WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 55, 29 November 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

That the ancient Maori was a pioneer of intellectual thought, the orignator of the theory of evolution, anc the builder of the Pyramids of EgPY- 1S , a portion of the startling revelatnus in Miss Ettie Rout’s remarkable bo>k on “Maori Symbolism.” On Saturdly we described briefly the newly re’ealed tradition as to how the Maori rached New Zealand by a western route from bis original home in Assyria. Until Mr. Hohepa te Rake had disclose! this tradition to Miss Rout, Maori etluologists were totally unaware of its existence. This, as we shall see, is not n the least surprising.

“In ancient days,” states A'r. Te Rake, “it would have been a erme to publish the Sacred Knowledge my race, and for such an offence s chief would have been stripped of noble rank.” This Sacred Knowledge, it appears, has in the past been kept rigidly secret from the pakelia All that our so-called Maori historiais and ethnologists have gleaned of Maori tradition, Mr. Te Rake assures us, is a mere vulgar mix-up as known to the ignorant and common Maori foil. The true Maori learning of the Nobbs lias never before been revealed to the white man until Mr. Te Rake, in oritr to show that the Maori is not a backward race, decided to waive all precedent and place on record the facts cf ,3aori culture. The Maori was not, as hasbeen supposed, an illiterate race, for it is now disclosed that the spirals and ornamentation used in Maori caving are in reality a system of hieroglyphics with as definite and precise a meming as the hieroglyphics of ancient Ejypt.

Specimens of the Maori Sacred Secret Writing are given in Miss Rout’s piges. They are taken from “wooden ndnotv tablets now in New Zealand,” aid it seems that knowledge of this writpg. is conferred to “certain selected Ghori) scientists.” The carved Maori aiages with protruding tongues are eadt according to the special revelation 'Vouchsafed to-Aliss Rout, complete clapters of history. Miss Rout prints at. illustration showing one of these carved figures, and gives a chapter wilt the learned Mr. Te Rake’s version c what it all means. It is, it seems, i complete biography of one Turei, i great king who conquered the. people c Lake Tatipo. We learn from this arving whose child Turei was, his age ;t marriage, the length of his reign, tit number of his children, his matrimonal history, and the story of the wars of his reign.

Mr. Te Rake’s surprising poser', of reading the hidden meaning of Maori carving was such that Miss Routdirected his attention to illustrations if rock carvings in British Guiana, in which country, according to the Maori Sacred Knowledge, the Arawa tribe had formerly sojourned when on its _ glole-trot-ting expedition from Assyria to New Zealand. Miss Rout was gratiied to find that Mr. Te Rake could read these carvings as easily as he eou'd the Maori carvings. Nobody else, it appears, has ever been able to niak< head or tail of these British Guian:.. rock carvings. So until some other Arawa noble gets up and says they mean something else Mr. Te Rake rul ;i Miss Rout have the field to themselv.s.

The Maori Sacred Legends legarding the building of the Pyramils are very long, and take several hoirs to recite. The Pyramids, Mr. Te Rake avers, were built by the Maoris when in captivity in Egypt, before thy left Assyria for good for “furrin jarts. How these great blocks were pied up one on the other has long pzzled mankind, but Mr. Te Rake eiplams that it was really quite simple. Hia ancestors who did the job carrad up ’sand and “Sacred Earth” in hskets, svphoned up water from the river, and, hev presto, high-class cmcrete blocks o'f anv size desired were urned out on the spot 1 This chapter alone completely justifies the -statemert by Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, h his preface to the book, that if "firther research” supports the views pit forward, they must “inevitably reorganise our present conceptions of the evolution and improvement of mankiid.”

An unfortunate obstacle to the complete acceptance of the views <f Mr. Hohepa Te Rake with regard b the Pyramids is that they don’t hapjen to be made of concrete blocks, bit of limestone and granite blocks, hewn from near-by quarries. Mis’s Rout, without going into those details vhieh seem rather to slight the learniig of her Sage, inserts a “Reporter’s lote’ in small type, saying that the Igend mav refer, possibly, to the Pyramd of Abu Roash. This pyramid, we. find, on looking into the matter, was built by King Dedefre, who came beween Cheops, who built the great Pvamid of Cizeh, and Chephren, who biSt the second pyramid. This note is thfortunate, as it rather takes the git off Air. Te Rake’s gingerbread, vhose narrative appears, obviouslv*, to refer to the two Great Pyramids. The Scribe’s loyalty to the Sage seens, for once, to have wavered slightly.

It is well’known that Charles Tarwm in his voyage round the world n the Beagle spent a few days at the Jay of Islands in New Zealand—the la.t ten days of 1835, to be precise. It las remained for Aliss Ettie Rout to learn from Air. Te Rake that the yemrable Charles pinched from the Maori Jobles his whole theory of evolution which later made such 'a stir in igniran Bntish scientific circles! It sounds a little tall to a layman, but here we have it all solemnly set down in a handsome* volume 21s. nett, issued ty the high-class publishing firm of legan Paul Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., with’ a preface of approval by th< eminent Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, Bart., C. 8., Af.S., etc. If these gaatlemen ’can shut their eyes and epen their mouths and swallow this book, a mere unlearned layman surely ought to be able to/do as much.

Mr. Te Rake says that except to the Maori Nobles the sudden burgeonug of English thought and writing in the nineteenth century lias been hithert: unaccountable. What really happenec was that “certain English writers pickd up Maori ideas and principles, gave than a literary form, and thereby earned a reputation for themselves as philosophers, scientists, thinkers, and so forih." Among these cribbers of Maori iifeas were Samuel Butler (whose “Erewhon" was stolen from Maori Nobles), Buhler Lytton, John Ruskin, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russell Wallace! All of them mangled up what they had managed to get hold of, but “Maori says Mr. Te Rake, “. . . have no heitation in saying that Charles Darwin aid Alfred Russell Wallace were indebtd to Maori lore for their doctrines a evolution by natural selection, sexua. selection, and survival of the fittest

" • *' Miss Rout says “twelve months incessant work” was involved in taking down these truly marvellous legends from the life of Mr. Hohepa te Rake, but sht will be ‘rewarded if she can “counteract the many foolish and disgraceful untruths” at present current about Maori culture. All we can say is that we hope the censor won't deprive the paiple of New Zealand of this latest valtnble addition to the library of highly etlertaining knowledge.