CHAPTER XXI.
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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
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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, 1 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
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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
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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
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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, 2
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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-
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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-
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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. 3
