side the cabin floor; no fears disturbing any of the somnolent inmates from falling out. In addition to the parents and children, the favourite dogs are also permitted to sleep in the hut, which is often not above ten feet square, nor are these the only animals who partake of the indulgent caresses of their mistresses, as the upturned snouts of youthful grunters may be seen in contrast with the budding charms of the young ladies; their sleek black hides being closely fondled within arms, certainly fitted for more appropriate heroes. In some villages, English poultry are found, when the inhabitants of the village have the advantage of hearing sounded his shrill early matin, giving the signal to rise. At times this antipodal chanticleer makes a sad mistake in time, by crowing at three o'clock, preceding day-break by a couple of hours; on the natives rising and perceiving all dark before them, (which can only be done by opening the rush door, as the houses rarely have windows, and chimneys have not come into use;) the careless cock is soundly rated (like the ghost of Banquo), for murdering sleep; a bone, or whatever comes nearest to hand, is generally thrown at him, as a reward for deception, which raising the ire of the bird, he revenges himself by crowing with all his might, which is instantly answered by the sluggish

neighbours of his own species, and thus the war cry "cock-a-doodle-do" resounds from one end of the village to the other, which is imitated by the slaves, who being minus of tobacco, turn to imitation, for want of thought. Such is the scene in the dark almost daily performed in a village at sunrise: the poet truly says

"Man's a strange animal, and makes use
Of his own nature and the various arts,
And likes particularly to produce
Some new experiment to show his parts. "
Don Juan, 1 Cant. 128.

Nor is the chorus confined to man and bird; the dogs (and each family in a village has five or six such retainers,) disturbed from sleep, and probably annoyed at having their own peculiar province invaded; added their brawling "long and loud" to the general chorus; and as some villages possess perhaps not less than five hundred to a thousand of such choristers; the general effect can scarcely be conceived, by any persons who have never experienced a similar serenade. In the season of planting, all the family leave the house before sunrise, and with implements in hand, the spade and hoe, repair to the field of their labour, where they remain all day. At sun-set, all return home, famished, to partake of the evening meal. At ordinary times, at sun-rise, the men pursue their occupations, which vary in manner and method in different districts of the country.

Where timber is purchased by the Europeans, the proprietor of certain trees or forest land, arranges the price he has to receive in return for a single tree, or a number of trees; providing to deliver the same in the dock or timber-yard of the purchaser, who furnishes the use of blocks, tackles, &c. required to drag the ponderous loads from the forest to the water. The chief then summons his people to attend him to the forest; a survey is made as to the best method to convey the tree to the water; the nearest path, or that which presents least obstacles is chosen, and the road cleared of all small wood, and brush. Various methods are made use of to fell a tree, and when it is considered that many of them have a circumference of thirty feet; it requires some ingenuity to fell such gigantic tenants of the forest, with the simple implements and mechanical tact of the natives. A stage is generally erected about three feet from the ground, when, with a cross-cut saw, the party (chiefs included,) work in turn until the tree is levelled; care being taken to cut in such a manner as will cause the tree to fall nearest to the water. Another method, but of slow progress, is to collect a quantity of dry combustible wood at the base of the tree, and thus set fire to it, feeding the flames until the tree has fallen. This was the earliest method in use for forming canoes, but is now discontinued as the fire hardens the wood too much the cutting it afterwards into plank being a work

of great difficulty. The usual method is to cut with axes near the base of the tree, when a party in turn are soon able to effect their purpose. They next attend to dragging the spar (tree) through the bush into the water; this consumes much time and labour; small round pieces of timber being laid down as "ways" for the spar to glide over. The time consumed in this work depends principally on the nature of the locality; some trees have taken no less than three months' continual work to remove from the place it has fallen to the water-side. Of late years, about the northern part of the country, the spars nearest to the water-side have been expended; and latterly, when placed in the creeks, it requires the aid of heavy freshes occasioned by long rains, to remove the buoyant timber from the shallow inlets. Great care is also required in performing this seemingly easy performance, as a river or inlet in New Zealand winds in various directions, round the compass 79 and has such acute angles, that often a spar has become fixed across a bend in the river, blocking up the navigation for canoes; and impossible to remove

unless cut in the centre on annual repetition of another flood. In this manner a raft or single tree is often conveyed some miles down a river, previously to its being placed in the dock of the purchaser; to perform this, the spar-dealer must follow the advice of Shakspeare to "take at the tide the flood that leads to" the sale of his labour. The tides flows generally five hours at the flood, and seven hours at the ebb. The timber-dealer in conducting his raft down the river at flood tide (tai parre, ) drops an anchor, (a heavy piece of wood or bag of stones) at the end of the flood (tai pakoa ) in deep water, that he may be enabled to pursue his route at the finish of the ebb (tai timu .)

78In the olden nations the principal women also were engaged in a similar manner. Tending on camels was not unfitted for an ancient chieftess, (Gen. c.24, vv. 11, 15 – c.29, vv.6, 9.) (Exod. c.2, v.16.) Hannah made her son's garments, (1 Sam. c.2, v.19.) and the praise of a good wife is rehearsed, (Prov. c.31, vv.10 to 31.) by her anxious employments. "She seeketh (wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands, (v. 15.) as is the custom of the females in New Zealand. The story of Penelope, wife of the crafty Ulysses, is that of a life of industry. Arachne and her transformation into a spider's-web, for presuming to vie with Minerva in spinning, is a confused tradition of two females emulating each other in the use of the serviceable distaff, where the former probably in using cotton, found herself worsted (the real web). Among the Romans, the married females (patrician and plebeian) were employed continually at spinning. One of the marriage rites consisted of the bride being led home by three boys, whose parents on both sides were living, carrying a distaff and spindle, said to commemorate the industry of Tanaquil, Queen to Tarquinius Priscus, a celebrated spinster, (Plut. lib.8, v.48.) among the articles of peace, made between the simple Sabines and the boisterous Romans, was, that their ravished daughters should not be obliged to do any servile work, but exercise their industry at spinning. (Plut. life of Romulus.) Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, was discovered by the infamous Tarquin, while spinning, surrounded by her women. The nymphs were spinners of wool and cotton. (Virg.) Priscilla, wife of Tarquin, wove the vail (enriched with jewels) for the temple of Minerva, who was reputed to have invented the web. Even the wives and daughters of the Roman Emperors passed their mornings in weaving and spinning, and Augustus Caesar wore no other clothing, than were made by his wife, sister, and daughter.

79A river in New Zealand, from twenty to forty miles in length in a direct course, often flows in serpentine directions nearly three times that length; the saltwater rivers are joined at their entrances, by freshwater creeks, many of which pursue routes inland, through perhaps eighty miles of country.

[Chapter XVI]

CHAPTER XVI.

FLAX TRADE. – MUTUAL JEALOUSIES OF THE NATIVE TRADERS. – ABORIGINAL PEDLARS. – GOOD FAITH IN TRADING. – NET MAKING. – CARVING. – MENTAL ATTENTION OF THE NATIVES. – DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT. – WEAVING. – LOOMS. – DRESS MAKING. – QUILTINGS. – VARIOUS KINDS OF FLAX IN USE. – SIMILARITY IN THE DRESS OF THE SEXES. – DISPENSATIONS ON THE SUBJECT. – DYEING. – VARIETY IN DRESS. – ATTITUDES. – LEGIBLE CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERNAL CHANGE. – MUMMY SYSTEM. – SEMI-DIVIDED FEMALES. – GIRDLES AND BELTS, – TRANSFORMATIONS OF MODERN COSTUME. – STATE OF NATIVE TASTE. – EUROPEAN DRESSES. – HOW APPROPRIATED. – FASHIONS AND TASTES.

THE occupations of felling timber, scraping flax, and supplying provisions, was the earliest labour required by the Europeans from the New Zealanders. The trade of the two former have been, found to be beneficial to both parties; but not to the extent supposed, as no person who has been engaged, however sedulously, in either trade, has made any profits adequate to the risk he has undergone of both life and property, and the discomforts arising from what may be justly termed banishment from the civilized world. The flax is sold to the trader by weight, and aware of this, the wily sellers have often enclosed heavy stones within the flax to procure a larger remuneration. The flax in a basket generally weighs about from

eighty to a hundred pounds, and is either carried (pikou) on men's shoulders or in canoes, to the house of the purchaser. Most villages have at least one European resident, purchasing provisions and flax; this person is under the protection of the chief of the district, and rarely he is allowed to trade with another tribe, though residing in his vicinity. This jealousy of the villagers is the more to be deplored by the trader, as the traffic during many portions of the year is far from brisk. The rearing of pigs forms a valuable resource to the natives. The Europeans being willing purchasers, for consumption and export. When the villagers are too ill disposed to work for their trader; many of them become pedlars and taking an invoice of such articles as they expect will be accounted as saleable, take journeys by land, but generally by water, and make purchases of the produce or manufacture, which they dispose of to their European, or on board such ships as call at their port or vicinity.

At other times they make journeys on a voyage of many weeks' duration, furnished by the European, with a quantity of articles, which these pedlars sell to good profit for the benefit of the owner, at a reasonable commission. Such transactions are carried on with much good faith by the natives; any deceit on the part of the European would be severely visited. Nor does barter alone form the occupation of men at home; making or repairing

of fishing nets, or seines, some of which are several thousand feet in length, the material being un-scraped flax, is the work of all the inhabitants of a village. In order to ensure completion, which, depending on the will of numerous workmen, might scarcely be expected, the work is made sanctified (kea tapu ) so that each person cannot apply his hands to any other purpose; and in many instances, the parties are not allowed to feed themselves, or personally make use of any sustenance. Many persons also engage themselves in forming or repairing canoes, making paddles, spears, carving holes to place the village trinkets and feathers, building houses and sheds, carving the ornaments, making handles for spades, hoes, gathering seed for planting, drying fish, all of which cause a stir and bustle that agreeably breaks into the monotonous routine of a village life. Conversation of local interest engages the mental attentions of the workmen thus severally employed, ancestral traditions, animosities of tribes, the good fortune of one tribe in battle or agriculture; the ill stars that presided over the efforts of others in similar occupations; the probable assurance of a good harvest, attending their own exertions, or the chances of success in some intended predatory excursion, forms the subject of converse while the work is going forward at a distance from their houses.

In the mean time the females busy themselves

in sweeping their houses as early as their husbands and children have left them, and arranging with neatness the very little furniture that cannot be said to encumber their place. Ablution then follows, much care and attention to the head-dress being paid, that at once denotes the difference of sex in every part of the globe. After all the little arrangements are completed, weaving of garments is next attended to, at such periods when the lands are either prepared for planting, sowing, or the reaping has finished, in each of which the females also assist; they next engage in such employments as all natives regard as belonging peculiarly to their department, such as washing the clothing of the household; and in the vicinity of Europeans, bleaching, ironing, and sewing, which is performed in a very creditable manner. The weaving of dresses is a favourite and truly feminine performance, as it agreeably passes time, that with civilized people is supposed to pass too quick; but to a barbarous unemployed people too slow. Weaving is the most social of all occupations, as the working of a dress is the performance of many persons. Generally a mat is worked in a small shed, where the gossips of a village assemble to discuss the affairs of the primitive state. Some stakes are forced into the floor about six feet apart, on which cross-wise the frame is formed. The size of the mats varies from three feet square to five in width, by seven in length. The work is exces-

sively tedious, as neither meshes nor needles are made use of, but continual use renders the ladies extremely accurate in working the entire dress of the requisite width. To a European the method appears the most tedious operation that can test temper or lose time; but the latter is of no moment to these people. It affords a vast fund of amusement to the ladies of a village. As early as a dress is undertaken by a wife for her lover, husband, or child, she gives notice of her intentions to the neighbours, who generally promise their aid to discuss the matter. These meetings resemble similar meetings of the sex in many parts of the globe, and villages of European provinces which are termed by the Americans "quiltings." In these meetings every subject that can be thought of is discussed, with the appellations passing current among each other of "my dear," "my love," etc. as made use of by civilized folks. The common mats wove by the females are subject to less care The costume of either sex has no material difference in shape, as the materials are alike. 80 The flax (korari ) forming the dresses is of two or

three kinds; the most coarse, called muka, is employed for working the common garment (kakaou maori.) This flax is also made use of for laying up ropes, lines, &c. The superior dress called Kaitaka, 81 is made from silken flax, (hunga hunga.) This is often produced in an elegant manner, being formed by hand, of a quantity of threads as glossy as silk, and bound cross-wise half an inch asunder. Every coloured wool or cloth the weavers are enabled to procure are also worked in the mat; to the bottom is appended a deep rich heavy border, of sometimes a foot in depth, of a variety of patterns that evinces much taste and ability in design, with

a substance the needle rarely produces. Dyeing is much used by the females, but from white to a red and deep jet black, the sole colours obtained, by steeping the prepared flax in water, with the bark

A roll of flax prepared for European traders.

(sometimes crushed) of certain trees; the process is so rude as to rot, and damage the texture of the article in some degree. The smallest garment woven is called the patai , principally worn by females for an inner garment; the korowai differs but little from the former, except in having a deep fringe of knotted flax strings. The tatata is similar in size to the former, having pending from every part, an infinity of small cords six inches long, of no use or ornament; its origin must be ascribed to the arbitrary taste of fashion. The dress formed of the feathers of the kiwi kiwi bird has been mentioned for its rarity; but the clothing of the birds of the shore and ocean are made use of to form a garment; a strong matting being the substance on which the ingenuity of the Chiefs is expended in obtaining the aerial garment. In pursuing this occupation among the females, the warrior forms no bad idea of the gallant Hercules at the feet of Omphale. A valuable garment for the stormy

climate of the southward is called neri , and is made of undressed flax or of the kierakiki , a species of rush, impervious to rain. This garment is made on the principle of thatching a house; and a native habited in this rude but comfortable cloak, when sitting down, would be taken by an English rustic for a hay-cock; a black shock head peering out, alone destroying the deception. The sitting attitude to avoid rain, is for the knees to become supporters to the chin, and in this attitude a number of natives resemble a commonwealth, of beehives. A knowledge of the art of weaving dresses appears to have been coeval with the earliest settlement in the country. The flax-plant, growing in infinity and variety, has been the staple source from whence the inhabitants have obtained their dress and finery. The costume is decidedly modest and becoming, as simple as uniform. A native will rarely habit himself in more than two garments, but the introduction of the invaluable blanket, has changed the patriotic taste of the people from flax to wool. Costume may be said to be a distinguishing feature, delineating the character of a nation; and as barbarism annually gives place to civilization; a legible characteristic of the internal change is externally presented by a change of costume. The phlegmatic Dutchman with antiquated hose is not more distinguished from the mercurial Frenchman; than the New Zealander residing in distant villages of the interior, from his brother countrymen

residing in the vicinity of Europeans. All early nations were habited in similarly formed garments, arising from a dearth in industry; and in New Zealand, from the paucity of articles fitted to form clothing for mankind, as neither the cotton-plant, silk, or the palmiferous tribes, as the cocoa, sago, grows in the country. The children walk in nudity until they arrive to six or seven years; they have consequently a vast advantange over such little people who are compressed in bandages and long cloths; and whose infant limbs are paralyzed in the mummy fashion of Europe. Nor are the ladies subjected to those abominable ligatures round the waist, that are carried to such an extent by the fair of New York, as to start a question among our American brethren worthy of the Consistory Court; whether a lover does not subject himself to a charge of bigamy by marrying such semi-divided females; the idea is worthy of so strait-laced a people. The native costume is to fasten by strings the lesser garment round the waist; the open part closing at the right side, the extremity reaches half down the legs: for a Chief the best flax is appropriated to work this garment. A flax or leathern belt is fastened over this dress, in which a tomahawk is placed, and often a car-

Native Belt.

tridge-box with powder and ball. The females attach their garment immediately under the breast; girdles of flax are also made use of. Coverings for the head (potai ) are rarely made use of. The natives set great store by all articles of European dress, and are proud to possess the cast-off finery of the army. As they are wholly ignorant of our immediate fashions, so they are defective in their ideas of correctly appropriating the dresses they may obtain. Many of those natives unaccustomed to see Europeans in numbers, are unconscious of the wear a cloth garment may have sustained; and a court-dress of the days of King Ahasuerus of Syria, or Louis Phillippe of France would be accounted as equally modern in fashion: a particoloured seam in a garment of unmentionable appropriation, is accounted no drawback to many of the southern tribes, and a round-about jacket over a naked body. Stockings or shirts worn round the throat; shirts turned into trousers, the arms answering for the legs; crownless hats; a jacket put on, the front buttoned behind; a stocking on the arm; trousers put on, the seat in front, and buttoned behind; shirts pendent as aprons; the arms being tied round the waist, &c., are the effects of a taste in dress, decidedly uncontemplated by the original manufacturers. These primitive votaries of fashion delight to insert themselves within a small cloth coat, over the naked body, while they contrive to button the shrunken habiliment over an

ample chest, and a body perspiring at every pore; the arms of the wearer being pinioned as civilians would incarcerate a lunatic within a strait waistcoat. The males often appear in the gowns of their wives; and if the latter possess several, it is not unusual for the husband to put them all on his body, arranged in such manner as to show off a portion of each; the ladies placing their gentle proportions in the trousers of the male; a fashion (an ideal one) we believe to be not wholly repudiated by the sex in Europe. Agreeably to the imitative taste of the people, any new fashion, however preposterous, is immediately followed,

80This was objected to by the Mosaic laws, as an abomination, persisted in by the heathen nations around Palestine. (Deut. c.22, v.5.) The Romans, of both sexes, at an early period of the republic, dressed alike, as did the Greeks from whom they copied their costume.

81The toga of the Romans was a sleeveless gown, and was termed vestis forensis when worn in the street. The tunic was an inner garment, and similar to the toga, resembles the costume of the New Zealanders. The cinctus or belt of the former, is termed the witiki by the latter. This costume was taken from the Greeks; the pallium, or cloak, is of humble materials in New Zealand, called Kierakiki, formed of a kind of rush. The common garment, toga pretexta, was in form like the common kakaou maori. It was the custom when the Greek children changed their puerile garments for those befitting a more advanced age, to dedicate a small portion to a favourite deity. The Romans did the same, as Juvenal observes in Sat. 5.

"When now my childish robe resigned its charge,
And left me unconfined to live at large;
When now my golden bulla (hung on high
To household gods, ) declared me past a boy."
Dryden.

[Chapter XVII]

CHAPTER XVII.

OPINIONS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS AS TO THE PURSUITS OF EUROPEANS. – ARTICLES OF BARTER THAT MEET WITH A READY SALE. – - ON THE IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO TIME. – FEELINGS OF THE PEOPLE TOWARDS BARTER. – ON THE INTRODUCTION OF A COINAGE AND A CIRCULATING-MEDIUM. – SPANISH DOLLARS. – THEIR DIVISIONS. – MONEY DISPLACING BARTER. – WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. – WILY CONDUCT OF THE NATIVES. – TRICKERY OF SHIPMASTERS, EFFECT OF SIMILAR FREAKS ON SHORE. – VARIATION IN VALUE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. – PRICES OF EUROPEAN GOODS IN SYDNEY AND NEW ZEALAND. – THE PRICE OF LABOUR. – EXPENCES ATTENDING THE ERECTION OF A FLAX HOUSE. – NEW PURCHASES BEGET ADDITIONAL WANTS. – THE TRUISM ILLUSTRATED. – REMUNERATION FOR NATIVE LABOUR. – NATIVES INURED TO WORK. – DIFFERENCE IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE BY MISSIONARIES AND LAY RESIDENTS. – BODILY TACTICS. – NAUTICAL ABILITIES OF THE PEOPLE. – NAVIGATE IN EVERY HEMISPHERE. – RESEMBLANCE TO BRITISH SEAMEN. – NATIVE INCLINATIONS TOWARDS FARMING. – THEIR PLANTATIONS.

THE opinions of the New Zealanders are highly favourable to European pursuits, whether connected with commerce or agriculture, and give preference to the merchandise of their visitors; their own crude manufactures having dwindled into comparative insignificance and contempt. The articles that now meet with, a ready sale among them are very numerous, including hardware, cutlery, clothes of every description, calico, linens, woollen goods, haberdashery, hosiery, glass, earthenware, tea, spirits, sugars, and the everlasting narcotic, tobacco.

Within a very few years since, time was not accounted by a native as of any importance; but the impetus already given to his attention and labour by Europeans becoming resident in the country, has greatly changed his former apathy. The most pleasurable devotion of time, is no longer the dance of love or war; but barter, for which the native will now sacrifice any amusement that in times past engrossed all his leisure. This new passion with the New Zealander, may be regarded as the primary cause of his progression, from incivilization to a new moral state of existence. A circulating medium is understood, but its operations have been in use solely in those places where the Europeans abound in greatest number; and the knowledge of our coinage is confined to the few who possess superior mental tact to their duller neighbours. The Spanish dollar is the favorite coin, as in all barbarous countries, where the distinction in coinage is known; 82 but we have

often been requested to give change out of one farthing British, and some pounds of tobacco to boot, by a simple native, whose credulity had been imposed upon: and when the real value has been made apparent, the coin has been turned to account by a hole being bored through it, and then appended to the ear of its owner as an ornament (waka kai ). But among those persons who are aware of the value of the precious metals, a spirit of amassing has crept in, that has wholly overpowered the cravings that formerly animated them for the serviceable blanket, the destructive fowling-piece, and powder, &c. These persons repudiate barter altogether, selling every thing for money, whether provisions, labour, or land. Of weights and measures, the natives have but an indistinct idea; powder and tobacco are sold by the pound; shot by the bag; potatoes by the basket, varying in weight from 151bs. to 1501bs. Flax is purchased by weight, on which the wily natives remarking that a certain weight was required, formerly inserted some heavy round stones and hard wood inside the package, which were never discovered until opened in Sydney and England; the actors consequently escaped detection. It must also be observed, the natives in turn have been also duped by shipmasters who have traded off the coast, by filling some kegs with sand, a few inches only of gunpowder being placed at the head of the package. Such tricks could not be played off by any resident

on shore, as any person guilty of such conduct, would in all probability be stripped of every article he possessed, as payment (utu ) for his bad conduct. The value of an article varies exceedingly in price throughout the country: thus a basket of flax of one hundred pounds weight, might formerly have been purchased for the value in barter of three-pence in several stations at the southward, whereas in such places where Europeans resided in numbers, competition consequently took place; the same weight could with difficulty be procured for fifty times that amount; and a ton of flax is probably more expensive in the Bay of Islands, than in Sydney, where it is imported from the south and west coasts of New Zealand. At the same time European goods being also imported in large quantities, it often occurs that such articles are sold as reasonable in the Bay of Islands as in Sydney, where invoices are disposed of (at times) infinitely below the price of the London market, and at less than the manufacturing price, arising from a glut in the market. In the interior villages in New Zealand, the native manufactures and produce are extremely cheap, whereas European goods are altogether as dear. We have seen a native satisfied at receiving half a head of tobacco (the 24th part of a pound) for one hundred pounds of flax, which he had moreover carried over hill and dale, full forty miles; and a flax-house at

Uwoua, eighty feet long by twenty-four broad and forty feet high to the ridge-pole, was built by a chief and a large company of natives for a small keg of powder 251bs. in weight. The house was extremely water-tight and warm, and several streams and marshes had been denuded of their rushes (raupo ) to cover the roof and sides; a similar house could not have been procured at the northward under one hundred sovereigns. The value of the powder was originally about twelve shillings. Articles of European manufacture are now in continual request. If a musket is bought, powder is also required, together with lead, shot, balls, bullet-moulds, &c, A shirt requires the nether part of its wearer to be decently encased in trousers; the thighs thus safe from exposure, kindle an affection on the part of the legs for a pair of stockings, whose soles would soon depart from the body unless remedied by boots or shoes. A piece of flax will remedy any gentleman whose braces are left in the minority; but a waistcoat is required to hide the unseemly shift, and shirt-sleeves minus a coat or jacket is wholly at variance with ton . While the body is thus recovering something of a complexion from the former ravages of the sun, the face also requires a similar countenance and support from its owner; a hat is therefore purchased, which forms almost a final equipment. But as in civilized countries, with the advocate for fashion, cleanliness

cannot exist versus soap, and the handy-work of a cooper is called into request to furnish a tub. To proceed no further, we would show that however simple the wants of the people may be, yet no sooner are they possessed of one article of European manufacture, the possession of it begets additional requisites; thus slowly, but nevertheless eventually, progresses their civilization. As European articles bear equal repute on the coast and in the interior of the country, many of the natives, similar to pedlars in Europe, carry an assortment of goods, with which they are intrusted by Europeans, to exchange for pigs, potatoes, Indian corn, of their friends inland, and generally perform such commissions in a satisfactory manner.

The New Zealanders have hitherto been taxed as an extremely lazy people; but let us review the scale of prices given to remunerate labour, and we shall find the incentive so small, as scarcely to rouse the people from the early inactive habits of their ancestors. Many servants are well satisfied if they can obtain a sufficiency of food, with now and then a cast-off garment, that we would assure the reader is not too hastily rejected by the original wearers. Some servants work for a month for a pair of duck trousers or a canvass jacket; some are paid at the rate of half an ounce of tobacco per week. Works on a large scale, such as building large houses, palisades, embankments, excavations,

are performed by contract, and generally in some article whereby the chief obtains the sole payment, such for example as a double-barreled piece, consequently, where no incitement has existed, it is unfair to state that the natives are naturally inactive, simply because they are usually so, and have no incentive presented to them to become otherwise. Where an opportunity has been afforded to them to show a contrary inclination, they have taken advantage of it. That the effeminacy of the South Sea Islanders cannot reign in New Zealand is assured from the fact, that the indigenous productions of the country are too scanty to afford human sustenance, and consequently the natives have been obliged to work, to preserve life.

From the restricted nature of missionary exertions, the natives have only been able to obtain employment, mentally or physically, in a very limited degree, whereas the lay residents, from their superior numbers, and the nature of their commercial pursuits, have given ample employment to both. Nor have the natives been mean proficients in the imitation of the arts of European labour, as many very fair specimens of carpenters, joiners, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, &c., are to be found among them; but the national taste would appear to delight principally in seamanship and agriculture. in both of which they have made great progress. In a former work we mentioned instances

the New Zealander by the force of merit had raised himself to the situation of chief officer, 83 but many other similar examples can be adduced verifying the same fact. Some hundreds of natives are at the present moment manning ships sailing under the British, French, and American flags, and are regarded by unbiassed persons, equal in their duties to European seamen, and as effective in ability and strength while dieting on similar provisions. The New Zealand seamen may now be found in every part of the globe, under the frozen zones of the north and south, and the torrid latitudes east and west, steering at night and alone on deck the full-freighted ship, amid the pathless waters, joining the hilarity of his brother seamen, and equally watchful aloft when danger may approach, and may be said to present the nearest approach to a British tar, beyond any other nation we know of.

But the most congenial employment to the bulk of the people is farming and domestic service. To the British colonist they will be found invaluable. The native plantations have ever been cultivated with a degree of neatness far surpassing the generality of European farms, and greatly superior to

many of the agriculturalists in British America and the United States. Their principal defect has arisen from want of invention and materials to diminish manual labour, but certainly does not deteriorate from the extreme cleanliness in weeding and general neatness of their plantations.

82In Madagascar the writer has seen Spanish, dollars divided into sixteen pieces, each answering for about three-pence and a fraction. A French, Austrian, or South American dollar (of the latter there are perhaps a hundred varieties,) are all held in less estimation, and any Spanish coin, without the armorial pillars inscribed thereon, also meets with the same depreciated comparison, it being supposed the "pillar" dollar contains less alloy in its silver, which formerly most probably was the fact.

83Mr. Bailey, of the British barque "Earl Stanhope," a whaling ship of Port Jackson, who, being a foreigner, was debarred commanding the ship.

[Chapter XVIII]

CHAPTER XVIII.

SOILS IN NEW ZEALAND. – THEIR VARIETY. – MOUNTAINS. – GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. – PLAINS. – PREPARATIONS FOR FARMING. – PLANTING. – INUNDATIONS. – DRAINING. – ARTIFICIAL IRRIGATION. – SEASONS. – FARMS VISITED BY THE WRITER. – INCURSIONS OF THE PIGS. – SINGULAR PREVENTIVE TO THE SOUTHWARD. – EARLY IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE. – THE MATERIALS EMPLOYED. – EXTRAORDINARY VALUE ATTACHED TO IRON. – VOLUNTARY SLAVERY. – REMARKABLE COMPACTS. – OPERATIONS OF FISHING. – METHODS EMPLOYED. – NETS. – THEIR VARIETY AND EXTENT. – EISHING BASKETS. – LINES AND HOOKS. – FISHING PARTIES. – SPEARS. – NIGHT FISHING. – BAITING. – EEL CATCHING. – FEARS OF THE FISHERMEN. – METHOD OF BUILDING FISHING VILLAGES. – VARIETY OF FISH AROUND NEW ZEALAND ENUMERATED. – SHOAL BANKS.

THE soils of the country are as various as a variety in hill, mountain, dale, valley, and lowland, can form; including an extreme difference in the climate of a league only of extent in latitude. Mountains of enormous elevation, some towering to the height of 14,000 feet upwards, attract clouds from a great distance; their sides covered with exuberant vegetation, and impervious to the rays of the sun, are at times flooded with perennial streams, that nourish the lower lands to a vast distance, supplying both irrigation and soil, of which the upper regions become denuded. The geological structure of the country is various, so much so, that it would be almost vain to attempt a general description.

The deepest and richest soil is found in the valleys at the foot of the mountains. This soil is a perfectly black mould, a compost formed from, debris of vegetable matter. A series of plains cover a large portion of the country, covered with a very thin layer of mould over a hard, stiff, argillaceous earth, from which the interminable fern-root is with difficulty extracted even by the plough, the roots lying deep, and three several seasons are probably required to work the land previously to entirely rooting up this indigenous edible. The worst soil, is a stiff argil of a deep red colour; this kind of land is found on the plains and hills. The mould in such places is scarcely three inches deep, principally obtained from, burnt vegetation; the nether parts contain, it is supposed, the oxide of iron. The native method of preparing land is by burning; the soil is afterwards dug up in clods by spades and hoes, and left exposed for the weeds and new grass (which soon spring up after burning) to decay; the farmer then waits for some heavy rain, which saturating the clods, renders them easier to crumble, which done, the soil is levelled with much care, and the seeds planted. Potatoes are put into the ground either whole or separated according to the eyes; Indian corn is put into small holes, about two feet apart, and kumeras, melons, &c., which are creeping plants, are planted in a similar method to cucumbers in Europe, in raised mounds, so as to allow the vine

to extend itself. In low situations near the sides of rivers, inundations on a minor scale take place during the rainy season, and but few farmers trouble themselves in preserving their plantations by embankments, as land favourable for planting is easily procurable for the purposes of native families. Draining, for the same reason, is rarely resorted to, except in a favourite locality, and artificial irrigation is as carelessly attended to; yet the crops seldom fail, and the bounty of nature is displayed by the year being divided into two agricultural seasons, rainy and temperate, causing a division in husbandry, whereby two distinct crops are raised. At the various farms we have visited each of them presented an appearance supposed only to be found in highly-civilized countries

The soils chosen are generally of the richest quality, and after being made use of for one season are allowed to lie fallow for a long period. The plants which were well weeded flourished with extraordinary vigour: the potatoes, kumeras, melons, kai pakeha , or sweet yam, were planted in small mounds, laid out with great regularity. Between the raised earth, the broad leaf of the tarro appeared. In other parts were planted Indian corn and some minor vegetables, such as cabbages, turnips, greens, shallots, garlick, and beet-root; at night, the fires and smoke from land being cleared were discernible for some miles. Plantations are generally enclosed with railings to prevent the in-

gress of pigs, dogs, &c., either of whom are sad destroyers of the kumera and soft Indian corn. 84 To the northward of the river Thames, the clime is so extremely favourable, that in many places, crops of various legumes, including potatoes, may be produced at any period of the year.

The implements of the native farmer previously to the arrival of Europeans, were extremely simple and rude; wood was made use of in the absence of iron, and stone, in such cases where the hard woods could not be made use of from their extreme toughness; a dark-gray and black-coloured granite, termed onewoa by the natives was made use of in Its stead, or the green talc, poeanamu and pieces of led jasper chipped off adroitly, resembling in shape our common gun-flints. Since iron has been introduced in the shape of the serviceable hoe, spade, rake, pick, &c., they have been eagerly

adopted by the natives, and their former implements have wholly gone into disuse. Anecdotes indicative of the native predilection in favour of iron might be adduced almost innumerable; the recipients voluntarily entering into a slavery pro tem , to work off the debt occasioned by their purchasing such articles; 85 and we were informed by one man, that he had actually offered his head (which was elaborately tattooed) to a European vender, celebrated as a purchaser of such commodities, if allowed but the use of a large axe for a year, that he had taken a great fancy to.

Next to the occupation of farming, the operations of fishing form at once an amusement profitable and serviceable. The methods employed are pro-

bably the same as followed by their earliest ancestors, and resemble those of the Polynesian islanders. In certain rivers and estuaries of the sea, a line of stakes bar the entrance a few feet in height, sufficiently low for the fish to pass over at flood-tide, yet high enough to prevent their return to their native ocean on the turn and consequent decrease of the tide.

Fishing nets of various kinds are made use of, of excellent quality, and have not the rude stamp that characterizes the form and substance of the generality of their instruments. Some of the seines are of enormous extent, and are made by each family in a village working a certain portion of raw flax, which is quickly ripped with the finger-nails into strips, the boon or useless gummy matter at the lateral parts being discarded. These narrow strips are tied up in bundles and left to dry on poles in the air. Flax nets thus made, are remarkably tough, and resist decay for a long time. After being made use of, they are carefully folded up (some of them are above 2000 feet in length) and placed on a wata or small scaffold. While in pro-

Wooden hoe formerly used by the Natives in agriculture

gress of manufacture, the workmen are placed under a strict tapu , probably an invention thus introduced

Fishing Village.

by a wise observer, to attach this fickle people to the attainment of one object at once, which they would be doubtless disinclined to follow without some such stimulant. Land-nets are also in frequent use, one of them is in the form of a bag suspended from a hoop and fixed to a pole; this net is found to be extremely serviceable in fishing for the kohuda or

Landing Net.

cray-fish that congregate among the rocks in certain places very numerously; they are sought after by the feet of the fisher, who places his net near to the fish, and with a dexterous jerk tumbles the scaly prize into it.

Fishing baskets made from a variety of liands or creepers, that almost form vegetable nets in the dense forests, formed of large capacity below, and narrowing to a small compass at the mouth, are also made use of to entrap the finny tribes, from which escape is impossible. Fishing lines (hehaho } are

Na Kete. or Fishing Baskets.

twisted from scraped flax, the manufacturer rolling it between the palms of his hands and on his thighs, frequently applying his saliva to assist his operation; they are much stronger than similar articles made from hemp, bearing a far heavier strain, that gives these crude lines a manifold superiority.

Fish-hooks are made from bones of the human body, shell and wood, but are so extremely clumsy, that whenever steel hooks are procurable, the former are generally bartered away to less fortunate neighbours; as no article is repudiated, however it may have fallen into disrepute in the estimation of its owner, without an equivalent being obtained in exchange. Fishing consumes much of the time of

Na muttou maori New Zealand Fish-hooks,.

these people, who undertake the art in large parties, the entire inhabitants of several villages joining forces to engage in this piscatory warfare; for this purpose, they repair to the sea-girt shores, or to the sides of the numerous bays that imbricate the coast and harbours of this favoured country. Fishing

for young sharks is confined to the southward, principally on the east coast, and especially in the Frith of Thames, (lat: 36 degrees 25' S., long: 175 degrees 25' E.) Fish-spears are made use of for spearing flounders and similar fish, that are attracted by flames 86 at night on the river's brink, and fall to the share of the indefatigable fisherman; the only drawback to success in these undertakings is caused by the ceaseless oratory (or rather jabbering) of the people engaged in them, who give timely warning of the vicinage of human kin to the tenants of the waters, and thus fright the fish from their propriety and the natives from otherwise assured success. Shrimps, which are principally made use of as bait, are obtained by scooping a quantity of salt water on the shores of a bay into a basket; they are so numerous, that a number are thus taken, and found on the water draining from the basket. Eels are also

E Kete, or Fish-basket.

found in vast numbers in the extensive mud-banks that line the rivers in the country; the places in which they secrete themselves are easily discovered by a small hole which lessens in size from the ooziness of the mud; into these the natives thrust their bare arms and are generally successful in obtaining their prey. They are quickly killed by the thumb-nail being pressed into the back of the head. Travellers by night often fall in with parties of fishermen who spear flounders; their torches are visible far distant; when successful, the fish are hung up in bunches on the branches of trees to dry in the wind and sun. A fishing-party on a large scale, induces a series of preparations that cause much bustle and activity in a village: where the place proposed as the scene of operation is far distant, the intrepid fishers make for a convenient shore every night, these people being mortally fearful of their own shadows after night-fall. As soon as the canoes touch the ground, the men instantly leap out and clear a piece of ground by tearing up the bushes and fern, while several engage themselves in searching for brakes and sticks, which are thrust in the ground as framing for huts. The fern and brush is employed in thatching, especially the kaikatoa (a philadelphus ) that renders them water and air-tight. The females (who invariably attend parties of peace or war) secure the provisions, anchor and take care of the canoes, or

prepare with decayed wood a fire for cooking and heating the oven; if bad weather is predicted, rollers of wood are gathered to facilitate the hauling of canoes on shore. The coasts, rivers, creeks, &c., of New Zealand abound in fish of infinite variety, and equal in taste and flavour with those of Europe; 87 large shoals of various species visit, at certain seasons, the coasts, especially the east side, of which the natives take advantage to procure an abundant supply for the winter season, by drying

them in the wind, sun and smoke. Deep sandbanks within a short distance of the shore, are extremely favourable for the congregating of shoals of mullet, cod, mackerel, a bastard salmon, and shark. Beating the waters with rods, is another method employed to force fish into nets. 88 It is not uncommon for the fishermen to present a torch at the mouth of the holes in the mud-banks, where numberless eels of large size and excellent flavour conceal themselves; the fish, attracted by the sudden glare, starts forward to discover the cause, when the patient native hastily clenches the prize, and kills it in the usual manner.

84In some islands in the Pacific where pigs were formerly found in large numbers, the race has been extirpated at public councils, in consequence of their dogged propensity to ravage the plantations. We remember once seeing a pig to the southward of Kaipara, both of whose ears had been bored when young, through which a stick was thrust, projecting a couple of inches beyond either ear, to prevent the animal entering between the rail-fence. The pig at the moment was standing like Tantalus; and though the causes of the punishment were different, the effects were alike.

85This resembles a custom in vogue between the Papuas or Malay inhabitants of New Guinea, and the Harafouras , the real aborigines of the country, sunk into the lowest depths of savage barbarism. The former give the latter, at different times, some article that may be held in particular esteem, such as an axe, adze, or similarly serviceable instrument; this gift renders the receiver under tribute for life, who is obliged to present to the giver something in the shape of a return at certain periods. Should the Harafoura lose by robbery, or otherwise, his much prized implement, he is still accounted the debtor; but should the said instrument become worn away or broken, the Papuan must furnish a substitute, or the compact becomes void. It shows the extraordinary value attached to iron by the South Sea Islanders.

86Similar methods of attracting fish are practised by the Smyrniots and islanders of the Mediterranean and semi-barbarous nations.

87Among the piscivorous tribes, are those well known in Europe under the appellations of snapper, tench, haddocks, pollock, salmon, gurnets, John dory, hakes, bream, sword-fish, elephant-fish, diodons, pipe-fish, cod, parrot-fish, flounders, skate, cat and dog-fish, sting-rays, eels. – Among the larger tribes that sport in shoals in the vicinity of the shore, are, sperm-whales, called para paraua (physeter macrocephalus); black whale, mungu nui (black physeter); right whale, tohora (balaena mysticetus); finback, (balaena physalis); sun-fish (diodon mola); large-lipped whale (balaena musculus); hump-back (balsena gibbosa); shark, mango (squalus); hammer-head (zygaena); pilots, (scomber); flying-fish (exocaetus volitans); and an infinity of others, beside a great variety of testaceous and crustaceous fishes that almost cover the rocks under water, such as clams, muscles, oysters, crays, cuttles, limpets, wilks, gigantic muscles, a foot in length, cockles, sea-ears, sea-eggs, star-fish, mutton-fish, &c.; from the latter the pearl is procured which they insert in the eyes of their carved images and boxes.

88Fishing. – The use of seines was hardly known to the ancient Britons. The poor starving pagans of Sussex had no knowledge how to procure fish, save eels, which were very numerous, until taught by Bishop Wilfrid, who took 300 at a draught. The pagans were delighted at the discovery, and the good Bishop in turn spread his nets for them, and easily effected their conversion. – Life of Wilfrid.

[Chapter XIX]

CHAPTER XIX.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES. – SUPERSTITIONS IN CONNEXION WITH THEM. – INEQUALITY IN WORKMANSHIP. – ORNAMENTAL CARVINGS. – HOUSES OF ASSEMBLY. – MATERIALS EMPLOYED. – OMISSION OF DOORS, WINDOWS, AND CHIMNEYS. – LODGEMENTS FOR TRAVELLERS. – VILLAGE MUSEUMS. – FLAX-HOUSES. – KUMERA-STORES. – HOUSES FOR CANOES. – COOKING. – PROVISION PLATFORMS. – CURIOUS AERIAL DORMITORIES. – FURTHER SUPERSTITIONS.

THE ingenuity of the New Zealanders is shown in a variety of serviceable forms, but none to greater advantage than in the construction of their houses and canoes, and the details and minutiae of the carvings bestowed (often elaborately) on both. Houses are accounted as sacred to the use of the persons for whom they are built, and rarely, after a battle, when every savage enormity has been perpetrated, are the houses of the murdered proprietors made use of by the victors. Such places are deserted and left to decay in ruin, and the fallen and rotten frame-work, after years of disuse, is not allowed to be made use of as firewood. If the most valued and expensive material, such as a double-barrelled fowling-piece, or dollars, were placed on the roof of such houses, few natives, out of the pale of European society, would be hardy

enough to touch, much less personally appropriate such articles. The inequality of the houses of the people, may be judged by the fact, that the superior tenements take as many months in building as the inferior kind employ days. In standard or permanently established villages, houses of a superior class are formed. The materials, such as joists, posts, &c. are carefully squared, generally by the chiefs, who are often very expert in the use of the adze, &c.; the posts which support the ridge-pole are carefully morticed and firmly fixed in the ground. The height is generally from

Native house erected for a European,

twelve to twenty feet. The sides are plaited with variously-coloured reeds neatly arranged, the roof is thatched with palm-leaves interlaced, over which

is spread a thick coating of bulrushes (raupo) cut from the marshes in the spring, and left to dry during the summer, packed up in long bundles. These houses in frame somewhat resemble a birdcage. Over the door-ways and window-sills, handsomely carved boards are fixed, painted in flaming red, these are placed horizontally or in a gable form called maihi , surmounted by a wooden image termed the taupare warre ; some of these figures are exceedingly droll.

The Maihi, a carved board for the front of a home, surmounted by the Toupare, or figure-head.

The door-ways and windows (if any) are equally garnished, carved, and painted. Such houses may

House erected for the acccommodation of visiting chiefs,

be termed houses of assembly, as the chiefs for whom they are built, and who also assist in their erection, inhabit huts, similar to those of the commonalty. The arrangement of the reeds, and the painting of the several parts, affords much pride and satisfaction to the builders. The floors are well beaten, the most approved method being effected by a native dance.

These houses occupy several months in their erection, and when newly finished bear an impress of cleanliness, neatness, taste, and effects of unwearied patience, as alone would raise in the mind of a stranger, unversed with the usual manners and customs of this singular people, an idea that they possessed a refinement in civilization that a more intimate acquaintance alone could dispel.

The houses of the superior people, and even of

the aristocracy, are but apologies for "comfortable lodgings for single gentlemen" or married either. They are rarely built above eight feet in height, and often five and six feet; they would shame by their vicinage an English dog-kennel: two forked sticks thrust into the earth distant ten feet and often six feet apart, above which a ridge-pole is attached or inserted, the former giving an angle of forty-five degrees, forms the woodwork; small uneven-shaped sticks, fastened with flax withes against the inverted poles, are then covered with rushes, over which a spear-grass (toitoi ) is plentifully added, which ensures the place as water-proof. Doors are omitted,

Sheds erected by travellers.

a small aperture presenting itself in lieu thereof, through which a native or any other person anxious to enter, is obliged to edge in, like a snake, on the stomach. In these huts the natives delight in con-

Native habit of getting out of a house

gregating at night round a green-wood fire, lighted in the centre of the apartment within a small hollow encircled by stones. As windows and chimneys are wholly discountenanced in these tenements, Europeans, unless extremely well-seasoned to the native habits, would be unable to breathe ten minutes in such a suffocating atmosphere. A village of this kind has the appearance at a distance of a republic of beehives, or rather haystacks; the quickness with which whole villages of these houses are raised has been just described above in the account of fishing-parties. Travellers make use of sheds only thatched on the windward side, and often a few bushes tied in form of a cone, serve as lodgments to these hardy people, who comfortably ensconce themselves within their blankets, or a grass mat of the kierikiki ; such is the habitude of sturdy warriors, or their slaves.

Na Powaka, or Village depositaries of the natives

Next to the Warre no te Rangatira, or native palace, the village museum (powaka ) in which the valuables of the community of the place are deposited, receives the careful attention of the native Vitruvius. These erections are raised on four stout carved poles, the sides of the house are faced with boards, carved with a profusion of indelicate subjects, exaggerated in such a manner as to leave no spectator in any dilemma as to the actual meaning and intention of the artist.

A Powaka, or Village Museum.

In these huts, or rather boxes (the literal meaning), are placed fowling-pieces, esteemed garments and foreign implements, trinkets, powder, and similar articles, equally valuable and of public utility. The powaka is kept neatly painted red with kokowai .

The largest public works undertaken are those of flax-houses, some of which are above one hundred

Native Stores for Flax, near to a Kouri Forest.

feet in length, thirty feet in width, and forty feet in height. These are built less for ornament than being durable and water-tight, as any rain pouring on the flax would discolour and finally rot it. Among the natives, the sides of a flax-house are generally open, with poles only placed across; the flax within being tapued, the whole is safe from depredation, but the property of Europeans being out of the pale of such wholesome restrictions, their flax-houses are carefully enclosed as an ordinary house in their use.

Kumera-houses, expressly built for the storing of that favourite vegetable, are put together with much care and neatness, of similar materials and workmanship to the superior houses. For such

Store House erected for the Kumera.

houses the floors are raised, and the lower parts boarded at the sides, to prevent in some degree the incursions of the rats. A verandah is generally carried from the roof entirely round the building supported by pillars loaded with whimsical sculptures. The doors are often formed like the Egyptian style, contracting towards the top. On the roof a wooden image is generally fixed, remarkable for latitude of tongue and protuberance in the abdomen. On these figures the native artists delight in showing their ingenuity, and as they are in the habit of indulging in caricature, few of these figures are made without immediate reference to some character, either in general repute, or noted for some peculiarity.

Toupare Warre, or figure placed on a house front.

A similar figure is placed above the door-way. The door, formed of a canoe plank, is also painted in relievo with hieroglyphics.

Carved doorway for the Council-house of a village.

Houses are also erected for war-canoes, the sides being generally open. The posts are made strong, for it often occurs that beneath the gable roof, families dwell who ascend the attic by means of an ara wata or notched pole, literally a ladder. Beneath the canoes are placed large rollers of timber to prevent them from rotting, and of similar height, that the vessel may meet with no strain. Koutas , or cooking-houses, are merely small sheds to protect the artistes from the inclemency of the weather.

Wattas or platforms built upon trees having stout branches as supporters, are common to every

Na watta, or Platforms for holding Provisions in a New Zealand, Village (Kainga maori.)

village. 89 These erections are found of infinite service in protecting food from the decay incident to lying on damp ground, as also from the incursions of rats and dogs, that infest the purlieus of every thing in the shape of viands. Superstitions affect houses as well as every other substance in New Zealand. No food is eaten in them, and the usual accompaniment of a verandah is principally as shelter to partake of food in unfavourable weather. The interior of a house is generally kept in neat

order, save that fleas and another creeping thing , reign paramount in social equality. A deserted house, whose former proprietor has ceased to exist becomes of sacred importance; any portion made use of as fire-wood or for any other purpose, would subject the culprit to the clerical ban; any implement placed on the decaying roof, though by accident, would also subject the same to a taboo or deodand. These superstitions have been carried to a most extravagant excess; even pigs, while pursuing the uncertain tenor of their way, if seduced by the luxuriant herbage that flourishes indigenous on those deserted spots, should they enter the interdicted cordon, death, without benefit of proprietorship is the portion allotted.

89The chief of a slave tribe, occupying the river Opotiki, (bay of Plenty,) 57 degrees 50' lat. S., 174 degrees 30' long. E., informed the writer, that on his people (all runaway slaves) congregating together, as their numbers were but few at first, they with difficulty arranged the locating of a favourable spot, at the same time sufficiently distant from their former captors. On arriving at Opotiki, fearful of surprise, they procured a number of strong brakes, which they placed horizontally along the stout branches of trees, some of which were very lofty, and on this arborary foundation, they built small huts covering them with bulrushes and grass. When completed, the women were conducted into them, and the lower branches cut away, as no aid could be afforded to an enemy. The ladder was extremely rude that enabled these aerial residents to ascend their houses. On their numbers accumulating, these precautions were no longer required. Similar lodgements are built in various parts of India; by the Battas of Sumatra, the Kookies who infest the mountains of Chittagong, the Malays at Nattall, the Oran Badjoos or wild men of Borneo, and the Harfours of New Guinea.

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XX.

MECHANICAL INVENTION IN CANOE BUILDING. – – FORMATION OF THEM – – PROGRESS OF LABOUR. – – DEFICIENCY OF IMPLEMENTS. – – DESCRIPTION OF A FIRST-RATE. – – EXTRANEOUS ORNAMENTS. – – HEIROGLYPHIC PAINTING. – PADDLE. – – INCITEMENTS USED FOR PROPELLING CANOES. – – NATIVE CARPENTERS. – – ROPE AND SAIL MAKERS. – – PAINTERS. – – CARVERS – – CANOE NAVIGATION. – – SUBSTITUTE FOR CANVAS. – – THE TIARU. – – THE MOKI. – – CANOES OF RAUPO. – – ANCHORS. – – CELEBRATED PORTS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CANOES. – – SYSTEM OF EXCHANGES. – – ARTISTICAL TRIBES. – – FAVOURITE DESIQNS AND DEMANDS. – – CARVED BOXES.

THE mechanical invention of the New Zealanders is principally confined to the wakiro or art of carving; the canoes and house-boards evince this fact. Canoes are as various in name as length, breadth, and topsides can cause. The te wai is the least ornamented without being raised on the side, and generally formed from one undivided tree; they vary in length from six feet to sixty. The building, if we may so term it, of a large canoe, consumes some months ere brought to completion. Antecedent to the introduction of iron implements, a large tree was felled by fire being applied to the roots on the windward side, which required being continually fed by fuel, and being a work of time, the slow progress served to harden

the wood, by drying the sap and rendering manual labour more difficult in the achievement. When felled, the same agency was made use of to hollow and widen the trunk; it was afterwards dressed with stone adzes or axes, most barbarous apologies for those invaluable implements of steel. Canoes are now obtained, by the intended builders laying the axe to the root, three or four persons engaging on the trunk of the tree at the same time. Fire is made use of to widen the body of the tree, and the dressing that follows proves that the natives are able workmen in wielding the axe and adze. Some canoes are fully eighty feet in length, upwards of six feet beam, four feet in depth; the bottom being worked to the sharpness of a wedge, the sides are consequently well projected. In order to support the topsides or shore-planks, the gunnels are two inches in thickness, and, towards the keel, three inches. The two side planks are also formed from one large tree, dubbed down with much care, and no little stock of patience; these are lashed to the hull by holes being made in the canoes and the plank sheer, and fastened with withes of flax. A piece of lath, painted black, and decorated with feathers, covers the seam, and to prevent leaking as the vessel rolls, is caulked with the down, of bulrushes. The beam of the canoe is preserved by a number of thwarts, laid across the gunwales, to which they are lashed with cords of flax.

The Pitou and Rapa, as figured below, notwithstanding the projection of the former, and the height of the latter, are simply made fast to the head and stern by flax-cords without the aid of dovetailing, wooden pins, or nails, and yet withstand the heavy assaults of the sea when pitching forwards.

Pitou, or Figure-head to a Canoe

The pitou , or figure-head, is neatly fitted and lashed to the bows, projecting four feet beyond the hull, and three or four feet in height. The rapa , or

Rapa, or Stern-post to a Canoe.

ornament for the stern, is often eight feet in height, and even higher, two inches thick, and eighteen inches in breadth.

Rapa, or Stern-post to a Canoe
Pitou, or Figurehead of a Canoe
Back of a Stern-post to a Canoe

On gala days, garlands of divided feathers, stripped from the plume of sea-birds, are appended from the stem and stern, and assisted by the red mixture of kokowai , altogether presents an imposing and beautiful appearance on its native element. The carvings are often most grotesque. In addition to which, a variety of hieroglyphics, resembling tattooing, adorns the hull, painted in white or black on a red ground. The paddles for pro-

Waka pani, or Painted Canoe

pelling a canoe are principally shaped from the kaikatoa , and when dry are extremely light, and fitted to bear a heavy strain of water. They are made extremely neat, the centre of the blade is the broadest part, tapering to a point. A carved paddle

E'hohi maori, or common Paddle .
E'Rapa maori, or Native Stern-post to a Canoe .

is rarely seen, and is used by its owner as a truncheon to be displayed on gala days, when the chiefs stand up in the canoe, shouting and waving to the rowers to incite them to exertion, or as the solos which are responded to by a chorus, and the exact keeping of time effected by beating the paddle in the water, which propels the canoe with great velocity. Paddles are generally four or five feet long, and those made use of for steering are six feet, and form the only rudder that the peculiar shape of a canoe can admit of as serviceable.

Paddles are almost invariably made of the Kaikatoa tree, (Philadelphus Australis,) a polyanthus, termed the sea-plant, from the leaves possessing the myrtiform appearance of the Chinese herb. It bears a profusion of white and pink blossoms throughout the year, emitting an odour that gives a pleasing fragrance to the vicinity. Similar to the British Ash, it possesses an elasticity that enables the light thin paddle, whose blade at the edges is scarcely the sixth of an inch thick, to resist the powerful waves that impetuously lave the sea-girt shores, whereas paddles formed from a hundred various hard woods of the country, would immediately on trial snap asunder from their brittleness.

E'Hohi pani, or Painted Paddle .

Outriggers, invariably made use of by the South Sea Islanders, are unknown in New Zealand, and canoes are never or rarely lashed together; nor are platforms raised over the gunwales, and sheds erected on them, as is the usage of the above nations.

As a war (or large) canoe, employs the carpenter, flax-dresser, rope-maker, painter, carver, caulker, and sail-maker; it is regarded in a similar manner as many vessels sailing out of a provincial port in Europe and America, the shareholders (or rather part proprietors) being more numerous in New Zealand, though shares of twenty and even ten pounds are held in ships in the United States. Some canoes are double banked, or two rowers placed on the same thwart to paddle on either side. A canoe can be propelled seven and eight miles an hour, but sailing they are only enabled to proceed before the wind; beating against a head sea or adverse wind being impossible, as these vessels have little hold from their shallowness in the water. Paddling is less fatiguing than might be supposed, and the chorusses alike chanted by free and bond relieve the exertion in a great degree. It is necessary that a canoe be well caulked, as they roll very much, the gunwales at times even with the water. They are found navigating every part of the coast, carefully hugging the shore. As in houses, no food may be eaten in a canoe when paddling in the vicinity of a sacred spot, and more

than once we nearly met with a watery termination to our adventures, by incautiously neglecting to obey this command.

The sails are the most clumsy and heavy articles that could have been invented. In shape they are triangular, formed of bulrushes dried in the sun, and tacked together, the upper edge being cut into vandykes. It is fastened to two poles which serve for mast, yard, &c. The sheets are formed from plaited flax fastened to the head of each pole. To prevent the unpleasant position that the wedge-like bottom of the canoe would occasion to the rowers, a raised floor or grating of small stakes neatly put together, is laid down with openings to admit of the water being baled out, which is performed with an instrument called a tiaru or bucket (called tata to the southward) which is essentially necessary to the

Na Tiaru, or Carved Bowls for baling water from Canoes.

vessel, as in windy weather the canoes are kept in the trough of the sea (as it is termed) and are continually washed by the sprays. The tiaru in its carving generally denotes the invention or taste of the workman, the handles generally presenting some fanciful obscenities or absurdities. In the

A Tiaru, or Carved Bucket.

absence of canoes, a quantity of dried bulrushes are fastened together, on which the native is enabled to cross a stream by sitting astride and paddling with his hands; these humble conveyances are called moki , and resemble those made use of by the Egyptians in crossing among the islands of the Nile. They are extremely buoyant, and resist saturation for a long period.

Among the early occupants of New Zealand, canoes were entirelv made of the bulrush. We

have seen one of these vessels of olden times, nearly sixty feet in length, capable of holding as many persons, but they are now wholly in disuse. They were remarkably thick, formed entirely of rushes, except the thwarts, and resembled the model of a canoe in every particular. They were remarkably light, like the coracles of the ancient Britons, though many bundles of rushes were consumed in forming them, and were paddled with much velocity, until saturated, when they settled down in the water. These vessels are no longer formed, and specimens are extremely rare, having long since fallen into disuse. Canoes are generally anchored by filling a basket with one or more large stones, or (like the Chinese) a heavy piece of wood; in approaching bad weather they are carefully hauled up, care being taken (as with boats) to keep them even on their keel, to prevent straining.

There are very few rivers on the northward of the country where large canoes are made; to the southward of the Thames and Manukau, lat: 37 degrees 39' S., long: 172 degrees E., the principal portion are built; the most superior are to be found at Wairoa. (Hawkes' Bay) the tribes at that place employ the totarra or red pine, the kouri or white pine being rarely found beyond the Thames (Horake). On the East coast a system of barter is carried on between the natives of Turunga (Poverty bay) with those of Wairoa , the former furnishing blankets.

muskets, powder, &c., in exchange for canoes, sails carvings, &c.

The most celebrated artists in carving, either reside at the East Cape, (Wai Appu) lat: 37 degrees 44' S., long: 178 degrees 36' E., or at Poverty Bay (Turunga ) one degree farther south; the principal feature is an intricacy of design not always confined to moral subjects, but the effect is extremely good, leaving certainly at an immeasurable distance, similar performances further north. The price demanded for a piece of carving was formerly so extremely small, that it is somewhat remarkable that the discouragement an artist met with did not disgust him from continuing to exercise the art. Among other favourite subjects, lizards are continually portrayed, and though we have seen many articles whose carving was at once a memento of ability, industry and perseverance, yet the generality of the designs were unlike any created thing known at the antipodes or either "in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters that are under the earth." The most elaborate carvings are bestowed on the boxes (powaka ) that serve to enclose feathers for decorating the head on gala days, and other portable trinkets. But the art is not confined to articles of native manufacture only, as we have obtained elaborate carvings on pistol and gun-stocks, bowls, and similar implements of European manufacture.

Powaka Wakiro, or Carved Box for preserving Native Trinkets.

These boxes are cut from the red pine, and some months are consumed in one of these performances, some of these boxes are heir-looms in a family, and considering the frequent fires that take place and consume in a very brief space whole villages, it is surprising that so many articles should be extant among them. A stone adze was once shown to us, whose carved handles had been destroyed in a succession of fires.

Carved Boxes for the reception of Feathers and Native Ornaments

On the death of an esteemed warrior all his favourite vessels are buried with him, such as his canoe, paddles, baler, arms, powder, clothing, and boxes, &c. which is another method of consuming these articles, as even to touch them after being once tapued is strictly interdicted.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXI.

SUPERSTITIONS OF MANKIND – – RELIGION OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS – – FORM ASCRIBED TO THE DEITIES – – THEIR DISSIMILARITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF EACH OTHER – – FLATTERING UNCTION PAID TO THEM – – WORSHIP OF THE ANCIENTS, AND TYPICAL REPRESENTATIONS – – POWERS ATTRIBUTED TO THE ATUAS – – OFFERINGS TO THEM – – TEMPLES ERECTED TO THEIR HONOUR – – THEIR METAMORPHOSES AND TASTES – – FOOD OF THE ATUAS AND UBIQUITY – – MISHAPS PRODUCED BY THEM – – NATURE OF OFFERINGS – – CAUSES INDUCING PERSONAL MISFORTUNE – – MISTAKEN IDEAS ON IMAGES – – FALSE DEVOTION – – INSTANCE OF RELIGIOUS FEARS – – LODGEMENT OF A SPIRIT – – WRATH IMPUTED TO THE SPIRIT OF A PERSON DROWNED

IT would appear to the philosopher given to the study of the human intellect, that people composing every nation, civilized or otherwise, are led away, more or less, at some period of their lives, to mental fears, more commonly termed superstition. In civilized societies, on the event of a sudden death taking place among the members of a family, an indefinable sensation of dread agitates the minds of the survivors, that a highly-gifted mind is often for a time unable to disenthral itself. Among the lower classes of every country, superstition, has, from the creation to the present moment, taken deep root; and if we find some thousands of persons affecting to put their faith in revealed religion, yet tenaciously believe in the system of unlucky days, or that salt capsized on a table, and its neighbours

the knife and fork, crossed, are productive of direful results; that a titillation in the hand signifies a near receipt of cash; a sudden shudder of the body denotes, that an ambulator is marching over the grave of the affected person, and a million of similar inconsistencies; if such paralyze the soul of the European, it will readily be credited by the reader how deeply imbued the New Zealanders are with such preposterous fears. We shall proceed to detail a few anecdotes on this subject, in the course of this chapter.

It would be difficult positively to assert the nature of the national religion of the people, 90 when each person is satisfied in following the dictates of his own passions undeterred by a future retributive award. They have no particular deity to address

on any supplication they may make, but equally attempt to propitiate birds, trees, rivers, rocks, their own shadows, animals, or substances animate or inanimate, and the works of the Creator generally. It is scarcely possible to assert that the original intention of their addresses resemble those of the Asiatic and African nations, who worshipped images similar to the Catholics, as typical of the object of their adoration. A mere trifle, or natural casualty, will induce a native (or a whole tribe) to change his Atua; but while on good terms with them, be becomes, for the time being, a very dutiful subject. The Penates or household gods of the ancients are unknown among them, but almost every village has its deity, generally in the form of a little bird, which is supposed to inhabit the cemetery of the village, the priests of the place monopolizing the discourse with the little god. The only national deity is Mawe . Thus the idols of Doubtless Bay, have no connexion with those of Wangaroa, thirty miles distant, and in turn, the latter are independent of those appealed to by the tribes in the Bay of Islands, a distance of thirty-five miles; and the gods of the Bay have no weight with the tribes of the River Thames; we might say that almost every family has its own peculiar divinity (but not a household figure) whom they look up to with adoration, and place implicitly (for a time) their confidence.

When a native is particularly desirous on any

subject, he prays to his Atua , flatters him with fine promises, which the petitioner has no intention of fulfilling. Thanks are never vouchsafed for past prosperity, the requisitionist being too intent on putting forth fresh requests. The Atua is supposed to be well versed in the three tenses of past, present, and future, (as much as if Lindley Murray himself had personally superintended their grammatical knowledge) that they are enabled to inflict punishment, by entering the body of any impious person, and causing an intestinal embarrassment , or visiting a tribe with an epidemic, drowning, burning, unsuccessful war, and have the power of elancing thunder-bolts, lightning, fire, and meteoric stones. They offer prayers to deprecate their anger, taking pretty considerable care to excuse themselves, and denounce their enemies. Anything exhibited in the shape of a scare-crow by Europeans, to frighten away the hawks from the poultry-yard, is termed an Atua . Offerings of the most trivial kind are supposed to counteract the ill agency of their enemies. A lock of hair cut off, and consecrated to an Atua by the owner, is supposed sufficiently efficacious to dissipate intended mischief, diseases, &c. The gods are supposed to inhabit places worthy of their elevated stations in society; thus not a hill or mountain in the country is untenanted. The most honoured is that of Ikorangi , situated in the valley of Wai-appu at the East Cape; on this mountain Mawe is supposed to

have ascended and "was not." Natives never ascend this mountain alone, it is consequently pathless, and is the resort of the Kiwi-kiwi bird, lizards, and innumerable birds, all of whom are supposed to be inferior deities, attending on the Genius loci . The gods are enabled to metamorphose themselves into any shape, and as such, rival the details of Ovid. But the brutalities ascribed to Ganymede and Jupiter, and indulged in by their unnatural worshippers, is not practised by the New Zealanders, though one of the gods called Gniturihu , has been remarked for his appropriation of little boys with red hair. His residence is on a mountain in Doubtless Bay (Piroa .)

The deities are supposed to respond to invocations, and to partake of food, &c., when offered to them; consequently no enemy is sacrificed without a portion being presented to the divinity. Potatoes, fish, and other edibles, are placed in a small basket on the branch of a tree, near the Wai tapu , and should a small bird be observed picking at it, the divinity is supposed to express, in a manner not to be mistaken, his perfect satisfaction at the offering, 91

and the intended purposes of the donors, for which they had made the offertory. The gods are gifted with the valuable powers of ubiquity.

This idolatry, like that of the Greeks, is so mixed up with the most gross obscenity, as to pervert every sentiment of morality, and its follies are so conspicuous, that many chiefs have become reformers, in doubting the entire fabrication. Public mishaps, such as a battle ending in "an untoward event," or an unfavourable season for planting, are ascribed to the ill conduct of the divinities, who get hard words in return (and probably hard blows if the parties were of substantial mould) but personal misfortunes are suspected to arise from errors unwittingly fallen into; as for example, smoking from the pipe of an ill-wisher, dressing in the garments, eating or drinking from the same utensil of an enemy, casualties only to be removed by the purification, not of water, but the tapu, or prohibition not to touch any article for some days, including even food, the penitent being fed by a servant or companion. Singular to relate, there are no images of worship, and consequently no temples are re-

quired; and though the numerous grotesque images sculptured by the people, have been supposed by travellers to be representations of divinities, yet the natives have never attached any such ideas to them. The surf, which breaks in a furious manner on the sand-bars of the rivers, and the entire shores of the western coast, are supposed to be caused by the tyrannical vehemence of the Atua . "See," said one of those priests of Baal, who resided in the vicinity of the Hokianga. "See! how the Atua foams at the mouth, because I have not preached my Kauwau (prayer) to-day. If you had not acceded to my wishes, I would have raised such storms that the sands on the sea-shore would have been impassable, your canoes should have been mati (sick or dead)." This imposing type of the native clerical profession was gratified with a mere trifle of tobacco. When travelling past a wai tapu or cemetery, if any of the numerous little birds that crowd the bushes of solitary places in New Zealand, struck up their notes clear as musical bells, an Atua was instantly recognised by the infatuated natives, who passed the spot with great trepidation as they accounted those notes as an intimation not to be disputed, that they should quit the place with the greatest celerity. The bird was always supposed to be the wairua or spirit of a departed warrior, who had the power to warn all whom it might concern, not to trespass in his vicinity. A ground-

swell in a river is also supposed to proceed from the ire of the ghost of a person drowned years previously about the spot, and at whose urgent appeal the Taniwoa or native Neptune, has discomforted the voyagers. 92

90The Egytians worshipped Anubis and Apis, whom i they carried at their processions in a chariot. Jupiter I Ammon was placed in a boat by the same nation, and I the Carthaginians also, gave his deityship the advantage of a chariot. The Romans, more servile, carried I him on their shoulders. The Gauls modestly concealed their gods with white veils. The Lacedemonians and Ephesians, built a portable temple for their ambu-lating divinities. The Chaldeans and countrymen of I Abraham bowed down before fish, as did the Greeks [to Oannes, the Guebres (Persians), to fire, the Hindoos to water (Ganges, ) &c.; indicative of typical representations of one Great Creator, the Maker of those substances and animals, to whom they attached great importance from the benefits they received from them.

91Offerings to the gods were peculiar to the ancient nations. The slaves made offerings of their chains (no doubt glad of putting them upon others even in idea. ) The Philistines presented images to circumscribe the approach of mice. The Hindoo females, (like the pilgrims of old) offer beads, hair, &c. The Greeks, when afflicted with illness, offered a limb in precious metal as a memorial for that part of their person that had been afflicted; an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, and a silver foot, as a redemption for that corporeal member. See the golden emerods and mice of the Philistines, 1 Sam. c.6, v.4.

92Birds, it would appear, have entered into the religious superstitions of all uncivilized nations. Their flight, or song, struck up at a critical moment, position of the entrails in sacrifice, were powerful inducements among the priests of the several Greek, Latin and Roman nations.
Among the aborigines of South America, birds were accounted as spirits of departed persons, and the priests under the Caciques were wont to repair to the lone forests at nightfall, and imitating the mournful notes of the owl, induced that sagacious genius of the night to enter into a colloquy on things under the head of the three tenses, which the priest reported on the following day. The present half-cast population have yet the same faith in those aerial spirits.

CHAPTER XXII.

CHAPTER XXII

INSTANCES OF IMPIETY IN MAN AND BEAST. – – IMPIOUS ACTION OF MARCELLUS. – – ATONEMENTS NECESSARY. – – SUPERSTITION OF THE AURORA AUSTEALIS. – – DISCOVERY OF A HEAD. – – FORM OF THE GODS. – – TENEMENTS INHABITED BY THEM. – – THE REINGA. – – PUGNACITY OF THE ATUAS. – – SOLEMN APPEALS. – – DEATH MET WITH RECKLESSNESS. – – THE TANIWOA ATTRIBUTES ASCRIBED TO THEM. – – LIZARDS. – – THE NATIVE OGRES. – – THE WINDS. – – SUPPOSITIONS ATTACHED TO THEM. – – PLEIADES, AND CELESTIAL PLANETS. – – SUPERSTITIONS ON RAYS OF LIGHT. – – NATIVE INTERPOLATIONS AND OPINIONS ON DIVINE REVELATION. – – INVESTITURE OF THEIR DEITIES WITH MORTAL PASSIONS. – – CONFUSION IN THEIR ATTRIBUTES. – – SUPPOSITIONS ON THE CREATOR.

To eat in or near any spot where the dead has been buried, is accounted the height of impiety, or to take a meal in a canoe while passing opposite to such a place. For a European to do so is supposed to be bad enough, but for a native to be thus guilty, nothing less than drowning is expected to result. 93

A mere trifle constitutes impiety in the opinion of the New Zealanders. The crime is not confined to man only, but even beasts, as the wandering of a ruminating pig over a sacred place, is only to be appeased by his death, and the making use for firewood or any other purpose, of a rotten piece of wood; the remains of the residence of a chief, subjects the aggressor to a like infliction. In many cases it has been atoned for by blood or loss of property. But much depends on the disposition of the European who may trespass on the farms and superstitions of the natives, if he be irascible, they will not fail to take advantage of it, if fearful, they will cunningly work their will, but if (apparently) jocular and careless of consequences, he may be assured of escaping from those advantages that would be perpetrated, if he exhibited nervousness or undue irritability.

At one period holding a scull that lay on the ground by the sea-shore, an attendant pretended great alarm; but after some conversation, we per-

suaded him to lay hold of it; after many efforts to wrestle with his fears, he did so, while his comrades stood aghast at his hardihood.

In this instance we had acted wrong, for had any illness occurred during the journey, the cause would have been laid to our handling of the remnant of mortality. On the circumstance being repeated to a priest some time after, he observed that the act was one of infinite impiety, and that the actors might congratulate themselves on having a European in company, who he verily believed possessed about them some secret, or effectual charm, which they were unwilling to impart to the natives. On the same evening, we perceived several brilliant flashes of light in the heavens towards the south, at seeing which, the natives inquired with some trepidation, if that could portend anything connected with handling the head, which having been seen far distant from a wai tapu , it was taken for granted that it had found its way to the shore for some particular purpose; the probable fact was, that it had been placed in a coffin on the branch of a tree near the shore, and had rotted and fallen from its elevated position, and had search been made among the bushes, the residue of the bones would doubtless have been discovered.

The favourite form of the Gods is supposed to be that of a lizard or a bird; and should the former frigid reptile lose its tail when handled by a European, which from the slight joints easily oc-

curs, the divinity is regarded as curtailed in the honours due to it: many a simple white man has given a payment for causing the mishap, and has been derided by the natives for the success of their attempts on his fears.

Deep chasms, marine and subterraneous caverns, are reputed as inhabited by the tutelar divinities, and hollow noises occasioned by the high-flowing flood-tides in foul weather, rushing into the former, are said to be the noisy war-councils of the tenants of those dreary mansions, debating to which tribes the palm of victory shall be awarded! These places partake with the mountains, the scores of the legendary superstitions of the people. Much hollow ground is found in various parts of New Zealand, the districts having been in volcanic ignition; to walk over such places requires no little circumspection, as a false step might precipitate the incautious traveller into a deep abyss beneath. At the North Cape, called the Reinga , is the Avernus of the natives, or the country of their dead, where the spirits of the departed warriors find their last home, not resting-place, for the gods are said to be as pugnacious and irascible in the world beyond as they proved to be while men on earth. The chiefs who have had the greatest notoriety as unflinching cannibals, are the divinities of the people, who have been apotheosised after their decease, as we have stated. At those periods previous to a battle or a treaty, they are appealed to

by their tribes with much solemnity, on the supposition that their affection is equally fixed on their friends as when living in this existence, and that their power to be serviceable to the tribe is equally important. They are fully satisfied that their earnest supplications are attended to, if answered by a bird at the time, and the wily priesthood generally invoke the divinity when some of those songsters are perched in the vicinity, and generally procure an answer by either imitating the bird in secret or practising ventriloquism, in which art we have seen some adepts. We have remarked that the chiefs are regarded by their followers as deities in this existence, which accounts for the recklessness with which they meet death, as they are aware of the apotheosis that is in reserve for them, and that their memories will be treated with similar honours and respect, as they had been accustomed to venerate their predecessors. From this circumstance the theogony of the people is continually on the increase; every renowned chieftain that dies forms an additional deity to the divine catalogue. Despite the respect paid to the memories of those apologies for saints, their acquaintance is palpably disliked, as ill-success of every kind, and the diseases of life, are carried to the credit side of their account. The aquatic deities, or na-taniwoa, as they are named, are said to inhabit every port, river, creek, lake, and stream in the country; and the sharks of the sea are identified as being the said

diavoli . All the bad passions of life, such as fear, anger, revenge, vindictiveness, malice, remorse, sorrow, are attributed to the gods; but those sensations that render life most desirable, as love, prosperity, health, &c., are supposed to exist without any divine intervention. Lizards are accounted as virulent deities, that enter the orifices of the human body, devouring the inside of the hapless sufferer, until a priest intercedes, and by means foul and fair, drives the intruder from his quarters. Mawi rangi is the Ceres of New Zealand. When the heavens appear chequered with white clouds on a blue surface, the god is said to be planting his potatoes and other divine edibles, as food is accounted as peculiar rewards for the saints above. When a famine ensues on earth, a small pottle of cooked food is placed in a basket and hung on the branch of a tree, as a present to the divinity whose commissariat is suspected to be in what has been termed a healthy state of insolvency, and has consequently abridged the portion of his followers on earth. The winds and every point of the compass have been deified, the westerly wind is accounted the most vehement, and when it ceases to blow with its usual violence, it is said to have choked itself with its own bile. The Pleiades are pointed out as the left eyes of the most valorous of the gods. The traditional inventions relative to the sun (Ra ) and moon (Morama ) are innumerable; Rona is the "man

in the moon," whose lodgings on earth have been vacated previous to the decease of Mawi . His amorous propensities are much dwelt upon by the priesthood; the dark spots (maculae ) observable in the sun, are said to be the shade cast on the planet by battling warriors, and those luminous spiral rays of the sun (helio-cometes ) are said to be caused by the last glances taken by departed chiefs on the land of their mortal birth, to which they were so endearingly attached.

Of the great and beneficent Creator, adored by the believers of revealed religion, the poor natives have scarcely a conception, as they cannot divest their divinities of being possessed of the baneful passions of this life, as fearfully exhibited by their self-willed ancestors when in being while on earth.

This specimen of the mythology of the New-Zealanders is not the avowed national belief, if we may so term the scattered and disunited tribes, as they have not possessed hitherto any written language, or hieroglyphics answering for the same purpose, consequently, the various attributes of the several deities are often confounded. Interpolations and changes in name, as best suit the locality or the inventive genius of the narrating improvisatore are added or diminished. The supreme Creator to whom the European offers his devotion, is regarded by the natives as too great and incomprehensible to be worshipped by themselves, or ranked among their theogony, and

the only intercourse they admit of having had has been by the diseases introduced by their visitors. Such as the influenza, measles, and another yet more to be deprecated.

Though a native chief regards himself, and is believed by his people, to be a deity walking on earth; yet they have not the hardihood to affirm (poor worms) that they are equals to Him "who guides the whirlwind and directs the storm."

There are no peculiar forms attributed to the deities on their renewing (spiritually) their intercourse on this earth, as they are supposed to enter the body of birds, fish, animals, reptiles, and even insects, which induces them to repudiate any notion bordering on the atheistical; thus a storm, ground-swell in a river, severe rains, earthquake, or any natural phenomenon, is immediately attributed to the Atua , or the presiding divinity, which in the absence of divine revelation, is the Great Spirit to whom all nations address themselves, differing only in the exterior forms with which they invest the Creator.

To the early deities were appended a posteriori tails of matchless length, and sadly wanting in brevity. These grotesque addendas probably arose in the living representations having habited themselves in the skins of wild animals. The addition of a tail to the otherwise fair proportions of an enemy was a common practice of the Egyptians, who thus delineated the Ethiopians, who clad themselves as described, between which people a bitter animosity existed.

93Impiety (and justly) is rarely forgiven. Marcel-lus, after conquering the Syracusans, rifled their temple of the most valuable treasures, comprising statues and pictures representing the gods. Many nations conceived in consequence great indignation and hatred to the Romans, whom they affirmed had carried into captivity both gods and men. The ire of the Hebrews were equally raised against Titus, surnamed the Destroyer (at a later period) for carrying away the splendid treasure from the Sanctum Sanctorum of the temple at Jerusalem. It is equally an act of impolicy as cruelty to set at defiance and treat with bitter contempt the feelings of religious veneration borne by a nation; and history at various periods shows us, that many a nation has effected the overthrow of its oppressors when thus wantonly goaded by their insane conquerors.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ON THE PRIESTHOOD. – – ADOPTED BY THE ARISTOCRACY. – – THEIR IMPORTANCE IN WAR TIME. – – AUGURIES PERFORMED BY THEM. – – AND ANCIENT NATIVES GENERALLY. – – ANATHEMAS. – – THEIR SUPPOSED EFFICACY. – – IGNORANCE OF THE LEVITES OF THE ATUA THEY ADDRESS. – – ARE UNIVERSALLY CONSULTED. – – ANECDOTES. – – ON THE SHADE OF THE DEPARTED. – – MUTUAL JEALOUSIES OF PRIESTS. – – TITHES. – – THEIR INEFFICIENCY. – – PRIESTS ARE EVEN AT AN ARGUMENT. – – ARE NOT BIGOTED. – – VALUE OF PROPHESYING. – – ANECDOTE. – – A LUCKY HIT. – – SUPERIORITY OF JUDICIAL PROFESSORS. – – A VIEW OF THE HAPPINESS PROMISED HEREAFTER. – – SUBJECTS OF BELIEF AMONG THE NATIVES. – – DIVINATION. – – UNIVERSALITY OF ITS PRACTICE AT HOME AND ABROAD. – – ORIGIN OF THE PRACTICE. – – PRUDENCE OF THE NATIVE WARRIOR. – – OBJECTS FOR WHICH ASTROLOGY IS PERFORMED. – – THE SYSTEM OF LUCKY DAYS, AND THERE ANTITHESIS. – – INSTANCES COMPRISED IN AUGURY. – – NECROMANCY OF NATIONS. – – ORACULAR DENUNCIATIONS.

Among the most influential in a native assembly arc those persons who unite in their own persons the hereditary power of chieftainship and adoption of the priesthood. 94 A Priest (Tohunga ) once

established, becomes a person of much importance among his countrymen. As in civilized societies, it is adopted by the younger branches of respectable families, who possess but a small portion of worldly goods. There are many sensible natives who laugh at these people; but the force of habit or early example is sure to triumph in times of sickness, as those free-thinkers succumb to the priests, who pretty well mulct them, until a recovery takes place, when the convalescents again enter the lists of reformers. In war-time, the priest becomes an important personage. The warriors look to him, whether battle shall be given or peace proclaimed, and as the success of his auguries may prove, they act accordingly. 95 The flight of birds in certain directions are especially attended to; if they wing their way to the right of the sacrifice, it is accounted propitious, that is if the villages of the tribe are in that quarter; but should they disappear in the direction of the enemy, war is not to be undertaken. The ana-

thema of a priest is regarded as a thunderbolt that an enemy cannot escape; yet, scarcely a village exists without a dozen, or more of those spiritual weapons hanging over its community. Such prayers are supposed to be extremely efficacious in working the ruin of an enemy, but if the priest is asked by a European to whom does he pray? he becomes confounded for an answer; when it is demanded of him, who sends the rain he prays for, he answers the Atua , but to which Atua he is unable to ascribe, he supposes it is the Atua or rather Wairua of a deceased warrior; they do not ascribe intellectual abilities to those shades, and though they offer prayer (but never thanks for past or present) own, that they feel no assurance, of the being they invoke, and whom they knew in this life, whether it be deceased altogether and resolved into the elements, or became the immortal "thing of eternal life," they address it as being.

Scarcely a movement is undertaken in life without the village priest being first consulted, even the females when in that interesting state "which ladies like to be &c.," demand of those ariolists as to the future sex of the embryo foetus, and are satisfied of the result of the prescience of the priest until the period of parturition, when the fallacy of the prediction is proved undeniably; on such occasions, the priests contrive to shift the blame on some village magician as having prayed for

the change of sex while yet unborn. In demanding of a priest (a younger son of one of the aristocracy) the reason why he prayed to a particular Atua , addressing himself to the sky generally, and not to a certain spot, where he might as reasonably expect him to be domiciled, he answered "that the Atua looked down from heaven to earth, after his death;" but when farther questioned, why should he pray to that whose existence had ceased, answered "that the substantial portion had certainly rotted away; but the Wairua (spirit) hovered around the place where the bones had been interred, and as the deceased could be at all places at the same moment, it was immaterial whether he addressed it from a cave, on shore, or at sea. That the spirit resided at the Moodi wenua (Reinga , literally, extremity of the earth) from whence it would never retreat." The priests are extremely jealous of each other, and when two of the trade prophesy together in public on the same subject, and arrive at contrary opinions, the one who meets with a successful result, becomes so self-important, as to eclipse his rival in the opinion of the villagers, the latter is obliged to hide his diminished head, by taking up his trade and importance to a village further distant.

The tithes of the priesthood are few and far between, except partaking of the human sacrifices, on which auguries are performed before, during, and at the conclusion of a war, otherwise these sarcophagi, have but little to boast of.

In the performance of their functions, it is difficult to discover whether these dogmatists are deceivers of the people only, or may be included among the deceived.

They rarely attempt an argument with a European, but though easily driven from their strongholds, do not profess belief in what their antagonist may have advanced; but laugh heartily, generally observing tantamount to "I do not desire to enforce my opinions on you, nor do you attempt my conversion to yours, simply because I have not a ready expression to confute you." The priests, though wedded to their own opinions, are far from bigoted, nor have they the slightest idea of making a convert. Prophetic knowledge of future events is purchased from the priesthood at a cheap rate, these astrologers never giving away a chance of profit, however trifling.

When a cheap prophecy turns out contrary to the reality, the priest, if taxed with his fallacy, will ask in turn, "what could be expected for such a trivial offering," and should it prove true, the necromancer will demand another "consideration" for the exercise of his abilities, or if he is previously assured of obtaining nothing, he nevertheless takes pride to himself for his disinterestedness, and will instance the exorbitant price obtained by the cupidity of others exercising the profession whose prophecies were attended with less happy results. Among the latter, a priest

Te Wainga, Priest of Araitehuru, the presiding Deity of the entrance of the River Hokianga.

named Arrawata once informed us, for the truth of which he successfully appealed to his companions, that he was applied to by the wife of a chief, who had been united to her husband (tane ) some years, but the union had proved barren; the magician bade her to rest tranquil, and he would address the moon (morama ) on the subject, and inform her as to the reply.

After certain mummeries (actually moonshine) he called on the lady, and desired her not to be disheartened, as it lay at her own option whether she should become pregnant or otherwise, as the moon (in conjunction with the chief) would effect the object, by her sending from her daily meals, a portion in a small basket to the priest, who would take the trouble of dedicating it in form to the complaisant planet. The chief and his wife were satisfied in doing so, and the priest had the daily satisfaction of enjoying the effect of his wit, when unluckily (in one sense) the prediction became true, which caused the priest to lose his daily rations, but raised his name to much celebrity. From this period his repute procured him much respect, and some profit, and though more than ordinarily unfortunate in his after predictions; yet he may be said to have lived on his success in the instance above described. The functions of the priesthood comprise every thing connected with the ecclesiastical affairs of the people, 96 the

judicature being within the power of the chiefs to whom the ecclesiastics are obliged to succumb when both offices are not united in the same person.

The actual state of the native elysium (Reinga ) was thus described to us by a priest. That it was infinitely preferable to this world of care, as the spirits, who were extremely numerous, possessed every thing they had enjoyed best in this existence, almost to satiety. That the females were evergreens who, in addition to longitude of life, were subtracted in that latitude of tongue allowed to them in this mundane existence, that fighting was prohibited (several of the clergy dissented from this), but a rapid succession of pleasurable excitements rendered the place as delightfully happy as if fighting was allowed with the meed of eternal victory. Food, most grateful to the taste, was at the service of the spirits whenever they chose to rifle the celestial larder, and the quality and especes , &c., were beyond what mortal conception could picture to the imagination. Among the superstitious feelings of the natives, implicit belief is reposed in dreams, visions, second

sight, the efficacy of charms, and divination, the power of the Makutu or curse of an enemy, the necessity of observing the forms of the tapu or prohibitory levitical ceremonies, the existence of spirits, ghosts, evil eyes, evil wishing, good and ill omens, the necessity of immolating human victims, either to appease the manes of the dead or discover by augury future events, and the value of retributive punishments to the latest generation,

Few practices are more condemned as being ridiculous, yet more indulged in than divination or augury, whether it be found in the refuse of an old lady's teacup or the cards, as prevalent in Europe, especially in the provinces, or as practised by the New Zealanders, who pluck the entrails from the (almost living) human victim, smoking with the warmth of animation. The origin of the practice may be variously accounted for, many parents, children, lovers, delight in encouraging a delusion, that animates the hope of their wishes being granted in. an assurance of early beholding the objects of their love.

This divination is made use of to discover the sudden secrets of futurity in every circumstance of life. The warrior "girds up his loins," when the oracle declares in his favour, but should he obtain a contrary conclusion, he may say "Othello's occupation's gone," as the native chief has no notion of obtaining the "bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth." The traveller by this

means ascertains whether the day be favourable or not for undertaking his journey, the fisherman is hopeless of piscivorous gains should he enforce his fortune despite of the warning made by divination, the farmer hastens to plant, the slave to cut and dress flax, the females to work the loom, if the augurs state favourably, but should the contrary be proved, no dress will be commenced, no seine cast, no fish-hook baited, no ground turned up, seed sown, distant visit made, flax cut or dressed, timber cut, canoe formed, or even food partaken of. 97

Several methods are made use of to work out the divine will by augury; appearances in the heavens are supposed to portend good or bad fortune to the nation, the locality determines either: a meteor falling towards the quarter where an enemy resides, is a sign that they will be overcome in the next

campaign, if it falls in a contrary direction, the loss is assured as vice versa.

During the practice of divination, should a bird pass over the place, and a feather from it fall on the spot, the fates are said to declare against the tribe divining; should it sing, the case is in their favour, but if it should chat or imitate the human voice, concordia discors , and the declaration is against them. 98 94

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94Among the ancients it was not uncommon to meet with priests also invested with the regal dignity of the country. Thus Melchizedek king of Salem "was the priest of the Most High God. " Gen. xiv. 18. The predecessors to Tarquinius Priscus, King of Rome, also survived the functions of the priesthood, Romulus setting the example. Numa also assisted the pontifices. Julius and Augustus Caesar, added the levitical cognomen to their titles, and the Christian Emperors, until the time of Gratian, were distinguished as officiating heads of the church.

95The auguries on a human victim among the New Zealanders, in no wise differs from those of the Romans in the most enlightened periods of the Commonwealth; the same omens were remarked and observed upon, and were equally affected by flights of birds, etc.

96In the East, the priests fulfil the highest offices in the council and legislature. Among the Greeks and Romans, and ancient nations of Palestine, they interpreted dreams (as Joseph at the court of Pharaoh) and oracles, and in many instances led the troops to battle, and acted as standard-bearers, an office performed by them in the early reigns in England.

97In Madagascar, where the writer also travelled, children are put to death when born on an unlucky day; and as the year is (about) divided into lucky days and their antithesies, so one half the population is murdered in infancy. The horrid work is performed as early as the child sees the light, when a hole is made in the ground of the house-floor, the infant placed in, often alive, and the ground stampt upon by the brutal relatives.
The Ombiasses or priests, enforce this law of Moloch, and personally perform this office, should the circumstance arrive at their knowledge of a parent being refractory to the law, in favour of natural affection.

98Divination was probably the invention of the Chaldeans, from them it descended to the Egyptians, Greeks, Tuscans, Latins and Romans. When the cup was found in the sack of Benjamin, the steward of Joseph says, "Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth," Gen. c.44, v.5. Cups were made use of by the Romans for this purpose, as well as by British ladies in 1840. The former melted wax in hot water and gave the infusion to the augur. The latter arrive at the future by the display made by the refuse of Souchong and Hyson, young (or old), &c. The Roman augurs were particularly attentive to the visitations of thunder, lightning, comets, &c. The word auspices is derived from the consultations on the flight of birds, Avis et conspicio .
Ill-luck in spilling salt or wine we derive from the Romans. Meeting on the sea-shore with dead fish, birds, &c. was also unlucky. The Tuscans, in excuse for practising a number of superstitious rites, observed, that they received their knowledge from the lips of a boy, who had been ploughed up by sheer accident from the ground, and with uncommon politeness imparted to the simple priests, a knowledge of the art of augury. The oracular denunciations of old, were the first systematic attempts at divination. In those temples it was universally supposed, that the gods conversed with the utmost familiarity with the libidinous priests and priestesses, who were endowed with pre-science of the past, present, and future.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXIV.

SYSTEMATIC DIVINATION. – – SCENE OF NATIVE MAGIC. – – PARTIAL STARVATION INSISTED UPON. – – STAR-GAZERS. – – THE MAN-FISH. – – ITS HETERODOXY. – – WORKING OF PREDICTIONS. – – THE BEST METHOD TO ENSURE A FAIR HOROSCOPE. – – NON-RESISTANCE TO TEMPTATION. – – EFFECT OF FORTUNE TELLING. – – BELIEF IN A MAGICIAN. – – PROPHETIC WEATHER ALMANACS. – – APOLOGIES FOR A MISTAKE. – – ILLNESSES EXORCISED. – CASTING NATIVITIES. – – PREDESTINATION. – – SCAPE-GOATS. – – CHARMS. – – AND NATIVE ANODYNES. – – CONSIDERATION PAID TO DREAMS. – – THEIR IMPORTANCE DURING WAR. – – SUPPOSED CONVERSE OF DIVINITIES. – – VISIONS. – – GHOSTS. – – SHADOW OF A SHADE. – – ANECDOTE. – – OMENS. – – OMINOUS DREAMS. – – AND UNLUCKY APPEARANCES. – – SECOND-SIGHT. – – FORBIDDEN SACRIFICES. – – A CONNUBIAL MISTAKE. – – EVIL-EYE. – – GIANTS. – – DWARFS. – – OGRES.

THE native necromancers generally perform their unhallowed rites in the vicinity of the cemetery. We often witnessed those farces. One of the first we chanced to behold was by accident. On arriving at the place, we discovered a venerable magician surrounded by a half-dozen of his tribe, entirely in nudity. It was eagerly demanded if we had partaken of food, (as fasting is a necessary accompaniment,) and much to their gratification, our reply was given in the negative. They insisted on our returning to the village, as the rites they were about to perform would not admit of any person present but those of the priesthood.

We expressed willingness to do so, but bade them remember, we could not curb the irritability of our appetite, which was not to be trifled with when the temptation of eatables was placed in its way. This induced a permission for our stay, as it was sagely argued that a European could not disconcert the ceremony by his presence. On the ground they had fixed about twenty sticks in two opposite rows, representing their people and those of the enemy, each stick stood for a tribe, on the top of each a small pebble was placed, and the event of the war was to be determined by whichever pebble fell first to the ground. At another time, while on our travels in the interior, a similar mummery was attempted to be palmed on us, which had we not interfered would probably have retarded our proceeding early, which was at the period of the utmost importance. A similar exhibition of sticks and stones took place, our representative having a wisp of bulrush (raupo ) attached as a distinction, without a difference. The pebbles placed on top of each were to have remained an hour, and if none of them fell to the ground, our journey was to be propitious, but whichever stone fell, death, in some shape, was to be the lot of the hapless person represented. Perceiving that arguing the point was out of the question, as such a method with the natives would be only encouraging obstinacy, we cautioned them on the result, that no Euro-

peans would visit their district, if thus subjected to the most silly of annoyances; but if they would reject such follies we would present them (for their pains) with a modicum of tobacco each. This offer was of too tempting a nature to resist, this narcotic being the ne plus ultra of vegetable gratifications in the shape of smoking, accordingly the stones were carefully taken down, and the sticks uplifted and thrown into the adjacent bush. Soon after our companions rushed to the spot, with anxiety and eager expectations depicted on their faces, each desirous to know the effects that the incantation would produce. These simple souls were fully persuaded that the result predicted would certainly ensue. With the warmth that distinguishes this hasty people, each (with a volubility that wholly put the ariolists beside themselves) demanded to know what their ultimate fate would be. At last the principal of the Augurs with a gravity worthy of a Druid celebrating a sacrifice, gave each so satisfactory an answer, that the utmost hilarity prevailed. The words of the old magician and his conclave were implicitly believed, and we congratulated ourselves on the effects which the tobacco had produced in this instance. 99 Fire is often made use of for the pur-

poses of incantation, any stick taken for this purpose from the hearth, the wood or embers, can never be made use of for any other purpose; it becomes tapued or sacred to the purposes of necromancy. To make use of any such fire-wood would bring down on the head of the transgressor condign punishment for his impiety.

The priests are supposed to be enabled to discover (with an acumen that would rival Mr. Murphy,) the future weather by similar prognostics.

With the subtlety of the profession in all countries, they become well acquainted with natural causes, and are able to make pretty shrewd guesses at the approaching weather. But should the priest be mistaken, nature is absolutely taxed, for misleading the priest, instead of the native enchanter being roundly rated for his inconsistency. These soothsayings do much hurt in the country, as the natives are kept back from that free wholesome habit of thinking for themselves, as would, if indulged in, prove the fallacy of trusting in follies, unworthy of an infant in Europe.

In illness a priest is invariably called in, as they unite in their person the respective offices of physician, apothecary, soothsayer, magician, conjuror, priest, legislator, and barber-chirurgeon, and when united with chieftainship, both judge, counsel for plaintiff and defendant, foreman and jury. On appearing before the sick man, instead of feeling the pulse, observing the tongue, or general appearance of the im-patient, the doctor requests to know, from whose pipe he smoked last, if he put on the garment of any other person, if he lay in the hut of an enemy, or lifted up the ax or any other weapon, of any evil wisher. If he fails to discover any such consequences, he then boldly says that the Atua has decidedly entered his body, where, probably delighted with his quarters, he is sure to remain until he (the doctor) exorcises him. On this a fee (baskets of potatoes,

corn, kumeras, or a pig) is promised, on which the astrologer commences an exorcism to eject the atua , instead of a medicinal dose. Should the patient recover, the doctor takes credit to himself that he has ejected his godship, and will not hesitate to assert that he discovered the rascal leaving the mouth, nostrils, or ears, of the sick man in the shape of a lizard, (ruatara ) or some such animal. Casting nativities is often performed by the astrologers, and in this case, a good fee is expected. Trial by ordeal is also made use of, after the usual fallacious manner of their divination, and as destiny is fully relied on, the result equally falls on the innocent as guilty. Scapegoats are also supposed to bear away sins and peccadilloes, and a fish or vegetable, bearing the curses of the priests is cast into the sea, or interred in a wai tapu .

The charms made use of by the natives, are generally the teeth of their enemies, which they hang pendent from the ears, or a bundle of hair, which they place on the branch of a tree in a cemetery. Locks of hair are often interchanged between persons of both sexes, as charms or memorials of ardent love. Anodynes for the cure of diseases as practised by other nations are unknown among the New Zealanders.

Great consideration is paid to dreams, and much amusement is derived by the natives, when sitting in circles and communicating the subjects they

may have dreamt. At such meetings each person gives his interpretation as may best suit his ideas on the subject in discussion. During or previous to war the old sages are continually dozing and dreaming, and a new edition is presented in all shapes and sizes. Much depends upon dreams, 100 should a series of them chance to be decidedly inauspicious, no public work, whether planting, fishing, or war, is undertaken, but should the contrary be the case, fresh vigour nerves the warrior to the fight, and the generality of the people to their intended occupations. The vagaries of old ladies come greatly into play during the absence of the chiefs and their friends at war, scarcely a nap is taken, but the sleeper when awaking makes an awful shake of the head, and though there is

nothing in it , yet it becomes of great import to the younger villagers. Visions are fully credited, and belief in images of forms, shapes, and appearances.

They also firmly believe in ghosts that haunt their tombs, in consequence of which, the native would be accounted a hardy being, that would pass a cemetery alone after nightfall. A Cock-lane ghost-story would be received with the most intense avidity, at the same time it would shake the nation into fits.

One chief who had been dead some time, appeared suddenly to his tribe, this was regarded as peculiar ingratitude on his part, as every requisite ceremony had been performed at his interment; his wives had affectionately immolated themselves, and a number of slaves had been respectfully murdered to attend him in the world of spirits, yet it would appear he was unsatisfied. After long submitting to the annoyance of this intruder, whose present company had never been requested, a priest had the boldness to summon sufficient resolution to address the shape, who replied with much naivete that he was dreadfully stinted in his celestial rations, and begged the further sacrifice of a pig, and he would no longer trouble his good people, accordingly the sacrifice was performed, the pig was placed in the cemetery, and the same night it disappeared. This plausible story was narrated to us by some natives, with full belief that they were relating an indisputable fact.

Implicit belief is also given to omens, and the most trifling matters intervening, will put an end to the most serious consultations of an assembly; simple as the cause may be, it becomes oracular among the natives. An owl to hoot during a speech is termed an evil omen, a rotten branch to fall from a tree, though it can readily be traced to decay and the wind, is of bad import, as is also the appearance of a bat or owl at the birth of a child, or even a cry to emanate from them, though hid among the bushes. 101 On consulting about war, for a hawk to pounce on a fish is good, but should he afterwards drop the finny prey, mis-

haps are suspected to ensue. For a warrior to stumble on entering the enemy's country. 102 Slavery or his death will ensue, but should he discover any food, fruit, or any article, however trivial, but which can be of any service, success will crown his exploits.

This subject could be continued ad-infinitum , but it is presumed the above samples of the national wisdom resembling the provincial prejudices of far more civilized nations will be sufficient.

The abstruse doctrine of second sight is also adhered to. Many relations were made to us, one of which will suffice to show the implicit belief of the people on the subject; a native chief of minor grade accompanied his comrades to a war, which had been carried on some months with the tribes distant about eight miles from his village. After an absence of several weeks, his wife was astonished by the sudden appearance of her husband, who entered the house she resided in, and sat mute by the hearth. After satisfying herself that she saw his fetch or his wraith , she rushed forth to summon witnesses of the fact, but on her return, the shade had vanished. As no messenger brought tidings of the war, the disconsolate wife (alias

widow) re-married, having been wooed and won within a month after which, the husband returned one fine morning "sound as a roach," on which the wife after sundry screams, tears, and protestations, was taken back by the "returned sound and in good condition." The lady escaped punishment, as it was supposed some evil atua had purposely deceived her, like Eve of old, "and she did eat," &c.

The pseudo-doctrine of the evil eye is fully depended upon. They suppose that evil wishes conveyed with the eye can cause death to a child, or sickness leading to decay to an adult. 103 Confused ideas are entertained of the existence of Giants, Dwarfs, &c., dwelling in deep forests or submarine caves, also of enormous birds, that play the part of the Ogres, who catch the natives "to grind their bones and make them bread," as was formerly fancied in Europe.

99The kings of the Phrygians and Lacedemonians were always attended by augurs. Isaiah, says (c.45, v.12,13. ) "Stand now with thine enchantments and with the number of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth."... "Let now the astrologers and star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee." – – The easy belief of the New Zealanders is not confined to them at the present day, or in times antecedent. In the reign of Henry I., one Ralph de Coggeshall affirms the fact of a man-fish having been caught at Orford in Suffolk, gifted with a human face and flowing beard. As it was presumed by the sages of that day, that it had also the gift of speech, they applied several cruel tortures to induce the poor monster to "speak out," but its silence was not to be overcome. With a discernment worthy of the mental refinement of its captors, it was taken to church, and dubbed a heretic in not showing any sign of devotion. We know not what punishment might have been awarded to the contumacious malignant, had it not escaped the vigilance of its keepers, and once more regained its native element, heartily disgusted, no doubt, with its inhospitable reception. Astrology was firmly believed in England by the king, nobles, and people, until the time of Henry VII.

100Dreams were supposed by the ancients to be the natural mode whereby the gods conversed with the generality of mankind, but that divination was often required to explain their tendency. Julius Caesar dreamt that he lay with his mother, which he construed as enjoying the empire of the earth, the mother of all terrestrial creation. He might just have suspected his early death and lying in the earth. The emperor had certainly eaten of supper too heartily.
Alexander the Great also dreamt that he should be murdered by Cassandra. (Val. Max. lib.1. cap.7.)
The ancients believed that there were methods of inducing good dreams. Provincial ladies in Great Britain and Ireland have similar notions, and me have heard of young ladies sleeping with their stockings under their heads, to dream of their future husbands.

101 Virgil on omens writes. (Georg. c.3, v.48.)
"The victim ox that was for altars pressed,
Trimmed with white ribands and with garlands dressed,
Sunk of himself without the Gods' command,
Preventing the slow sacrificer's hand;
Or, by the holy butcher if he fell
The inspected entrails, could no fate foretell,
Nor laid on altars, did pure flames arise,
But clouds of smoke forbade the sacrifice."
Dryden.

The ancients were equally as silly in superstitions. Sneezing on a certain side was pregnant with good or ill-fortune. Comets were supposed to denote omens of dire import.
If an even number of persons sneezed in concert, it was lucky; but if 1, 3, 5, 7, or any odd number did so, it was ill-omened. Some persons have a similar repugnance to sit in company with twelve more persons.

102The same story is told of Julius Caesar; William the Conqueror; and Henry IV., at Ravenspur, who had the presence of mind to kiss the earth, converting the accident into a lucky omen.

103The evil eye was well known to the Greeks and Romans. The snake-locked Gorgons, and the head of Medusa, were adorned with evil eyes. Pliny, with much simplicity, says, that the nations of Illyria could kill with a look. Animals were even invested with such optical visionary powers, as par ex . the cockatrice, the fascination of serpents, the basilisk, &c. The Turks and Asiatics distinguish some of their Africs or Goules, (daemons of the first water,) with such wild stretches of imagination. For a further description of enchanting eyes, see the Novels and Romances of the Minerva Press.

CHAPTER XXV.

CHAPTER XXV.

RELIGIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES IN NEW ZEALAND. – – WHEN PERFORMED, – – HOW TO DISCOVER A THIEF AND THE WEATHER. – – SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS. – – INSPIRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. – – CANONIZED BEASTS. – – NATIVE FEARS. – – A VEGETABLE ANIMAL. – – CHARACTERISTICS ATTACHED TO WHIRLWINDS, WATER-SPOUTS, RAINBOWS. – – NATIVE DIGNITY. – – HOW AGGRIEVED AND ACCOMMODATED. – – PROPITIATING THE GODS. – – PROHIBITION OR TAPU. – – ITS EFFECTS ON LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. – – NATURE OF THE OBY, GRISGRIS AND FETISH. – – BELIEF IN RELIQUARIES. – – INTERDICT ON RIVERS. – – PAYMENT FOR NON-OBSERVANCES. – – OBJECTS SUBJECTED TO THE TAPU. – – THE POAPOA – – OFFERINGS FOR TRANSGRESSIONS.

THE religious rites of the New Zealanders are very numerous, and a non-attendance in fulfilling any of them, renders the transgressor open to robbery of all his effects, and a yet more severe punishment. The ceremonies performed in honour of the birth and death of the chiefs have been given. Marriages are blessed by the priesthood, who invoke the sun, moon, stars, earth, and even the winds, to be propitious to the bridal pair. Among the superstitions, the following may be mentioned. The method of discovering a thief, is found by a priest taking a number of small sticks (or pebbles) previously making a small circle on the ground.

Each stick is notched, to represent one of the parties suspected of a lapse in honesty, and all are thrown up in the air, and the stick that falls within the circle, the representative is declared the thief, but should all of them fall wide of the mark, the suspicions are accounted fallacious, but the stick nearest to the circle is supposed to be connected directly or indirectly, and a fresh batch of the articles, representing his relatives or companions (as the case may be) are thrown up. If a result similar to the former takes place, no further notice is taken.

Previously to a party leaving a village for a campaign, a number of sticks are placed slightly in the ground, (each stick representing a person) during a calm, after a strong breeze has sprung up, the priests take a survey of these rods of divination, and such as have fallen indicate the fall (in battle) of the persons represented. A deal of trickery is practised by the priests in such instances, as those whom they would favour, their effigies are pushed deep in the earth, and to whom they bear malice, their representatives are scarcely placed in the soil. These ridiculous symbols are carefully gathered and placed in a canoe in which no food is allowed to be partaken of, and carried to the war. They may be termed the native sibylline oracles.

Inspiration is said to be afforded to the priesthood by the divinities. A priest who greatly boasted of a circumstance which he had predicted

as likely to come to pass, and which by chance happened to do so, boasted that he felt assured that he could not be mistaken as he had the information from a shark, who had conveyed it to him in a confidential communication.

Every animal has a chance of becoming sanctified for a time, during which his life is assured. Hogs are sometimes named after great chiefs deceased, and when thus canonized are never allowed to be killed. Thrice fortunate indeed is the animal thus elevated from his herd, as he may roam in sacred places, grub with his sainted snout the luxuriant herbage in a wai tapu , and can attain a good old age, fearless of the fate that attends his kindred. We have seen monstrous representations of animals 104 placed in cemeteries to scare

away these freed brutes, but attended with ill success.

On the natives passing the tombs of their celebrated warriors, they become seized with an awe which they cannot define; it is not uncommon for them to throw a dried shell-fish, such as a cockle or clam, at the tomb, and often in lieu, a thread from their garment, at the wooden image set up a a cenotaph.

A whirlwind of sand has been described to us as a hasty departure of invisible spirits to the Reinga, or world of shades, A water-spout was characterized as arising from a deficiency of water in heaven, a portion of which ascending, was necessary for the existence of the divinities located there. Meteors were said to be caused by the forcible ejectment of an Atua for misconduct. A rainbow is called an ara wata , or ladder for the chiefs to ascend to heaven. A chief will not hesitate carrying an European on his back, and we have often witnessed disputes between those members of the aristocracy as to whom the preference should be disposed; but a slave would regard himself as humbled to the dust if obliged to perform the same duty for his master.

A slave is not allowed to partake of food which has been carried on the shoulders of a chief. European families, on whom the blessed light of civilization has fallen, are, (we had almost said,) equally prone to superstition, that even a sense of religion cannot eradicate; but this feeling among all savage or semi-civilized nations is most absorbing. They all implicitly believe in omens, dreams, second-sight, predestination, evil eyes, bewitching, auguries, relics, charms, bequeathings, philtres, sorceries, enchantments, astrology, &c. Every singularly formed rock, elevated mountain, conical hill, dense forest, river, lake, cave, marine, or subterranean, hollow tree, are remarkable as not being a work of the great Creator, but as the habitation of spirits ever on the alert to take advantage of any lapsus that may occur in the conduct or demeanour of the morally benighted natives. To deprecate the ire of the imaginary atua , he attempts propitiation by the commission of crimes of the deepest-dye, fearing otherwise, (adficietur malo ) he will meet with a terrific retribution. The prohibitory law of the tapu enters into every subject relative to life in New Zealand. The priests have the sole management of the penitential fasts, that devolve on the person who breaks through the rules of his faith.

Parents are unable to caress, or even touch their children, while either labour under the interdict, food must not be handled by any person, which must be extremely annoying to the chiefs to be fed

by other persons, but the poor slaves, who have no such indulgences, are obliged to gobble the food from the ground on which it is laid. If they should be lucky enough to get an assistant, many a trick is played them, by cramming victuals so excessively hot in their mouths, as to bring tears from their eyes, and in case of dropping the pungent vegetable, the assistant decamps.

The sea-side is often tapued by certain tribes who possess the sole right of fishing for shell-fish on the beach.

Farms and their productions while ripening are also similarly protected. 105 The tapu generally con-

sists of a bunch of human hair being affixed to a tree, or a piece of old garment; should this sign be violated, a quarrel and war ensues in consequence. The prohibition often interferes with the European traders, as often a river is not allowed to be navigated while a seine is preparing on its shores. In the interior streams, if any person was found paddling a canoe, while the waters lay under an interdict, the people of the district would not hesitate in shooting the person so disobedient as to transgress the tapu . Among such persons who are of a less sanguinary disposition they become satisfied by only robbing the delinquent of every thing he possesses, including his canoe, paddles, freight and garments, ignorance of the existing tapu being no excuse for breaking the law. If a native feels himself aggrieved, the same law is open to him, whenever he has the opportunity to enforce it. Few words have a more extensive meaning. If an accident takes place in a forest, during the felling of timber, the place is deserted, and wood, for the future, is prohibited being cut in that place.

When a place is to be tapued, the intimation is announced to all whom it may concern (or not) by a raoui or grotesque carving in wood, painted with the usual red earth, which is found in certain districts, and is baked after the native method.

Na Rauni[rahui?], or Monumental Effigies.

The vicinity of the spot being thus announced as sacred is never infringed.

Fruit trees are often sacrificed in like manner, as on such karaka (native fruit) trees on which human hair has been hung up, the fruit is no longer allowed to be made use of. Any raupo or bulrush flags put apart for building certain houses, &c., the same can never be made use of for any other purpose, as the rush is tapued for that express purpose.

The first fish of the season is tapued as an offering to the gods, and the priest and chiefs take the clerical trouble of gastronomizing on them, for the benefit of the Atuas . Few people exhibit greater devotion in this respect than the New Zealand priesthood.

On a party of natives undertaking a war, a canoe is tapued for carrying certain objects, such as the bones of deceased warriors, of ferocious and cannibal memory, 106 supposed as particularly efficacious in aiding the tribes, or the muskets, paddles, and other relics of the defunct chiefs, which are never made use of but as charms. In default of the above, rotten sticks that once formed part and parcel of the house of the chief are substituted, even fern-pounders, and similar trifles.

Viands are often tapued for certain chiefs, and the messenger (Karari ) carrying it is not allowed to partake of any kind of food until he has delivered his message. These viands are termed poapoa , and sometimes consist of pigeons preserved in their own fat, the several bones being carefully extracted, and often the remains of human victims who have been murdered in sacrifice. Portions of food are often placed in baskets to propitiate the Atua , either for actual (present) misfortunes, or those that may in all probability be pending. The basket is hung up on the branch of a tree or notched stick; at other times it is placed in a small round calabash,

and a small stick run through it in the centre and inserted into the nearest wai tapu . Mats hung upon four sticks also serve for this sacred purpose. Punishment without benefit of the native clergy, would visit any person guilty of partaking of such viands.

Receptacles for Poapoa, or Sacred Food

If a native should be unfortunate in any of his expectations, he immediately suspects that he has offended an Atua (but the particular one he is unable to guess at), he immediately offers (what he imagines to be) an adequate payment, by setting fire to the house of his antagonist; or should such persons be too powerful for him, he consumes his own house; but, if his ill luck should still continue, he thinks at once to retrieve his good fortune by attacking, clandestinely, an enemy, or even friend (for he is not particular to a shade), and should he possess superior strength, murders him, as an expiatory sacrifice.

104Struys in his Travels, observes, that in a vast salt plain on the western side of the Wolga in Russia, there grows a plant having a wonderful resemblance to a lamb, with head, tail, body, and feet complete. Further, that it grew upon a stalk three feet in height, turned itself to the right and left, feeding upon the surrounding herbage, which it ate after the manner of a lamb. Several writers have copied the description of Struys, among others, Dr. Darwin has characterized this production in the following lines: –
"Crops the gray coral moss and hoary thyme,
Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;
Eyes with meek tenderness her distant dam,
And seems to bleat – a vegetable lamb."
This plant has been discovered as being an asphidium , a species of fern, the roots thickly matted, is elevated from the ground by scaly tuberous roots, giving it a very indistinct resemblance to a lamb; but he must be a witless shepherd who would be deceived by it. – Les Voyages de Jean Struys en Muscovie , Amst., 1681.

105Among those lawless beings on whom civilization has shed no ray of light, talismans are regarded as the infallible agents of the darkest powers. Among the Maroon negroes in the Caribbean Islands, the oby is similarly regarded as the fetishes of the sanguinary chiefs of the east coast of Africa. In the islands off that continent, the grisgris answers the same purpose. These anodynes are preserved with the greatest care and veneration. The runaway slaves, or Maroons, often waste their mornings in casting lots or divining, with the endeavour to presage the destiny of the same and ensuing day. The bones of ancestors are made use of by the Africans for necromancy.
The belief in reliquaries had attained to such a height among the Anglo-Saxons, as induced King Edgar to form certain canonical laws, preventing the insane devotion of the people to "trees, stones, and fountains," losing sight of a veneration to the Creator, in the substitution of his works. – Spelman .

106This bears resemblance to the follies of the Crusaders, who carefully carried with them, encased in gold and precious stones, splinters from the cross, bones, finger and toe-nail parings of celebrated saints, a few heads of the self-same saint, tears dropped in agony from deceased martyrs, and similar veritable reliquaries.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE MAKUTU, OR BEWITCHING HUMAN BEINGS. – – ITS SUCCESS, – – THE KANGA OR MALEDICTION. – – INCANTATORY RITES. – – CANNIBAL ORGIES. – – ON THE ANATHEMAS OF THE ANCIENTS. – – EXTRAORDINARY EFFECTS OF SORCERY. – – OATHS OF THE PEOPLE. – – RECIPROCITY OF RETRIBUTION. – – ANCIENT PLEDGES OF FIDELITY. – – HUMAN SACRIFICES. – – ADDRESSES OF THE PRIESTHOOD. – – WHOLESALE DISSECTIONS. – – SACRIFICING TO MOLOCH. – – METHOD OF ITS PERFORMANCE. – – IMMOLATION OF CHILDREN. – – AND HECATOMBS OF HUMAN BEINGS. – – ALBINOS AND VICTIMS DEDICATED FOR THE MOUTH. – – ON CANNIBALISM. – – GENERAL DISBELIEF EXISTING ON THE SUBJECT. – – REFERENCE TO WRITERS ALIKE REGARDED FOE THEIR ABILITY AND VERACITY.

THE ridiculous phantasy called Makutu , or the power of bewitching a person to death, is implicitly believed as "confirmation strong as proofs of holy writ." This evil report has often been made use of to effect the death of an innocent person.

It is believed by all barbarous nations, and in New Zealand it has slain its thousands. A person is supposed to be bewitched by smoking from the pipe of an ill-wisher, lying in his hut, putting on his dress, drinking from the same calabash, eating together from the same basket, paddling in the same canoe, and even bathing in the same river. Often have the bones of hapless wretches been produced to us, who had been murdered and subsequently devoured by their brutal foes. A konga or

malediction is tantamount to the makutu . 107 Bewitching is often performed by incantatory rites, and when a whole tribe is consigned to death, human victims are despatched to fully effect the malediction. Cannibal orgies follow, too horrible and heart-sickening to dwell upon. The priesthood revel in the abhorrent food, and with their bodies sprinkled with human blood, raise piercing shouts, and join in dances, distorting their features and bodies in the most repulsive manner, and sing aloud the curses that shall annihilate their enemies. An illness rarely occurs without the patient or his friends attributing it to the Makutu ; consequently if he should recover, he hastens to wage war,

murder or rob, the tribe of the person suspected, which in turn, is severely visited by the injured man or his tribe. Interminable warfare, guerre a outrance , follows. To fully effect the Makutu it is necessary to possess some corporeal portion of the devoted victim, such as a lock of hair, the paring of a nail, the saliva caught on a mat, or even yet more repulsive remnants that remind us continually that we are mortal. This obtained, it is steeped in blood, and the malediction is aspirated. But the most extraordinary circumstance is the effect that follows the curse. Death almost in all cases ensues; for as early as the victim discovers that his life has been cursed, he abstains from taking sustenance, and gradually sinks into an atrophy, that closes with death.

Some priests possess the good sense to rally their flock from the effects of the Makutu . We often attempted to rally such persons who had taken the Makutu to heart, but rarely succeeded in doing so.

One young man consented to follow the advice we gave, but notwithstanding his best efforts, he eventually sunk under this astonishing power of the imagination. This may be truly termed "Vox et praeterea nihil ,"

Oaths are much indulged in by this people – they generally savour of the dreadful enormities accompanying cannibalism. They are equally eminent in abusing each other. We have often seen and heard two men cursing each other with the most bitter and injurious expressions, several spectators

looking on, bestowing applause on the ruffian who best acquitted himself, or whose expressions were most insulting. Among such maledictions, are the following: Ekai na to wangana , may your head be eaten off (as food for your enemy). Kai koe to matua , eat thou of thy parent. Puke tuki tukia , may your stomach be eviscerated, and many others too indelicate even to make allusion. 108 The persons to whom these oaths are addressed, have a just right to demand payment, which is demanded in sub-

stance, but has been exacted in blood and sacrifice of life.

No chief or his tribe would rest tranquil under any malediction addressed to them. For a person to tell a chief that he would cut off his (the chiefs) head and sell it to the Europeans, would be an opprobrious curse that could not meet with forgiveness. The chief would attempt by every possible means to possess the head of the speaker, and pretended friendship, the better to disguise his treacherous intentions, would in such case be accounted fair play. This occurrence has often taken place, and retributive punishment has followed. We have already recounted the religious festivals of the natives. The most awful rite persisted in by them, 109 is the

sacrifice of their countrymen to visionary fears, as these people possess no visible objects to pay their adoration to, no music or display to charm the senses,

or (save the bones of the dead) to engage their veneration. Human sacrifices are performed when the fate of a foreboding war is to be ascertained, or during the interim of an engagement. The first prisoner taken is generally the victim, whose death is comparatively easy, for in the eagerness of each warrior to enslave his person, he obtains a friendly blow, that stays the necessity of competition. The chief priest devoutly addresses the god Wiro or Spirit of Evil, to render his tribe successful in the strife, and at the same time confound the enemy, who the Atua is respectfully informed to be a stubborn, cannibal, and vicious race, wholly unlike the petitioners, with whose meekness and kindness the enemy could never compete. The body is then disjointed by a tomahawk or small axe, and a fair portion is allotted to each chief representing a principal family. The arch-chiefs and priests are only admitted to gastronomize on the first body slain, and the great captain, or generalissimo of the tribes, has the peculiar gratification of having the bleeding heart of the victim as his portion of the

feast. After the battle, wholesale dissections take place, accompanied with atrocities of the most revolting nature, and in addition, as a refinement in barbarity, the dissections are made in presence of the captured relatives and friends. The scene of intense agony and horror, presented by the tortured parents and children, wives, husbands, friends, all of whom are enslaved to the victor, is not to be described, rendered more appalling by the yells and rejoicing of the cannibals. 110 Similar enormities have been practised by every savage people, previously to the dawning of civilization. The atrocities that were committed by the negroes in the West Indies, between the French and English in North America, the former and the Spaniards in Spain, and existing cruelties in the present civil war, and in parts of disorganized Ireland, shows that human nature, unrestrained by wholesome laws, is the same in every clime. 111

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END OF VOL. I.

E. VARTY, Printer, 27, Camomile Street.

107A curse was accounted of dire import among the ancient nations: thus we find that Abraham prevented his son Isaac from wedding with a woman of Canaan, among whom they resided, because Canaan, the father of the land, had been cursed for misconduct. (Gen. c.9, v.25.) Balak also observes (Gen. c.22, v.6.) in his message to Balaam, "for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed." Goliath, who bore no considerable affection for David, said "Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?" and the Philistine cursed David by his gods. (1 Sam. c.17, v.43.) David reaped curses elsewhere, as Shimei, the son of Gera, cursed him as he was passing by with his warriors. (2 Sam. c.16, vv.7.13.) His maledictions appear to have been too grievous for forgiveness, as David charged his son Solomon "his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood," (1 Kings, c.2, v.9).

108Oaths are coeval with the earliest pledges of mutual intercourse. Abraham and Abimelech made an oath of future amity. (Gen. c.21, v.23.) The method of placing the hand under the thigh, we find practised with the patriarch by the eldest servant of his house. (Gen. c.24, v.1-9.) The herdsmen of Gerar, swear to friendship with Isaac at Rehoboth. (Ibid c.27, v.28-31.) In lieu of oaths, a witness was called in, or the erection of an altar substituted in place thereof. Such a pillar was erected by Jacob and Laban. (Ibid. c.31, v.54.) Jacob had previously erected a similar pillar, of the stones of which he made a pillow, "and vowed a vow." (Ibid c.29, v.18.) But we will not further multiply examples.
The ancients regarded the raising of an altar, as indispensable in a public solemn engagement or oath, and calling on the name of the most high God. Altars and oaths we observe linked in the works of Homer, Virgil, Polybius; as also is fully detailed in Hooke's Roman History , Crevier's Reigns of the Emperors , Kennett's Romae Antiquae Notitia , and Davies's Histories of the Celts and Druids . On vows, see Numb. c.30.

109Sacrifices are among the most ancient rites of idolatrous worship. The statue of the celebrated Moloch (Livit. c.18, v.21.) was a statue of hollow brass, resembling the bull of the monster Phalaris. The shoulders of Moloch were surmounted with a bull's-head, the arms of the horrid figure were stretched out in a receiving position. The sacrifices were performed by the gigantic statue being heated red, when children were placed by the priests into the deep hollow hands; drums and loud instruments drowning the shrieking voices of the sufferers. The children of Israel were again enjoined (Deut. c.18, v.10.) not to let any of their "seed pass through the fire to Moloch," as being "an abomination to the Lord;" yet tainted with the universal customs of the nations around them, it appears, (Jerem. c.7, v.31,) they disregarded the commandment alike repugnant to their merciful Creator, and the ties of human nature. These awful rites generally took place when public danger was at hand, and even private sickness. Thus "when the king of Moab (2 Kings, c.12, v.31.) saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him" for a burnt offering upon the wall, in sight of the army assembled. Among the heathen kings it was customary to sacrifice their children to perpetuate their own lives. The Northmen, (comprising Danes, Swedes, Norwegians,) sacrificed their children to Wodin or Thor. One king sacrificed no less than nine of his sons to preserve his own worthless life: this affectionate parent discovered at last that he had laboured under a great mistake, as Wodin eventually proved himself unappeased. (Deut. c.12, v.31.) makes mention of these practices. (1 Kings, c.8, v.63.) mentions similar doings on the part of the Canaanites. The Peruvians when sick also sacrificed their children to the Sun, (the object of their worship.) The Greeks, Phenicians, and Latins, burnt human sacrifices; and Saturn, the father of the gods, is represented as having dined and supped on his children. The Egyptians had certain cities, where foreigners and fair-haired people were sacrificed (supposed Albinos) in public, to propitiate Anubis and Apis. The blood and ashes were sprinkled on the populace, each person accounting it a blessing when any portion fell on them. In Micah, (c.6, v.7.) it is demanded, "Shall I give my first-born for my transgression?" Abraham obeyed the voice of God in taking Isaac to sacrifice, it being the custom of his ancestors the Chaldeans, and his agony must have been less dreadful from example. In many parts of India, it is not uncommon to sacrifice infants in this manner. The monster Juggernaut is well known. Formerly several families vied in giving up living souls for sacrifice. The olden Danes and Germans, invariably sacrificed twelve human victims on one day, as feasts for each of the months (twelve moons).

110That cannibalism is not confined to the New Zealanders the following extract of a letter published in Galignani's Messenger will show. "At Montevideo (South America,) General Rosas gave a dinner (in August last,) at his country house at Palermi, when the head of the unfortunate Cullen and the reins of General Astruda, late Governor of Corrientes, were served up with the repast. – Morning Post, Nov.13, 1839.

111We purpose omitting the horrible deeds of cannibalism that have (during nearly a seven years' residence) come to our knowledge. Such atrocities are too revolting. It is decidedly a practice of most ancient date. At the famine in the days of Elisha, the women even devoured their children – 2 Kings vi.29. All of the South Sea Islanders delighted in revelling in human flesh, and among those people the excuse of famine could not be entertained. Mr. Bourne, a member of the London Missionary Society, was an eye-witness in several islands (in 1825) to this enormity. He says this horrid cruelty is practised towards those who in civilized communities are objects of the most endearing affection. The husband has preyed upon the body of his wife, and the parent upon the child, in a most revolting manner without previous preparation. For the most horrid details, to which even Sir John Barrow himself must become a convert, we refer the reader to the Evidence of the Church and Wesleyan Missionaries, extracts from whose correspondence were laid before the Select Committee for the Colonization of New Zealand in May, 1838. See also the writings of Drs. Spry, Harrison, Leyden, and Forster; Captains Cook, King, Croget, Singleton, D'Entrecasteaux, Bougainville, Duperry, D'Urville, La Place, Kotzebue, Krusenstern, Porter, Carteret, Wilson, Mendana, Lemaire, Drury, Rochon, Crawfurd, Artis, Raffles, etc.

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