CHAPTER IV
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CHAPTER IV.
The Food of the Natives---their Clothing--their Dances--Witchcraft--Modes of Burial--Ideas regarding the Soul.
I have already mentioned what the prevailing food of the natives was before the Europeans introduced maize and potatoes, and still is in many parts. As there are, however, many curious circumstances connected with this subject, a few remarks may be interesting. A New Zealander has two meals a day, one in the forenoon and one just before sunset. Generally the female slaves or the elder women prepare the food, each family for themselves, or sometimes several together. The native oven, hangi or kohua, made in the well-known manner with heated stones, is situated either in the open air or in a house (te-kauta) constructed of logs at a small distance from each other, so that the smoke may escape. The fire-wood must be taken from the bush: all parts of old houses, canoes, fences, &c, are strictly forbidden (tapu). Before the meal is cooked baskets of sedge or flax are made, in which the different parties receive their share. Generally the men and women sit apart from each other; the tau-
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FOOD.
reka-reka, or slaves, retain their share, and sit by themselves. The food must be consumed in the open air; the dwelling-house is "tapu." Formerly pipis, or cockles, formed a great part of their food, and were obtained in large quantities on the ebb of the tide. Fish are used, either fresh or dried in the sun. They are caught with the seine, or with a navicular (canoe-shaped) piece of wood, lined on one side with a thin plate of the pawa-shell (Haliotis), in imitation of a fish, and with a hook formed from a piece of human bone, or the whole hook is formed out of human bone; this is used without bait, and is towed at the stern of a canoe. The use of human bones for this purpose was meant to convey an insult and a defiance to a hostile tribe, as only the bones of enemies killed in battle are thus used. As a fly, a feather of the apterix is highly esteemed.
The half-fossilized bones of the moa, a bird belonging probably to the Struthious order, but now extinct, were selected for their hardness, in absence of the larger and stronger bones of quadrupeds. Flatfish and rays are transfixed with wooden spears in the shallow bays; fish of the genera Scomber, Trigla, Serranus, Sparus, Balistes, Labrus, and Conger, are caught either with the seine or with hooks; a Myxene with the hand; and four kinds of fresh-water eels by baiting a very skilfully-constructed funnel-shaped basket of wicker-work (pukoro-tuna). A species of shark which at Midsummer--that is, at Christmas--visits in countless
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FISHING.
numbers the coasts and its inlets, is held in high estimation; it is eaten dried. In size the seines (kupenga) used by the natives rival our largest, and are made of unprepared flax exactly in the same way and form as ours are. Large salt-water crawfish are caught by diving, in which art the women are very expert; fresh-water crawfish, which are common in the inland lakes and rivulets, are taken with bait. Birds are generally decoyed by imitating their voices, or by a decoy-bird; the latter is the mode used to catch the kaka, or the Nestor australis. A native concealed in the forest by a cover made of branches has a long rod in his hands, which reaches to a neighbouring tree: near him sits the decoy-bird, whose cries attract the wild ones, which deliberately walk down the rod, and are caught one after the other in quick succession. Tuis, or mocking-birds, are decoyed by imitating their notes; formerly pigeons were speared, but at present the gun is generally used. In former times the birds called kiwis (Apterix australis), and kakapos (Centropus?), formed part of the food of the natives, but now these birds have become nearly extinct in the northern island. The kiore maori, or native rat, and the guana, were once favourite dishes, but they have met with the same fate: the native dog was formerly considered a dainty, and great numbers of them were eaten; but the breed paving undergone an almost complete mixture with the European, their use as an article of food has
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FOOD.
been discontinued, as the European dogs are said by the natives to be perfectly unpalatable. The New Zealand dog is different from the Australian dingo; the latter resembles in size and shape the wolf, while the former rather resembles the jackall; its colour is reddish-brown, its ears long and straight. The native name is kuri, the general name for the dog amongst the Polynesian race; but it is very curious that the Spanish word "pero" is also known to them.
Among the delicacies at certain seasons may be mentioned the sweet and fleshy bracteae of the Freycinetia Banksii; they also occasionally eat the farinaceous root of some terrestrial Orchideae, as the Thelymitra Forsteri, the Orthoceras strictum, Microtis Banksii; nor do they disdain the fat grub of some coleopterous insect which they find in rotten trees.
The korau, or mamako, the pulpous stem of a tree-fern (the Cyathea medullaris), is an excellent vegetable, which is in season about Christmas; it is prepared by being cooked during a whole night in a native oven. The heart of the cabbage-palm (Areca sapida), which grows in the gloomy forest in hilly situations, is eaten raw. The koroi, or the berries of the kahikatea-pine, are a wholesome aromatic fruit. The fern-root (Pteris esculenta) is still frequently eaten, being previously roasted and beaten, but its use is rapidly decreasing.
With the exception of the taro (Arum esculentum, or Caladium esculentum), and the dog, which,
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THE SWEET POTATO.
according to their traditions, their forefathers brought with them when they first came to the country, all these animals and vegetables were nga mea tawito (old things, indigenous things). A change took place in their food by the introduction of the sweet potato, kumara (Convolvulus batata)--an introduction which is gratefully remembered and recorded in many of their songs, and has given rise to solemn religious observances. It may be asked, what was the period when the poor natives received the gift of this wholesome food, and who was their benefactor? On the first point they know nothing; their recollection attaches itself to events, but not to time: the name, however, of the donor lives in their memory. It is E Pani, or Ko Pani, the wife of E Tiki, who brought the first seeds from the island of Tawai. E Tiki was a native of the island of Tawai, which is not that whence, according to tradition, the ancestors of the New Zealanders had come. He came to New Zealand with his wife: whether in less frail vessels than they possess at present, and whether purposely or driven there by accident, tradition is silent. He was well received, but soon perceived that food was more scanty here than in the happy isle whence he came: he wished to confer a benefit upon his hosts, but knew not how to do it, until his wife, E Pani, offered to go back and fetch kumara, that the people who had received them kindly might not suffer want any longer. This she accomplished, and returned in safety to the shores of New Zealand.
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THE SWEET POTATO.
What a tale of heroism may lie hidden under this simple tradition! Is it a tale connected with the Polynesian race itself, or does it not rather refer to the arrival in New Zealand of the early Spanish navigators, who may have brought this valuable product from the island of Tawai, one of the Sandwich Islands, where the plant is still most extensively cultivated? There can be scarcely any doubt but that New Zealand was visited by some people antecedent to Tasman. Kaipuke is the name for ship in New Zealand. Buque is a Spanish word. Kai means, to eat, live, men. No other Polynesian nation has this word to designate a ship. Pero (dog) and poaca (pig) are also Spanish. Tawai, whence E Pani brought the kumara, is situated to the east of New Zealand according to tradition; and the first discoverers in the great ocean, Alvaro Mendana (1595), Quiros (1608), Lemaire, and others, arrived from the eastward, as they did at Tahiti, according to the tradition of the inhabitants. Tasman did not come to New Zealand until 1642.
However this may be, the fields of kumara are strictly "tapu," and any theft from them is severely punished. The women who are engaged in their cultivation are also "tapu," They must pray, together with the priests, for the success of the harvest. These women are never allowed to join the cannibal feasts; and it is only after the kumara is dug up that they are released from the strict observances of the "tapu." They believe that kumara is the food
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PIGS.
consumed in the "reinga," the dwelling-place of departed spirits, and it is certainly the food most esteemed among the living.
They have several ways of preparing the sweet potato: it is either simply boiled, or dried slowly in a "hangi," when it has the taste of dates, or ground to powder, and baked into cakes.
The calabashes (hue) were, according to their traditions, the next addition to their stock of eatables. The first, from which they received the seeds, was carried by a whale, which threw it on to the shore.
All the other articles of food were introduced by Europeans, --by Captain Cook and those who followed him. Captain King, when, at the end of the last century, he brought back the two natives who had been taken, away by force to teach the settlers in Norfolk Island the mode of dressing flax, landed at the north end of the island, and there introduced maize, and gave the natives three pigs, which, however, were mistaken by them for horses, they having some vague recollection of those which they had seen on board Captain Cook's vessels. They forthwith rode two of them to death; and the third was killed for having entered a burying-ground. A very old man, who had known Captain King, related this singular story to me. Pigs have only of late been generally introduced into many parts of the country; and in some places where tribes have been broken up they are found wild in large numbers. The native name is poaka; and although English
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PIGS
men think this word to be their own "pork," with a native termination (porka), I am doubtful whether the New Zealanders had not some knowledge of this animal previous to its introduction by us. In the languages of the islands in the Southern Ocean the name of the pig is bua, buacca, buaha, and pua; and it was certainly known in those places before the arrival of the English. The New Zealand pigs are a peculiar breed, with short heads and legs and compact bodies.
Water is the common drink of the New Zealanders. They sometimes press out the juice from the drupes of the tupakihi (Coriaria sarmentosa), which is called tutu, and which they drink unfermented. The seeds of these berries form a very active acrid poison, and produce, when swallowed by accident, violent spasmodic affections and inflammations of the nerves.
Food and everything connected with it being the most important objects in a native's life, we cannot feel astonished that they should be so intimately connected with his religious ideas, and that we should find traces of a sacrifice to the Supreme Being of a part of the produce of the soil or of the chase. To have known these customs more accurately, before they fell into disuse, would have been very interesting: now they have nearly disappeared.
The following is an incantation which was uttered at the offering of a pigeon: --
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INCANTATIONS.
He karakia mo te kuku kia ma ai te hinu kia nui ai tahuna ki te kapura ko te karakia tenei.
Ka tahuna ka tahuna te ahi tapu e Tiki ka ka i te ata tapu e homai e homai e Tiki e hinu e ka ki koe he wai kuku ka ki koe he wai ruru ka ki koe he wai kaka ka ki koe he wai pitoitoi ka ki koe he wai piraka raka ka ki koe he wai tuna ko te puna i wea ko te puna i rangi riri homai kia ringia.
Literal Translation.
A Prayer, that the Pigeon may he pure, that it may be very fat: when the fire burns the prayer is said.
When (it) is lighted, when (it) is lighted the sacred fire, oh Tiki! when it burns on the sacred morning: oh give, oh give, oh Tiki, the fat: it burns for thee, the fat of the pigeon; for thee, the fat of the owl; for thee, the fat of the parrot; for thee, the fat of the flycatcher; for thee, the fat of the thrush: a water of eels: where is its spring? the spring is in heaven: sprinkle, give! be it poured out.
A prayer regarding the native rat is as follows: --
He karakia kiore maori.
Kia haeremai ai ki te poka kia mate ai Taumaha kirunga, taumaha kiraro ki taku matua wahine i ki ai taku kiore ma te reke taumaha taumaha Etaka te po e taka ki tu hua e taka te ao e taka ki karewa i tutu ai he kiore.
That connected with the calabash is--
He karakia hue kia hua ai.
A Prayer that the Calabash may be fruitful.
He aha taku takano he turu taku kakano he rakau nui taku kakano moe mai ra taku tokoto mai ra koutou koa u Tamariki hua kiwi huahua moho te homai te ringia ki te kawekawe o pu te hue.
In their dealings with Europeans they are eager for everything the latter consume, with the exception of spiced and acrid articles: they have an aversion also to distilled spirits. With some, however,
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MAT CLOTHING.
who live continually with Europeans, the drinking of spirits has already become a habit, but it is not as yet very general. Our bread is a much-desired article with them, and in the European settlements the baker receives the greatest part of their earnings. It is well known that the custom of drinking kawa, the juice of the root of Piper methisticum, prevails in many of the South-Sea Islands. The real Piper methisticum does not grow in New Zealand, but a cognate species, the Piper excelsum, which also bears the name of kawa, but is not used to prepare a drink.
All their clothing was formerly made of the Phormium tenax. The mode of manufacturing it is very simple, and consists merely in intertwining perpendicular threads with others extended horizontally. The beauty and durability of these mats are well known, but making the most common one occupies a woman full six months, and one of the best requires a much longer time. They are of different descriptions.
E kaitaka is made of the finest flax: it is white and silk-like, with a strong black border, beautifully worked with angular designs in red, very much resembling some of the drawings on Mexican tombs. These mats are worn at festivals, and form the principal article of presents. When dyed black they are called waihinau. These are very beautiful and scarce.
E koroai is a white mat with black strings, and
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VARIETIES OF MATS.
a thick fringe of strings of the same colour. It is generally worn as a toga by the principal men.
E wakaiwa is a white mat, with yellow, or frequently variegated, strings, not twisted, but rolled together, so as to form tubes, which is done by scraping the flax-leaves on one side. They are worn by the women.
E tahea is likewise a woman's mat, with twisted strings, two or three feet long.
E hima is a white mat, with white strings at a distance from each other.
E tatara is a black-stringed mat, with patches or rows of dyed wool, of which substance the natives are very covetous; and many a red comforter or cap has been converted into these ornaments. They have, however, a red vegetable dye of their own. This is the wood and bark of the rimu-pine.
E rapaki is a coarse mat, which the women wear: it covers them from the loins to the knees.
E mangaika is a very thick and large mat, into which black or yellow pieces of flax are closely inserted, and which are impervious to rain. In these the epidermis, which keeps the fibres of the flax-leaves together, is not separated; and where this is the case the mats are called koka.
A good sleeping-mat is called takapau, and resembles our table-covers: an inferior one is called e porera.
Mats are also made from pieces of dog's-skin sewn together. They are then called tahi uru.
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VISITING COSTUME.
I am scarcely able to give any new particulars regarding the preparation of flax. I will only observe that the introduction of blankets has greatly diminished the skill of the natives in preparing it; and that they work very little of that valuable article for the purposes of trade, although a good flax-scraper of either sex can clean as much as ten pounds weight per diem.
If a party of natives are travelling, they dress themselves, just before arriving at their destination, in their best clothes. A wooden comb (heru) is used, in shape remarkably like some I have seen which were brought from North America; the face and hands receive the unusual luxury of being washed; and the head is ornamented with the white feathers of the albatross or gull, or, as a still greater distinction, with the esteemed tail-feathers of the uia (Neomorpha Gouldii). Sometimes the face is painted with a red ochre (kokowai), or a blue ochre (pukipoto). But this painting is used chiefly at certain feasts, at funeral ceremonies, and in their wars. The red ochre is also said to prevent the mosquitoes and sand-flies from tormenting the body. The hair is often greased with shark's oil, or with an oil pressed from the seeds of the titoki (Aledryon excelsum, belonging to the Sapindaceae).
The ears of both sexes are pierced, and this is done at an early age. The native ornaments worn in the ears are pieces of the ponamu (nephrite, or oriental jade), which are called e tara; the mako taniwa, or
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NEGLECT OF FLOWERS.
teeth of the tiger-shark, which are very much esteemed; or a tooth of a deceased husband. Sometimes the opening receives the purple flower of several kinds of Metrosideros, or Clematis, or the favourite pipe. Generally speaking the natives take very little delight in flowers, which they regard as useless, and seldom use them as ornaments. They wonder how Europeans can bestow such trouble on Flora's children, being, as they say, useless for food.
Around the neck both sexes generally wear a figure cut out of jade. This they call E'Tiki: it has an enormous head, very large eyes, and monstrous and disproportionate arms and legs. It is not in any way regarded as an idol, although the value they attach to it seems to be connected with some ancient genealogical traditions, as E'Tiki is also the name of one of their great ancestors. Generally I found that they considered these figures as heirlooms in a family, but, where no such hereditary value was attached, they readily parted with them. This seems the real nature of these E'Tikis, which we find in many of the Polynesian islands under the same name, and which were considered as emblems of their religion, as they certainly are in one sense, if we take their great veneration for the memory of their ancestors as constituting part of their religion. The colossal busts of Easter Island, the grotesque statues of the Sandwich and Figi Islands, are the same as the wooden carvings over a New
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DRESSING THE HAIR.
Zealander's house, or on his sepulchral monuments --all are Tikis (E' is the article).
Men for the most part either have their hair cut periodically, or wear it long and tied up on the crown of the head; girls let it fall over the forehead (which they do not like to have uncovered), and crop it in a straight line about an inch above the eyebrows. Married women sometimes wear it loose and flowing; sometimes they tie it up in different shapes, according to the fashion, which is as changeable in this respect as with us. Young girls and boys always wear it short.
The hair on the head of a chief is a very sacred object, and the operation of cutting it is accompanied with certain customs connected with the "Tapu."
The New Zealander would have a tolerably strong beard if he did not eradicate it as soon as it appears. This is done with a cockleshell; but the custom is not universal, and men are sometimes seen with large beards. Generally speaking, their legs, chest, and arms are less covered with hair than is the case with Europeans, and it causes them great astonishment to see the hairy thorax of the white man.
Dances and songs are very common; the latter are generally accompanied with mimicry. A war is commenced and concluded with a dance, in which the features are in various ways contorted. They have a game with four balls, exactly like that of the Indian jugglers, and they accompany it with a song.
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DANCES AND SONGS.
Another game is with one ball (poi) suspended from a string. Some songs are erotic or lyric, and are sung to a low, plaintive, uniform, but not at all disagreeable tune. A great many of their songs are licentious. In paddling, they stimulate each other to exertion by a song; one man, standing at the head or in the hull of the canoe, sings a strophe, and the rest join in chorus. E'Waiata is a song of a joyful nature; E'Haka, one accompanied by gestures or mimics; E'Karakia is a prayer or an incantation, used on certain occasions, --and in saying this there is generally no modulation of the voice, but syllables are lengthened and shortened, and it produces the same effect as the reading of the Talmud in synagogues. Most of these songs live in the memory of all, but with numerous variations; certain karakia, or invocations, however, are less generally known, and a stranger obtains them with difficulty, as they are only handed down amongst the tohunga, or priests, from father to son. To adapt words to a certain tune, and thus to commemorate a passing event, is common in New Zealand, and has been the beginning of all national poetry. Many of these children of the moment have a long existence, and are transmitted through several generations; but then their allusions become unintelligible, and foreign names, having undergone a thorough change, cannot be recognised.
The only musical instrument possessed by the natives is a flute (E'Wiu, or Poretu) with four
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DISEASES ATTRIBUTED
holes, made of wood: the airs produced on it are plaintive, but little modulated.
The game of draughts is very common, and is called E'Mu: although not played for gambling purposes, it often gives rise to quarrels. It is sometimes played differently from our game, but I am not quite sure that it was not introduced by Europeans.
The New Zealander is not over-clean in his person, but he is very particular respecting his food; and his dwelling also is kept in as much order as possible. The introduction of blankets and all sorts of ragged European clothing, accompanied with the parasitical flea, which, according to native accounts, only appeared with the Europeans, has not improved his sense of propriety or his general appearance. The rigour of the climate and the want of soap are the principal causes of this, as the natives do not cease washing and cleaning themselves when they have plenty of that invaluable article, or when the vanity of the females is in any way concerned.
Diseases are generally ascribed to the action of a spirit (E'Atua), as a punishment for eating food or doing anything that is "tapu," or forbidden: in many cases they are believed to originate in witchcraft (Makuta). The latter belief is deeply rooted, and even the Christianized natives cannot divest themselves of it. Bewitching is done by digging a hole, and invoking the spirit of him whom they want to have destroyed, which appears above the hole as
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TO WITCHCRAFT.
a light, when a curse is pronounced over it; or during the night they go to the side of the river, and call on the spirit, which appears on the other bank. There is a district in the northern island, situated between Taupo and Hawke's Bay, called Urewera, consisting of steep and barren hills: the scattered inhabitants of this region have the renown of being the greatest witches in the country. They are very much feared, and have little connection with the neighbouring tribes, who avoid them if possible. If they come to the coast, the natives there scarcely venture to refuse them anything, for fear of incurring their displeasure. They are said to use the saliva of the people whom they intend to bewitch; and visitors carefully conceal their spittle, to give them no opportunity of working their evil. Like our witches and sorcerers of old, they appear to be a very harmless people, and but little mixed up with the quarrels of their neighbours. It is a curious fact that many of the old settlers in the country have become complete converts to the belief in these supernatural powers.
Witchcraft has been the cause of many murders; a few days before I arrived at Aotea, on the western coast, three had been committed in consequence of people declaring on their death-bed that they had been bewitched. The police magistrate, Captain Symonds, remonstrated with them on the absurdity of such proceedings, and obtained the promise of the
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REMEDIES FOR DISEASES.
chief that in future he would deliver up to justice all who committed these murders. It is a curious fact, which has been noticed in Tahiti, Hawaii, and other islands inhabited by the great Polynesian race, that their first intercourse with Europeans produces civil wars and social degradation; but that a change of ideas is quickly introduced, and that the most ancient and deeply-rooted prejudices soon become a subject of ridicule to the natives, and are abolished at once. The grey priest, or tohunga, deeply versed in all the mysteries of witchcraft and native medical treatment, gives way in his attendance on the sick to every European who pretends to a knowledge of the science of surgery or medicine, and derides the former credulity of his patient. As the diseases are generally ascribed to psychical causes, they are treated by means of prayers, not however without some attendance on the body. If a chief or his wife falls sick, the most influential tohunga, or a woman who has "the odour of sanctity," attends, and continues day and night with the patient, sometimes repeating incantations over him, sometimes sitting before the house and praying. The following is an incantation which is said by the priest as a cure for headache. He pulls out two stalks of the Pteris esculenta, from which the fibres of the root must be removed, and, beating them together over the head of the patient, sings this chant: --
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PRAYERS FOR THE SICK.
He Karakia tupapaku, ka ngau tona matenga e te atua ka karakiatia tenei ka kakia kia ia ki oraia.
Literally--A Prayer for the Dead (Sick) when his Head aches; to Atua this Prayer is prayed, that he (the sick) may become well.
Ko matataia ko matapo i tako mata wea wea mai wea te rakaua te Atua i taka mairunga te rakaua te Atua i ta Kamai raro te kuruki te niho o te tupua kuruki te niho o te tawitu ka ti ngau kati te ngau kati ko karakiaanga tupuna a nga wananga ko akuo tenei tauira.
The following is another incantation, in which there occurs an invocation to Tiki and Pani to restore the patient to health: --
Ta wiwi ta manawa ko taku manato manawa ko taku manawa heki te manawa irunga ia tawaki hoki iho te manawa i e puta ihu hoki iho kia ora tenei tangata E Tiki e Pani kia ora tenei tangata ka hoki mai tena manawa kawaia.
At the same time the relations make their appearance in or near the house, and show their grief by weeping, in which the patient joins. Frequently the latter is carried to another house or to a neighbouring village, to have the continual benefit of these lamentations. But, what is more efficient, they provide the sick with better and more easily digestible food than usual -- with cockles, fresh fishes, decoction of fishes, Sonchus oleraceus, or a Solanum, birds, and so on. Men or women of an inferior class, if they become diseased, often go to the bush, and return when they are well again; whilst there they chiefly employ the steam rising from herbs infused in boiling water. If there are hot-springs in the neighbourhood, they are very
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MOURNING.
much used, and with admirable effect. The natives are better surgeons than physicians; limbs shattered by a ball, or otherwise broken, I have seen carefully set, laid upon pillows, kept clean, and the pressure of clothes and the contact of the air kept off by a wicker-work contrivance. Abscesses are opened with a knife or a shell; indurated lymphatic glands on the neck are fearlessly cut out with a razor or a common knife. Their practice of cutting up and devouring their enemies has made them pretty well acquainted with the general structure of the body: they also know very well how to detail the symptoms of a disease, although they are unacquainted with the internal functions of the human body.
When death occurs, general lamentations take place amongst the nearest relations (e tangi), who make deep incisions in their own bodies with broken pieces of shells. The mourners either stand in an upright posture, throwing their arms backwards, and keeping them in a trembling motion; or they squat down, enveloping their heads in the mats. These violent expressions of affection, the streaming-tears, and this unbounded show of grief at the decease of the renowned warrior, or of a friend or relation, have something poetical and striking in their primitive simplicity. The old bedaub themselves with red pigment, and cover their heads with wreaths of green leaves. The house in which the death took place becomes "tapu" until the period of the cleaning and ultimate burial of the bones,
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TREATMENT OF THE DEAD.
which is not at any fixed time, but generally takes place during the first year, when the flesh is sufficiently decomposed. All the clothes and utensils of the deceased are either left in the house which he inhabited or are buried with him. The body is placed in a sort of canoe-shaped coffin among the foliage of a tree in a grove, where it remains for several months. It is then taken down; the bones are washed and cleaned, and finally deposited in a small covered box, which is sometimes carved, and resembles a canoe; it is elevated aboveground, on a column standing in the village, in the neighbourhood of the houses of the surviving relations. Sometimes the bones are placed in a hollow tree in some secret spot of the wood, or in a limestone cavern, of which there are many in the island, or in some chasm of the rocks difficult of access. If the man was of great consequence, such as an ariki, or hereditary chief, a mausoleum of exquisite carved-work is erected in the centre of the village, into which the body is brought in a sitting posture, dressed in the best mats of the deceased, and ornamented with feathers. The human figures on the monument are generally meant to represent him in whose memory it is erected, his wife, children, and ancestors; and all the figures are designated with their names. The putting forth the tongue to an enormous extent in these carvings is the symbol of valour, courage, and defiance, and is found in almost all the native sculptures.
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MAUSOLEUMS.
Another characteristic of these carvings is evidently symbolical of the vis genitrix of the male or female originals, and they are intended also to celebrate the prowess and resources of a tribe. We can trace these emblematic meanings in the carvings throughout Polynesia and the Indian Archipelago, and even in India itself; and they are evidently among the most ancient and primitive symbolical representations, and gave rise to solemn ordinances in the religions of ancient Greece and Rome. When buried in a mausoleum, either the body is left to slow decay, emitting a horrible smell through the village, or an after-visitation takes place, at which the tohunga sings the funeral ode, or pihe, modified according to the circumstances of the death, whether in battle or by disease; 1 and he
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SACRED PLACES.
afterwards removes the bones to a place in the forest, often known only to himself. It would appear that not only the clothing, but also the ornaments, implements of Avar and fishing, and so forth, are deposited with the dead: at least, in examining some old coffins which were suspended on trees, I found fish-hooks (made of human bones, perhaps of those of a conquered enemy), and some battle-axes of Lydian stone. All these places, wahi-tapu (sacred places), as they are called generally, or papa tupapakau (a coffin for the corpse), if it is a monument, are strictly sacred; and many a strife has arisen between Europeans and natives, from the
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THE SOUL AND THE
former disregarding this feeling. In the centre of the island, at Taupo, I found that a custom exists-- and I conclude that it has existed throughout the island--of cutting off the heads not only of their enemies, to prepare and preserve them, but also of their friends and relations, for the purpose of keeping them to lament over from time to time. At all funeral ceremonies the old women are generally the most violent in their grief; and some are so energetic in their "tangi," that their bodies are entirely covered with deep scars, from the incisions which they make with their broken shells, and their eyes become inflamed from an excess of crying. Man, according to the notions of the natives, is endowed with an immortal, incorporeal spirit (wairua), which at his death departs from the body, and goes, as a falling star, to the reinga, or nether world, the entrance to which is down the face of a rocky cliff at the Cape Maria van Diemen. An ancient pohutukaua-tree (Metrosideros tomentosa) stands there, upon the branches of which the spirit descends. The natives hold this place in great awe and veneration; and even Christian natives who accompanied me would not go near it. But the spell has been partially broken by a missionary cutting off the branch on which the spirit was supposed to alight. In the interior the natives still adhere to their ancient notions. The reinga is the common dwelling-place of the spirits, but it is not the only one. Before the spirit of an ariki, or hereditary
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WORLD OF SPIRITS.
chief, descends into it, it goes into Heaven (Taki-wana); there his left eye remains, and becomes a star. In the reinga the spirits live as men do on earth; but they can leave it, and influence the actions and the fate of those who are alive, communicating with them through the medium of the tohunga, who hears them. Their voice has a whistling sound, which others besides the tohunga sometimes perceive, when they walk out in the dark. If travellers come into the neighbourhood of the reinga, they throw down a piece of fern, or of the nikau-palm (Areca), to let the spirits know whether the wanderers are inhabitants of the open land or of the forest. The wairua often speak in dreams to the priest or to the ariki, who announces their communications in the morning, and these often lead to important resolutions. The belief in dreams is universal, and the commands given in that way are implicitly obeyed, and often influence their most important actions.
