KOHI'S TALE.—ILLUSTRATIONS OF MAORI CUSTOMS.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 622, 31 March 1852, Page 2

KOHI'S TALE.— ILLUSTRATIONS OF MAORI CUSTOMS.

[Fiom Shortlands New Zealand.) Near us lived an old chief, named Pokeni, who frequently made inquiries about To Rauparaha towards whom he expressed the greatest hatred. I found that many of his family had lost their lives in wars with that chief, and tthatt t he was an uncle of Tamaiharanui, whose tragical end has been related. He had outlived all those of his own times and age, and was scarcely ever to be seen unaccompanied by a child, the greatgrandson of his wife's elder brother, who occupied all his cares. The old man had the oddest looking being for a wife I had ever seen. One half of her lace was tattooed in every respect like that of a man, while the other had no more marks than her sex entitled her to ; so that two persons, who stood opposite each other, each viewing a different side of the face in profile, while she, perhaps, sat wrapped in her blanket, with a pipe in her mouth, would have pronounced the object to be a man, or a woman, according to the circumstance of his position. I afterwards met with several other old women of this tribe, who had similarly engraved on their faces many of the marks, which in the north |Island I had never seen but on males. One day Pokeni, came to me with a complaint that the father of Timoko, the child of his adoption, had, a short time before our arrival, been murdered by another chief of this place, named Karetai, and some others. I had learnt to be cautious in believing the whole of a native's tale, and therefore walked over to Kavetai's place of residence, on the eastern Head, to hear what he had to say to this charge. I found him very willing to meet his accusers at my house, in order that the truth might be discovered. This he did the next day, and the case was fully hoard in the presence of all parties interested, except a chief named Taiaroa, when the following strange tale came to light.

1 Kavetai, Te Matahara, Kohi, and others, had bought a sealing boat among them, each having contributed a portion of the payment. Kolii falling ill, and thinking himself at the point of death, feared that his child, about four years old named Timoko, would never have any benefit from the boat. He therefore resolved to burn it. Shortly afterwards, the boat being left at Koputai, where Kohi lived, he took advantage of the absence of the others interested, and ordered a female, named Kurukuru, and a young man, named Rau-o-to-uri, to fill it full of dry brushwood, and set five to it. His wife Piro tried to dissuade him, and placed their child on it, but without effect. Kohi was then so ill that he could not walk, and was carried to a place near the boat, where he lay on the beach looking on while it was burning. The next morning Karetai came ; but did no more than vent his anger in words. The day following Te Matahara and the rest arrived. When they found the boat destroyed, they were greatly enraged, and running ashore, were Kohi was lying, assailed him with threats and curses. Te Matahara, the most violent, kicked him, and struck the ground repeatedly, naming different parts of his body at each blow. He then fired his house, and strip t him of everything hut his shirt. Kohi never said a word. All night he lay on the beach, covered only with a few clothes, which his wife and a slave carried to him secretly, while the rest were asleep. In the morning Te Mataluuvi iigcin cursed Kohi, kicked him, and then went aw ay. Piro, KoluS wife admitted the general correctness of this statement, but said the kicks given by Te Matahara were more severe than by his account they would have seemed to be. After Te Matahara left, Kohi remained two nights at Koputai. During the time that he lay on the beach, he had, unknown to everyone, concealed beneath his shirt a " rakau-pounamu" or weapon made from a stone called " pounamu," which belonged to him and Taiaroa. This lie gave to Piro, as soon as they were alone, desiring her to hide it for their boy Timoko, and tell Taiaroa that it had been lost. On Taiaroa's arrival, he inquired for the " ra-kau-pounamu," and was persuaded to believe that it had been destroyed in the house, when burnt. Kohi was then carried in a boat to Otaheiti, Taiaroa's place of residence. While crossing the harbour, Karetai and Te Matahara met their boat, and asked if Kohi was in it. Taiaroa replied, " Tenei ta korua tangata." " Here is the man you have done for." On the second night after Koki arrived at Otaheiti, Taiaroa advised him to consent to be strangled • persuading him that, if he did uot die speedily, people would say that Te Matahara had not caused his death, and he would then not obtain " utu" or satisfaction. So Kohi consented. The only persons present at the completion of the tragedy were the slave Kurukuru, who sat at the door to watch, and his wife Pii-o and Taiaroa within. Kohi observing Taiaroa's hand tremble as he was tying the knot, said to him, " Kahore kia matau a Taiaroa ki te mea o te taura," " Taiaroa does not know how to make a noose." He then took the cord, tied a slip-knot, and adjusted the rope about his own neck. Piro sat at his feet, while Taiaroa pulled the rope tight till he was dead. This part of the tale was related by Piro with the greatest coolness, and without a symptom of remorse. ! Immediately after this, Taiaroa went to Mr. | W , a Wesleyan missionary, living at Waikouaiti, with crape tied round his hat, and complained that Kohi had been killed, in a very barbarous manner, by Te Matahara, who, he said, had jumped on his* belly and chest, and then turned the body over, and jumped on his back, so that he died. Mr. W Avas thus persuaded to write a request to the police magistrate, resident at Hakaroa, to send constables to apprehend Te Matahara for the murder, and Karetai as an accomplice. Taiaroa was bearer of this letter to the police magistrate, who forthwith made application to the Government for force to seize the persons accused. Piro went to live with a European, the partner of our landlord, and placed the " rakau-pounamu," in his charge. One day it was shewn to Colonel Godfrey and myself, in the presence of my natives. As the New Zealander is sure to relate all he sees and hears on the first occasion, its size, form, and colour, were soon described to the natives who lived near us, when it was at once identified as Taiaroa's property, supposed to have been destroyed in the Burning house. This discovery, it seems, induced Piro to make a clean breast, and to confess the part she had acted at her husband's death. Some months afterwards, I saw Taiaroa, who agreed to the correctness of the above statement, as far as related to himself. He seemed to think that he had acted very discreetly. Kohi was his " teina," and it was his duty to obtain satisfaction for his death. In this case, lie hoped to obtain it by the assistance of the laws of the Pakeha. We have here exhibited several points of the New Zealander's natural character, very important for the European colonist to understand, as teaching him that the former has many motives of action quite different from his own, and that it is necessary to study these well, apart from the ideas natural to a European education, before he can hope to be able to refer a native's actions to their right source. As not the least remarkable, we observe the facility with which Taiaroa appeared to adopt our laws, while he was really only endeavouring to make use of them, as far as they served him to carry out his own ideas of what was befitting. At the same time the Wesleyan missionary andpolice magistrate, no doubt, looked on his conduct as an example of the rapid march of European civilization, and a proof of the readiness with which British law would be appealed to hereafter. The result of my experience, derived from residing much among them, taught me to be very cautious how I received as true any statement obtained from purely native sources, if I could suggest to myself any motive for misrepresentations. At the same time — although a New Zealander will not scruple, in many cases, to misstate and deceive, often even without the possibility of thereby deriving to himself any advantage, and apparently influenced merely by the proneness to exaggerate, common to the inventive faculty of a " conteur" — he is also, I firmly believe, incapable of persisting in a statement which he knows to be ialse, for any considerable length of time, and therefore, if carefully cross-examined, is very likely soon to tell the truth. This peculiar trait of character cannot fail to attract the notice of any one who has long had intercourse with the natives.

In the course of the above narrative Te Matahara is described as having frequently cursed Kohi, while he struck the ground, naming at each blow some part of his body. A blow thus given by proxy amounts, in the estimation of a New Zealander, to the same thing as one actually given to the person, and is commonly so spoken of ; so that, at first, I was under the impression that Kohi, and not the ground, had received all the blows, and it was only by inquiry that I learnt how the case really stood. Similar to this is the practice, when a new pa is erected in time of war, of naming some of the largest posts of the stoccade after the chiefs of the hostile tribe, and then firing at them by way of expressing the deadly nature of the fued ; and it is not uncommon to hear a chief complain that he has been shot at, when on explanation it appears that he has only been thus shot in effigy. This form of insult is called a " tapatapa," or " tukutuku." It also comes under the more general term '• kanga," which although commonly translated « curse," has a move extended signification than that word. Thus it is a " kanga" to use any form of words which can establish a relation between a person, or a part of a person, and the

verb to cook, ov to eat, so that the person spoken of is the object of the action. Whore an Englishman bays,"' You be <1 il !" a Now Zealander will say " You I>o eat !" or " Your head be put in a pot !5'! 5 ' or something to that effect. Tenfi tou roro, Ko te Kowlmiu c tv Li te ahi-luii: Ki.i re k a llio ni Taku Laigna ilio— e. " 0 that this were your brain ! this very stone placed by the food-fire ! So would my banquet be thoroughly grateful to my taste." These lines are the concluding stanza of a hymn, which I heard sung on the occa&son of the death of a chief, who was surprised, killed, and eaten, by his foe. His surviving relatives may therefore be excused for having shewn great sympathy with the spirit to which it gives utterance. It is, perhaps, the strongest form of " kanga" of which the language is c.ipuhlc. Even to speak of any part of the body, but especially of the head or back, in such a manner that, from the mode or tone of expression, it can be inferred thai it is intended to be the subject of an injury or indignity, is equally, in the estimation of aNew Zealander, a " kanga," an insult to be avenged by blood according to ancient usage. When we are' aware of the peculiar mode of thinking common to the New Zealander on this subject, we can understand how insulting it is to swear at him, or even to tell him you will " break his head," or " box his ears," favourite expressions in the mouths of Englishmen ; nor can we wonder that they have often severely sufferedfor - their indiscretion. Hence we have acquired among them the title of the cursing tribe : " Katahi to Iwi-kanga, Te Pakeha," " What a cursing tribe are the whitemen !" I was once called upon to endeavour to obtain compensation from a native, who had destroyed, as it was stated, wantonly, several hundred yards of stout bullock-fence. I found that the fence had actually been in great part erected by this man, who was a good workman ; but on some dispute arising about the payment, the European a violent person, cursed him, and threatened to let loose on him a large and savage dog, Avhich lay chained close to his house. On hearing this, the native threw off his blanket, and rushing at the posts and rails, vented his rage in chopping them to pieces with his axe. It has sometimes happened that even missionaries, without being aware of the interpretation their words were capable of, have uttered " kanga" in addressing their congregations, who have taken no more notice of the unintentional insult than, perhaps to point out the error after the service^ On one occasion, however, when a clergyman of great influence and experience unwittingly^ made a mistake of this sort, the honour in which he was held did not entirely protect him. I first heard the circumstance from old Te Heuheu, at Taupo, where it occurred, who was very angry that a gentleman, while his guest, should have been insulted under any circumstances by one of his countrymen. When w * '"" arrived at Te Heuheu's place of abode, there happened to be there some chiefs of Waikato tribe, who were not within the pale of missionary influence. One of these was very importunate for tobacco, and thought to obtain the object of his desire by saying that he would listen to what * * * had to say, if he would give him some. Then said * * *, "I had better plug your ears with tobacco." These words, though a very natural and innocent joke in English ears, were a " kanga" to the old chiefs mode of thinking, and with this idea, before any one could interfere, he knocked off * * *'s hat and then brandished his tomahawk, as if he were not yet satisfied. A New Zealand chief will never carry food, but in his hands, nor allow it to touch any part of his head, except his mouth. He will not even enter u cooking-house, or a building where any sort of food is suspended from the ceiling, lest his head should be for a moment under it. These ideas are instilled into his mind from youth, as part of the dogmas of his religion ; and he believes that, if he transgresses the rules of his religion, he will be punished speedily in this world. The spirits of his departed ancestors, jealous of the infringement of their " ritenga" or rites, will commission some spirit of their kin to enter into his body, and feed on some vital part. The visible signs of this hidden and mysterious process they believe to be the various forms of disease. The mildest forms of disease are hence supposed to be caused by the spirits of those who knew the sufferer while on earth, and are therefore imagined to be more merciful, and more reluctant to injure an old friend and relation : the worst forms are supposed to be caused by the &pirit of a dead infant, who, having never contracted any affection for those on earth, tears and feeds on the vitals of his nearest kin without compunction, With these ideas of the origin of disease, they would never have sought for a cure in the natural remedial effects of herbs or other drugs. And .such is found to be the case ; their whole efforts being directed to the means of driving or coaxing away the spirit. Of this I will say more in another place ; but the disgression seemed necessary to render it intelligible, how * 7> ' *'s words were so offensive. To hear any one talk of placing food in his car — a part of the head — without avenging the insult would be to a chief to incur the anger of the spirits of the dead, and the consequent punishment. To a missionary native it would be of much less moment, from his belief that the God, preached by the Pakeha. had power over the malignant spirits of the dead, and would protect him. There is another form of " kanga" which is worthy of notice, called an " apiti," which may be translated " double entendre ;" the word "apiti" signifying " a thing added," or" a meaning added." I lived for a long time with a very large tribe, Ngatiwakaue, who had abolished from their vocabulary the word " Kai," in common u&e over all the rest of New Zealand to signify " food," for which they substituted " tami," because one of their chiefs had, among other names, received that of " Nga-kai" (plur. of food.) They could no longer use this word ; for such an expression as " Homai nga kai maku," " Give me food to eat," which might be frequently in any one's mouth, might be construed " Give me Nga-kni to eat." I was often much amused at the difficulty experienced by strangers, when on a visit, in remembering not to use this word in its ordinary sense, and their consequent embarrassment, when it half slipped out. At length I became so familiar with the synonym of the tribe, that I sometimes used it when out of the circle of old Nga-kai's influence, and was then laughed at for &o doing. Some tribes are more sensitive on these points than others ; and an expression, which would be a curse with one, might be in everyday u&e with another, and be thought nothing of. Thus Kaitahu use the word " papa" indiscriminately to signify " bread," or " father," and many other words with double meanings, which would shock the ears of Ngati-wakauo, and most other tribes in the North Island.