1840 - Polack, J. S. Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders [Vol. I.] [Capper reprint, 1976] - Chapter XI

       
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  1840 - Polack, J. S. Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders [Vol. I.] [Capper reprint, 1976] - Chapter XI
 
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[Chapter XI]

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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.

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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-

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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.

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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.

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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, 1 at the

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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

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(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, 2 with

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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." 3

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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. 4 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

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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.

1  It 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.
2   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.
3  According 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.
4  Embalming 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.
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