THE MAORI.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 501, 18 September 1912, Page 5

THE MAORI.

By R. B. G

Understanding that the previous article hereon was appreciated by a few of your readers, I am encouraged to spend a few moments in compiling one or two thoughts hoping that many of your subscribers will be led to take a greater interest in the grandest of the Island races--cur own Maori. It must be remembered, however, that the following particulars have been compiled from various sources and are not an original contribution. This I wish to be fully understood. The last paper on this subject left us at the record of the creation of man. Wa proceed with the legend concerning the origin of New Zealand. Some generations after man was made a certain maui-pitiki, i.e. a descendant of Tiki, was accused of being too idle to fish. Resenting thj accusation he fashioned secretly a fish hook from his grandfather's jaw bone. Going with his brothers out of sight of land, he let down his line. The fish when it came up, created a great bubbling and was found to be part of the earth. On this, the canoe was left high and dry. Maui went to propitiate Tangaroa, the god of fish, for having caught one of his children, charging his brothers not to cut the fish until he returned. Immediately he left they began to do so, and by th° writhings of the fish the mountains and valleys were formed. The native game of the North Island is Te-Ika ra Maui or the fish of Maui, while the South is Te Wahi Pounamu, the land of the greenstone. Here let me add that, according to tradition, Tuputupuwhenua mentioned in the former article as having come from Hawaiki, afterwards became an insect called "Kui," which burrows in the ground. He entered the ground on the West Coast of the North Island and burrowed until he came out in a cave near the waterfall on the Kerikeri river, Bay of Islands. It has has been seated that the Maoris had no idols. This seems to be an error. In Wanganui there was a temple called Wharckura in which the people offered worship of a god called Maru. In this temple also were the images to the gods. A kind of hierarchy was devoted to the service of this temple, the high priest being called Pararuoa, the priest of the second great Ariki, and the third Haronmatua. In the vicinity of this temple miracles are said to have been wrought and the sick to have been cured. Throughout the land there were priests who practised incantations, interpreted omens and propitiated the gods. They also enjoined a kind of baptism and with considerable ceremony, dedicated the male child to Tu, the god of war and the female to Hinete-iaiwa, the goddess of life. The priest were also the strenuous upholders of tne curious law of tapu, by which a chief could make persons or things sacred and any violation of which resulted in death. Witchcraft was a very real power and the evil eye much dreaded. The ideas of the early Maori concerning the invisible world were most vague. Three heavens were soken of, the first where the gods resided, the second where man was created and the third,the sky where man spends a certain time before coming to the earth. They believed that after death, all spirits leaped off the North Cape and so passed inco the reinga, or under world for th°y had no hopes oO returning to the third heaven above mentioned. Spirits Bay, in the far north, has thus derived its name. In the under world there were several grades through which the spirit passed until at last it became a worm. They dreaded exceedingly the anger of the gods and were also much afraid of Taniwha a Kind of sea-monster. Even to-day many of the northern natives dread this monster and point to streams in which a Taniwha is said to live.

Almjst every Maori in early days was a practised speaker and some were notable orators, when visitors came they were treated with great respect and received with considerable ceremony. Not to know etiquette on such occasions was a sign of bad breeding, and to disregard it was an unpardonable offence. The tangi then was much as it it is to-day, minus, of course, the brass band. Games beguiled both young and old. and athletic contests were encouraged. However, war was their chief pastime. Prior to going into battle they excited themselves by a dance in which they stimulated their natural ferocity. Possibly it was thus that cannibalism originated, and soon the practice became common. Some terrible instances of it are given. Of a certain Taiwhanga it is said that, having slain a chief in battle, he took the widow and three children prisoners, killed and ate the children in the presence of their mother, and then made her his wife. This was the condition of the Maori when the Rev. Samuel Marsden ; senior chaplain of the Church of England in New South Wales, landed in New Zealand. It happened thus—the Maoris always have been good sailors, and when they had recovered from their wonderment at seeing European vessels (whalers and traders from New South Wales in the early part of the 19th century) expressed a desire to see the land of the pakeha. Some visited Sydney and Mr Marsden became acquainted with them. He invited them to his house, learned something of their language, and noted their quick intelligence and ready adaptiveness. Eventually he persuaded the Church Missionary Society to attempt their Christianisation. At the historic Bay of Islands on Christmas Day, this man of God commenced his work by preaching to tha natives un the beach, taking his text from Luke 11., 10-14. However, the Christian work among the Maoris must be considered in a further paper.