NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 586, 14 August 1909, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

In his interesting lecture on Thursday evening on ancient. Maori life,.Me. [k. Hamilton, Director of the Dominion Musoum, stated that the great principle of'l tapu among • tho Maoris . corresponded largely ,to tiie police' departments of' civil-.; •ifced countries. He;; also contended,. and not without reason, that , the ancieat. Maori should not bo described'as a more'' savage. But do not the great authorities on tne subject tell us that the existence of the system of tapu among- a people indicates the very lowest form, of human development 1 Tarn, or taboo, is of course not confined- to tne Natives'' of New Zealand; it is very widespread among savage races,' It is the automatip administration of justice, in which there is no conscious deliberate action. "In quite tho lowest stage of social, development," states a recent authorityi "it is by means of tho' acj tion of taboo that . summary , and automatic' punishmonfc for brijaches of the eus? torn ot the community.js inllicfcod. 'Its action is. automatic -and immediate: merely to come in contact with the forbidden thing is to become' tabooed your-i self; and Si> great is tho Horror',and dread of that contact, even, if ;maide unwittingly, l that- it;is' capable of .causing death." It does not'always result in death, but it makes the offender taboo, and as infectir. bus as the'thing that rendered him taboo. This is not justice, for justice' even'inits earliest stages implies conscious, ' deliberate action on the part of the community, which' involves some soft of .inquiry'; but it is merely the'forerunner! of justice. Still it .implies some degree of social consciousness- for taboo - means tho- excommunication of the offender lest tho community as a whole be infected. ' In , this way tne offender against the community is just as effectively punished as in. a more advanced stage of social, development, though no formal sentence' l is pronounced and •no reason .is , given—the thing is sijnply offensive to the_ community. Looking.back over the of mankind we can now often'- see reasons why cortain things should bo forbidden, but at the outset of society these reasons.! wore in all probability hot- ' consciously present to the mind df primitive man.The whole history of taboo is of tho deep-, ost interest, and though its presence is, as already: stated, generally associated. with the very lowest stage ol human deyelop : , ment, it may in the 'case of, the -Maori ra,ce have continued to exist side by sidd with a much higher state of culture than m the case of the majority of uncivilised, peoples'.

The presence in Wellington of a wellknown spirit medium from Australia suggests some, interesting thoughts. ' Many people imagine that in the phenomena of what is called modern spiritualism thdrc is something really nflw—something quite peculiar to our/own times; but as a matter of fadt spirit mediums flourished in, the Eoman Empire soma eighteen hundred years ago._ So marvellous have been the scientific discoveries and inventions of, the. last hundred yearß that we are apt to exaggerate the width of the gulf which separates us from ouf forefathers, and we are inclined to look down with disdainful pity on' the ages before the Victorian era as though they were times of benighted ignorance and superstition which,we have! 'left far behind. Proud in our knowledge i that we are the heirs of all the ages, we often overlook'the fact that our chief in- : heritance is a.'human nature which changes very little! in its, fundamental elements. Beneath the surface we are very like our forefathers, in spite of our airships and- Dreadnoughts, and the veneer of universal education. The late Professob Bigg, 6f. Oxford, in one of his graphic descriptions ; of life under the Roman Empire,' mentions a famous medium who lived at tho end of the second century,, and- who rejoiced in the name of Alexander of Abonoteiohos. .Whatever the modorn adept can do, his ancient counterpart could do just as well, if not better. He 'could give .demonstration's of ■ telepathy,' floating in the air, tablo-rapping, writing on, locked slates, and clairvoyance. In ; thofee as in thesej there existed a kind of Society of Psychical Research. These occult matters woro investigated by Luoian and. Celsus, and they arrived at the conclusion-that the phenomena were produced by imposition ; but neither ridicule nor -'.exposure could kill the movement, and Alexander was worshipped as a god after his death. Spiritualism was patronised and fostered by the rising . school of Neoplatonism, which numbered among its adherents many acute thinners and . accomplished men of scionce. At the present day these phenomena, aro again roceiving .a good deal of curious attontion, and'somo people stiy wo ave on the vergo of a great discovery. So, too, thought the devotees of the occult in the days of Imperial Home, and it is doubtful if we really know any more about the mattor-than the contomporftxioa of A'- Rv . ,m "" L cur Asokowciuqs.