THE ABORIGINES OF NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 31, 9 August 1851, Page 7

THE ABORIGINES OF NEW ZEALAND.

I We add the following this week to the extracts Iwe have formerly made from the Rev. T. BudI die's Lecture, which we have reason to believe t have been interesting to our readers. 1 Tapu.

[ " A subject connected with the priesthood and I religion is the superstitious custom or rite of [ Tapu. It may be defined as a law or restricI tion that derives its sanction from religion. i Originally the word meant " sacred." It does \ not imply any moral quality, but it is indicative jof a particular distinction, or separation from [: common purposes for some social design. I All nations, savage and civilized, have their peculiar laws. The chief peculiarity of the ; Tapu as it exists in these Islands, is the religious character it sustains. Transgression is a sin against the gods as well as against society. I I nave met with some excellent remarks on this j subject in the publication of the American ExI pedition, the substance of which is as follows: I—When certain regulations are enforced by I religious considerations, they exert an influence jon the million they could not else obtain. The | history of different religious sects illustrates I; "us. ft was not lawful for the Jews, according I to the Mosaic law, to eat certain kinds of meat; I or to offer in sacrifice the maimed ; or to touch g ilie animal considered unclean ; and it was the I sanction of religion that gave it its vitality and I P°Wer- The Mahometan code, the work of an I earthly lawgiver, derives from its supposed Di- | vme origin a force superior to that of any ordiI nary law. It is not lawful to eat pork, or drink | "'"c, or omit certain ablutions, or to take food | °»niig certain months from sunrise to sunset. I ,le institutions of Lycurgus are another examI 1 ?,' owi "g their authority less to their own exI "Hence or to the rank of the legislator, than to I "« solemn oath by which he enforced their obI nce> and to the mystery of his death. | yiese examples may give us a clue to the I P«obable origin of the rite of Tapu. It may be I bUl'F°sed that the author of the rite was a pev- | „ w"? in Jhe original seat of the Polynesian I tiieY? 1- 6'1 the power of mler and lilwf?ivcr t0 I (Slgnity of chief priest -, who probably pre-

tended to be inspired by the gods, as they often do in the other Islands whenithey utter oracles. If so, his laws, or tapus, whether or not promulgated as Divine commands, would be received and obeyed as such. This view is supported by the fact that the ariki or principal chief is often the high priest; and also by the fact that in nearly all the groups, men are found who pretend to be descendants from the gods, and regard themselves as a sort of earthly divinity. I have heard Te Heuheu claim divinity for himself. " Think not," said lie, " that I am a man, that my origin is from earth, I came from the heavens; my ancestors are all there, they are gods, and I shall return to them."

I certainly regard the opinion expressed in the American work already referred to, as a very plausible one, and likely to be correct, —" that the lawgiver whose decrees have come down in the form of Tapu was a ruler invested by his subjects with divine attributes."

But though the origin might thus be of a sacred and regal character, yet it has become common property ; —a sort of magic term with which any man can throw a kind of protection over his property;—can tapu his house or lands, or fishing grounds, or eel pas, as may suit his whim, or convenience, and think himself quite justified in defending his tapu with his musket.

The multifarious and minute applications of the religious part of this rite, it were difficult to describe. We may just instance a few.

It applies to persons. The person of a chief is sacred, so that he cannot enter a house where food is cooked, or sleep where food has been consumed ; nor suffer a slave to enter his house unless all his garments are left behind. Anything touched by a " tangata tapu" (a sacred man), would be thereby rendered tapu, and could no more be used, so that his drinking vessel must be held by a slave who pours the water into his hand, and he drinks out of his own hand.

A chiefs head and hair are most sacred parts of his person. To touch 'his head would be a breach of the law, iequiring certain ablutions and offerings to his god. To burn his hair at a fire where food had been cooked would be capital offence. When his hair is cut it is thrown into some sacred enclosure among other relics that are not to be handled. If he spill his blood, the place is tapu. So exceedingly are these personages sacred that it is extremely difficult for a novice to converse with them without committing some breach of the law of tapu, which may expose him to be robbed of all he may possess at the time. I once seriously committed myself by inadvertently offending against the tapu. I was sitting in a native hut over a fire in conversation with several natives, when an old chief, too sacred to enter such a house, sat down outside to listen to the korero. Feeling cold, he exclaimed, "I am dead with cold, I shall go, I have no garment." " Here," said I, "is a good fire, it will serre instead, come in." This was enough ; the idea of finding him a garment in the fire was a great oifence, and oif he went muttering his wrath. When I arose next morning I found the house and all it contained under tapu. No utensils for cooking breakfa st could be obtained. I had to go to old Tawaki and beg him to remove the tapu. This he did by sending a slave to drag out an iron pot and cook six potatoes in it, part of which he eat as the representative of the offended atua, and part were sent to the offended chief, Thus the law was vindicated and the god appeased. In some of the dialects the improper use of the preposition/^;' would be a transgression. There are two forms of the preposition " for," the ma and the mo. He pahi mau would be a thing for you to beat witli ; he j)atu mou, a thing to beat you with. Riwai mau wouid be potatoes for you to eat; Riwai mou, potatoes to be eaten with your flesh, —an offensive curse. This is not universal. The Northern tribes have not this distinction : but in Waikato it was universal, and the misuse of the word a great offence.

Places also are often tapued, houses because of some offence to a chief, and roads and rivers so that canoes could not pass. A watchman is placed on the banks to protect the tapu ; and they who dared to pass violated the law and must pay the penalty. A chief had only to say concerning a place he wished to tapu, Taha hva tuaroa, " such a place or path is my backbone.' This was enough to render it sacred in their estimation. The resting- place of a corpse is always sacred, and the canoe in which a corpse has been carried. The place of sepulture is regarded with great veneration and awe ;no foot

will dare to tread the sacred dust, and no hand be so sacrilegious as touch an object in the sacred enclosure.

The penalties of this law partake both of a temporal and a supernatural character. The transgressor was liable to have his plantations burnt up, or his food taken away, or his canoes broken up, besides being exposed to the anger of the gods. How burdensome is such a religion as this! A more powerful system of religious despotism could not have been devised. Its exactments were of the most humiliating and troublesome description—if any thing had been wanting to complete the bondage in which the New^Zealander was held by superstition, this certainly would perfect ami perpetuate his slavery and his fears."

Lodging-Hotjse Keepers' Logic.—The Lodging-House Keepers of London are beginning to calculate the probable profits of the Great Exhibition season of 1851, or in other words, they are "counting their chickens before they are hatched ;" that is to say, before they shell out. Somebody has said that 4,000,000 of strangers will be" poured into London, and as there are not more than, 1,000,000 beds to let, the rules of arithmetic call upon us to divide one by four, and as four into one won't go, we recommend some of the intended visitors, before they leave a comfortable bed at home, to "sleep upon it," until they have made sure of a substitute. The bedstead trade has received a tremendous impetus, and sacking is in fierce demand, as if it was expected that the invasion of 1851 would lead to the sacking of the whole city. Lodging-House Keepers are looking out in all directions for bedsteads, or for any tiling that will turn up to serve instead, and we have heard of a proposal having been made to a family requiring apartments, to make up a bed in the cistern for two of the children, by drawing off the water in the evening, and getting the infants up and dressed before the water is turned on in the morning. If the company should take it into its head—its New River Head —to sluice the sewers in the course of the night, which does happen now and then, of course the poor children might be unexpectedly " washed and done for," as well as boarded ami lodged in the way described. It is expected that provisions will rise to a dreadful height: that meat will be sold by the mouthful instead of the pound ; that bread will rise, without reference to any particular quantity of yeast; and that butter will be found to be fetching a shilling an ounce, by those who are sent to fetch the butter. As to milk, we have heard that a " Pure Milk and Cream Company," have taken the lease of a chalk-pit near town, and new-laid eggs are being already laid in lime, with a view to the approaching season. Sand is being brought to this country as ballast, to be thrown on to the sugar market, at the proper moment, when the demand is at its height; and foreign sloe-juice is being carried into Port, as fast as it can be imported.— Punch.