MAORIS REDISCOVERED

Hokitika Guardian, 2 July 1931, Page 2

MAORIS REDISCOVERED

ISLAND IN POLYNESIA

■NEW ZEALAND TYPE EXACTLY (REPRODUCED. (Auckland Star). Tucked away in the great Tuamofu .Archipelago, which lies to the north of Tahiti, and is the largest and least known in Polynesia, are two small’ islands on which are living to-day people who to ail intents and purposes are Maoris. They might have been transported from Rotorua.. Their religion is the same, and but for differences due to position and climate, they speak the same tongue. This survival of the great exodus front Tahiti in the 13th century has been discovered by the expedition led by Mr K. P. ■ Emory,, an ethnologist attached to the ’Bishop Museum, Honolulu, which has just completed two and a half years in the archipelago, and arrived in Auckland. His party had their own little yacht, which they built for the purpose, and in thirty mouths they covered 5,000 miles. To use his expression, they “just pottered about.” One of the islands on which these “Maoris’’ were living was called Vahitahi, he said, and is 500' miles east of Tahiti, Thu one on which lie did most of Ids work was four miles long by one and tt half miles wide, and lmd only 100 people. Incidentally, Vahitufii was tha onjy island where the people welcomed the party with a haka, MAORI MYTHOLOGY DUPLICATED. All the gods known in 'Maori mythology were known there, Maui, Kae, Rata, Tane ; but whereas in 'New Zealand the acknowledged home of the Maori, those legends existed only in fragments, there the whole ritual of the ceremonies

sung to these deities was intact, in the form of chants. The language was easily recognisable as 'Maori, though, he explained, the vocabulary was modified to suit other conditions. The names of trees and plants and the like were naturally different ; but in structure the language was precisely the same. It was treasure trove to 'Mr Emory, for there, unspoiled and untouched by extraneous influences, whether of the white man or of other native races, was his chance to study the traditions, the customs and the thoughts of the Maoris, just as they were. When first the party got to the island they were given a feast which lasted five days and five nights. Chants were sung to appropriate deities, and all were those known to the Maoris in New Zealand. The first prayer of an important series ended with the word “to kio,” and the linguist in the party was immediately interested, for .that;, was,.almost, .identical with a New Zealand prayer ending which contained the proper name “lo.” At first ho could gain no Information about those last two words. The people professed ignorance, even the tohungas. They said they had sung the words for years, and they had been given to them by their ancestors. But Mr Emory was not satisfied. If he could identify the chant With that of New Zealand it was

fairly conclusive proof of the close connection of the two. Mere similiarity ot language or custom was not scientifically sufficient. At length, when they had got to the end of their tether, so to speak, a very old woman approached them, and, saying little, squatted on the ground before them, and sang the chant through for them. An old toliunga was sitting near, and at first, when the old woman started, he preserved the stony allof ness of disapproval, but as the volume of the song grew full, and then 'fell away to a whisper, he could no longer restrain himself. He remembered the glory of 'the associations, and he also began to sing softly. And as two olfl representatives of a people whose culture and whose lnnuon imw -con pass away, lived again foi Ok day ■■» licit the chant was not mere wuj-ds, “10”— greatest OF THE GODS.

I When the last note had died and the old woman had revealed the secret of her race and the secret of the island, she burst into tears in front of them ah for jgrief of the 'departed glory of her race. Gone, she tojd them, were the days when the chant meant something, and their numbers were now growing few, Subsequently the expedition | learned that the word ‘‘kio’’ was, as they had thought, the same as the New Zealand “Io,” which is the greatest of the gods, being supreme and self-created. The people were metaphysically rich, •Mr Emory said, as their tradition and their imagery showed, Some of the chants, explaining the different legends, itook more than a day to finish- Th<y never finished the story of Bata, while! that of Tawhaki took a day and a half, J When once the party had broken down 1 the reserve of the natives, all those chants were recited to them in their entirety. From the point of view of ethnology, that information was invaluable - hut anyone interested in the Maori legends could delve deep there, and learn what the race once had been. They found a man who could write, and he collected all the information he could, and it took him 16 months. YVhe;i typed the manuscript was 1000 single- j spaced pages.

ART OF NAVIGATION PRESERVED. The Maoris of Tuamotu, Mr Emory said, had preserved,, among other culture, the art of navigation which thenbrethren had had who came to New Zealand in the 13th century. While the expedition was on the island a party of 30 set out in a great canoe, which

was the same in essence as the Xe>v Zealand craft, for another island 40 miles to the south. “That is not bad, you know,” Mr Emory remarked, “'when it is not possible to sea an island until within live miles of it, and considerably less than that if there are no coconuts, They navigate by the Mars, by the sun, by the set of the waves, by tlio birds. In fact, it is an instinct with them. An 80-mile journey in those waters is no mean feat.”

Owing to the fact that living conditions had not bean easy, the inhabitants were a hardy type. They wore strong, partleulaly the women. Sometimes the natives held tug-o'-wars between a team of nun and one of women. If the women gained the advantage at first they won. For a little while they were stronger than the men, but their endurance was less, The word “tangi’’ was known in the language, but it meant chant of a sort, Nevertheless the tangi ceremony was common there, in practically the same form as in New Zealand. Much valuable, data had been collected, but - it had not yet been finally classified, Mr Emory wants to go back to the archipelago, and also to Easter Jsalnd,