The Rev. Thomas Buddle's Lecture on "The Aborigines of New Zealand."

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 520, 9 April 1851, Page 3

THE REV. THOMAS BUDDLE'S LECTURE ON "THE ABORIGINES OF NEW ZEALAND."

(Continued.) In our last we published the first portion of this interesting Lecture, in which Mr. BUDDLE dwelt chiefly on the evidences that the aborigines of New Zealand have had a common origin with the other copper-coloured tribes of Polynesia, and that their origin is Asiatic. We now proceed to the second topic, which is THE RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. The knowledge of the true God was totally lost among them. Nor had they any tradition corresponding with the doctrine of the Trinity, like the Hindoo tradition of Brama and Vishna and Siva. They were not idolaters in the popular acceptation of the word. This appears to be the case with most of the other Islanders — they worship images, and have their gods' houses or sacred temples, where the gods reside and receive the homage of their worshippers. But this was never the case with the New Zealander. Nevertheless he has gods many. Their mythology very much reminds one of that of classic Greece and Rome. They had a small number of gods of the first class, possessing various attributes. One, the creator of the Islands ; another of man ; another the god of war ; another of thieves, and so foith. Then follows a multitude of inferior deities — gods of sea and winds, tutelar divinities of towns, families, tribes, kumera ; and malignant spirits haunting woods, caves, and desert places, whose delight it is to torment and annoy the human race. One ot the principal gods is "Uenuku." He has his residence under the rainbow. He is regarded as a sort of presiding deity, that governs and controls all their affairs. The thunder is his voice. They seek his favour and guidance on going to war. If the rainbow, übich is his sign, stands in front of them, or on their left side, it is an intimation of evil, and they instantly return home. Should it be seen on the right, then Uenuku favours them, and they go forward confident that they shall be victorious. "Mawe" is another principal god. He fished the island from the sea. We generally see old maps of New Zealand with the northern island called '' He mea hi no Mawe." I have no doubt but the origin of this was, on Captain Cook asking the Natives the name of their country, they replied, He mea hi no Mawe ; that is "It is a thing fished from the sea by Mawe." This was put down as the name of the country. Mawe is said to have had four sons. The father is named Mawe i mua. The sons, Mawe i roto ; Mawe i taha; Mawe tiki tiki o te rangi ; and Mawe potiki. They have four Mawes in the Hawaiian mythology, with names very similar— Mawe i mua — hope— tiitii — and atalana. "Tiki" is spoken of as the creator of man. He had a wife named " Hine nui te po," by whom men were born to people the earth. The birth of her first-born was rendered remarkable by a little bird flying past and laughing at "Hine nui te po" at the birth. She was ashamed or offended, and strangled the child in the birth. This was the cause of death entering the world. But for the intrusion ot this little bird there would have been no death and no night. The Ngapuhi (the Northern tribes) have a curious tradition about Mawe and the first sunset. "When Mawe saw darkness cover the earth, he immediately pursued the sun, and brought him back again in the morning, but had no power to keep him from running away again aud causing night. He however tied a string to the sun, and fastened it to the moon, that as the former went down the other, being pulled after it by the superior power of the sun, may rise and give Mawe light during his absence. As the men of New Zealand offended him ; and as he could not darken the sun to punish them, nor hide the moon for ever, he placed his hand between it and the earth, at stated seasons, that they may not enjoy the light it was intended to give. In this way the New Zealander accounts for day and night and lunar changes. " Tu" is the Mars of New Zealand — the god of war. To him they offered human sacrifices ; the first prisoner taken in battle was sacred to Tu. His heart was taken

out and roasted in a sacred oven, and then presented a great sacrifice to Tu. The body, too, was tapu. This was to propitiate the deity, make him favour them, and grant them surcess. Their war songs have constant reference to this god. [The Lecturer here introduced some translations of the Native War Songs, which are interesting as being thoroughly authenticated and very characteristic specimens of this class of Maori poetry. The first is a sort of Dialogue- in which a Chief, HATUPATU, just returned from battle after having slain his most powerful enemy, KARIKA, celebrates his achievement, exhibiting the tatooed head of his adversary, and comparing his own prowess with the lesser exploits of his brothers HANUI and HAROA. In the second part, his Father replies in a strain of congratulation, setting forth especially the satisfaction which TU, the god of war, had received.] HATUPATU'S SONG OF TRIUMPH. Your deeds are all eclipsed ! Hatupau slew Karika : By the tides of the sea He displayed his prowess. The doings of our day. Let them be recorded ! Here is the face, tatooed on every side. O the doings of our day ! Hanui. Haroa, where are your trophies ? Hatupatu's is here— 'tis Karika ! By the tides of the sea His prowess was distinguished. O the doings of our day, The doings of our day, Let them be recorded ! REPLY OF HIS FATHER. "Whence have you come Great travellers from Tv ? Have you come from ihe landHave you come from the sea — Great travellers fi om Tv ? Ye have come fiom seeking vengeance ; From seeking satisfaction ;— From reaping revenge ye are come, Great travellers from Tu. Tv has received ! Tv is enriched ! Tv is appeased with A great atonement Of this great day that we see ! He has received; he is enriched, and appeased; He turns to us with a smile — Ye travellers, great travellers from Tu. [The next is a Lament in which reference is also made to Tu. It was sung on the death of a chief whose body, it is stated, was actually (in the manner here alluded to) cut into pieces, that parts of it might be sent to those who had been his enemies, to assure them of his having been actually slain ; and his bones made into arrows with which to shoot birds. The allusions in the last verses are to the vengeance which the tribes were preparing to inflict upon the foes by whose hands he had fallen. A striking effect was produced by the singing of this Lament, in the Maori, by two Natives whom the Lecturer had brought to the Hall for the purpose ] Lament or Te Riutoto tor Te Hia Kai. There dawns the day, it mounts aloft To remind me of the years in which he lived. Oh ! Hia. whose fame spread along the heavens I The moon has lost her horn, 'tis broken. My heart wert thou ; Thou wast beautiful as the Piki Kotuku.* Thou didst swim to the south as a whale, And to Tv thou wert carried by the winds. To take the fiont of battle was thy want. Hadst thou but retired to the re<ir I Oh ! why did not that arm uplifted Light upon the foe. As in the battle front thou wert so fearless, And led thy columns on to carry all their wrath, Did they cut thee in pieces, that thine Enemies might see their foe ? That Tdupo, that Rotoiuaf might see thee too ? Did they make arrows of thy bones With which to lake the birds That eat the MiroJ on the mountains of Titi? Oh, Father, come back to our canoe! It rolls, and there is none to steer it. But soon the eaith will quake : The waters of the Waikato will flow out: My joy is, that again the lightnings of heaven Have rested upon Hakari § An omen of vengeance for thy death. There is another class of gods which are only deified men ; their own friends in short, whom they suppose are all deified at death. These gods are supposed to sit on the top of their houses, and to whistle to them, or they appear in the form of a lizard or an insect. I have seen an old chief sitting and looking with great eai nestness at a beetle creeping over his garment, muttering to it. On asking a bystander the meaning of it, I received for reply He atua nova— 1 ' It is a god of his." I have sometimes thought these ideas may have oiiginated in the annienr doctrine of Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls. They evidently have the idea that souls pass from one body to another. This idea is suggested, too, by their fears of a god called a " Taniwha." He is a sort of amphibious being, that can live either on land or in the water. His piiticipal habitation, however, is the water, where he is seen in the foini of an eel, or a shark, or some other fish. On the land he assumes the form of a large lif aid, such as they say was very numerous, as long and thick as a man's leg;- the species is not yet extinct, but seldom seen. They say if a mother strangles her child and throws it into the water, it becomes a Taniwh.i. Of this demon they are in great dread. He does all the mischief. If a canoe be upset, it is the Taniwha seeking for victims. If any serious wound be received, it is the bite of the Taniwha. Their gods are not regarded as beings possessed of any moral attributes, rendering them objects to be adored and loved : on the contrary, they were objects of constant dread ; soon offended ; punishing the most trivial offences, especially against the law of tapu; and hence the only motives by which they were influenced in their religious homage or service were, with very Jew exceptions, superstitious fear, revenge towards their enemies, a desire to avert the dreadful consequences of the anger of the gods, and lo secure their sanction and aid in the commission of the gieatest crimes. By their rude mythology, the earth was filled with demons, and the sea too. The sentiment of Miltou, " Millions of spiritual creatuies wulk the eaith Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep,"

* The white swan. f The enemies to whom portions of the body were sent. X A pine, the fruit of which is the favourite food oi the wood-pigeon. ij A mountain.

was familiar to their minds. They used to see themselves surrounded l>y invisible beings, and see in common occurrences of every day the movements of mighty spirits ; and hear in the ocean's roar, the tempest's blast, the evening's breeze—the voices of the gods. The mountain's summit, the lonely dell, the desolate rock, the deep forest, were all regarded as the abode or resort of these invisible beings. What a deliverance must the Gospel have brought to them ! Fiom what bondage mmtithave saved them ! What tormenting fears must it have banished from their minds ! What a contrast there exists between the gods of the heathen and the God of the Bible ! But lor the Bible and its revelations they must have remained in this bondage. 1 have seen it stated that they worshipped the sun and the moon ; but I believe this is a mistake — 1 never heard of such worship among the New Zealanders. They seem to have fully believed in the existence of a spiritual woild and a fuuue state. They luve their place of departed spirits, said to be the Reinga, near the North Cape. The spirit leaps into the sea and emerges into an Elysium situated in the island of the Three Kings. Wlwt a strong presumptive proof of the souls immortality we h.we in ttvis fact. All nations, savage and civilized, have the idea that there is a spirit in man that never dies. Whence came this idea ? Did not the greit Creator himself communicate the knowledge of this fact to all nations? Did lie not wiite this great truth on human minds so deeply that nothing can eiase it ? Soutliey, in his i-ongs of the American Indians, makes the path of the Indian (o his final abode much more intricate than that o» the New Zealander. " To the country of the dead, Long and painful is the way. O'er rivers wide and deep Lies the road that must be past, By bridges narrow wall'd, Where scarce the soul c»n force its way While the loose fabric totteis under it." The New Zealander has but to leap into the sea, and he emerges into his final abode. Their ideas about the spirit's journey to the land's end are somewhat earthly. They thought he would have rivers to cro^s, and would need food for his journey ; and a small canoe was placed by his side, a paddle in it, with a kete of kumeras to eat by the way. The idea was, that the spirit of the canoe would enable him to ferry himself across the rivers, and the spirit of the food support him. Some of the tribes do not seem to have practised a custom, so common in many other islands, that of killing slaves and strang'ing wives to attend him in the world of spirits ; though this practice was common at the Noith. They suppose the spirit often lingers on its journey to look upon them ere it reaches its final abode, and sings as It travels — 11 1 am flying to the winds of the Eeinga, But still awhile I linger, and prolong ray flight. I hover on the mountains looking south, And take a last farewell of husband, child, and friend ; For they are about to pierce me with a spear, To ticat me as a plebeian, And eat me as their food." The last expression refers to the prevailing notion, that they go to the Keinga as food for the gods. The following Lament contains the same idea on the subject of the spirit's journey. Our idea, learned from infallible Scripture, is, that a spirit's flight to its final abode is quick as thought : " Absent from the body, present with the Loid." But, the New Zealander does not calculate on so quick a transit. " Weep, weep ye tides of Hokianga, for my Kura, These were thy walks, and these thy favourite haunts, oh! Kuia. But Kura is not here :—: — She is traversing the path that leads to the land of spirits. Lovely in life was the foim of thy visage, oh ! Kura. We see thy beauly no more. Thy attendants now are the guardians of the dead. Aue c Kura." It appears their Hades has a Kainga pai, and a Kainga Kino, a place of happiness and a place of misery. They say their fiiends return and whistle to them, when they address them saying, Ko Koe tena? "Is that >ou?" He Kainga pahea ton Kainga? «» What sort of a place have you got?" Some reply, " It is a vie place, we have constant war, and nothing but dung to eat." Others reply, "It is a fine place, we have plenty of kumeras, and plenty of buds." When one of the first Missionaries had been preaching the scriptural doctrine of two eternal stales, an old man began 'to protest against it with great vehemence, declaring he should not go to heaven, nor would he go to hell and have nothing but fire to eat; but he would go inty the Reinga to eat kumeras with his friends who had gone beibie him. What a daik and cheeiless system is Paganism ! It creates a thousand feam in life, winch it cannot relieve in death, and sends the spirit into eternity without a hope that hath foundation. In the case of the Nsw Zealander it has given place to a religion that brings life and immortality to light. Before leaving this part of the subject Mr. Buddle read the following Translations of two other Maori Laments. I. " The flTening start is waning— it disappear! to rise in brighter skies, where thousands wait to greet if. All that is great and beautiful I heed not now ; thou wert my only treasure. My davigMe\ I when the sunbeams played upon the waters, or through the waving palm, we loved to watch thy gambolt on the sandy shores of Awapoka. Oft at the dawu of day thou girdest on thy garments, and with the daughters of thy people burned forth to see thefittits of Mawe]| gathered in. Whilst the maidens of Tikaro in quest of the rock-sleeping-muscle, braved the surges, and in turn entrapped those stragglert of the finny tribe that linger* near the shore to feast awhile. And when the tribes assembled to partake the evening meal, ihy fond companions round thee, each eager to bestow some dainty, and await thy imile. " But where now ? Where now, ye tides that flow and ebb— no longer may ye flow and ebb— your support is borne away. " The people still assemble at their feaits of pleaBUre — still the canoe cuts the wind in twain, and icat. ters the Bea foam— still the sea bird, like a cloud, darkens the sky, hovuring o'er the crags— but tbe loveil one cornea not ; nor even a lock ot thy waging hair was left us o'er whith to weep."

11. " Behold the lightning's glare ! It seems to cut aiunder Tuwhara's >usged mountains. From thy

f The deceased person ii supposed to have supported the world— his death, thereto! e, affects the tides of ihe <>ea, the mountains, Sec , &c. I The decea-ed person is addressed as the evrning stiir, which is supposed to rise in another world, the inhabitants of which world nco»nise their rela ion in the star, and hail its aiuvul among them with gieat delight. || Fruits of Mawee— the kumara. «tf Tikoro-uame of a tiibe at llul<i»nga.

hand the weapon dropped ; and thy bright spirit dis appeared beyond (he heights of Raukawa. " The sun grow» dim, and bastes away as a woman from the scene of battle. The tides of the ocean weep as they move along, — and the momitaini of^the South are melting away ; for the spirit of the Chieftain is taking its flight to Ronn.* " Open ye the gates of the heavens ! Enter the first heaven — then enter the second heaTen. And when thoushalt tre-id in the land of spirits, and they shall s»y to thee — " What meaneth tins?" Say that the ivlngs of this our worldj- have been torn from it, in the death of the brave one — the leader of our battles. " Atutabi md the stars of the morning look down from the sky — the earth reels to and fro, for the great Prop of the tribes lies low. " Yes, ray fiiend, the dews of Hokianga will penetrate thy body, while the waters of the rivers will ebb out, and the land will be desolate."

* [The Lectmer here told the cuiious Native Legend of Rona and the Moon, to which allusion is made. It is as follows :■—•] One bright moonlight night Rona wai sent to fetch some water fiom n stream ; in her hand was a basket, which contained a gourd. On her way to the water the moon suddenly disappeared behind a cloud, and the road being bad, she kicked her foot *i£ain6t some of the shiubs, Th's made bei angry, and in her rage she cursed the moon saying, " Wicked moon, not to come forth, and shine." This conduct of Rona'a displeased the moon very much, who at once came down to the earth, and seized her. Ilona, in her turn, seized a tree which grew near the margin of the stream ; but the moon tore up the tree by the roots, and flying away carried off Rona and iier calabash, together witli the tree. Ronas friends thinking, thut she was making a long stay, went in quest of her. After searching for some time, they called out,—-" Rons, Rona, where are you?" "Here am I," said she, "mounting aloft with the moon and the stars," (To be continued.)