NATURAL RELIGION OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. [From Shortland's New Zealand.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 725, 14 July 1852, Page 4

NATURAL RELIGION OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. [From Shortland's New Zealand.]

The ancient religion of the New Zealander taught him that anything, if placed in contact with a sacred object, acquired the sacred nature of that object ; and that it was his first duty to guard whatever had been thus rendered sacred by contact from befog eateD, or used for the purposes of cooking or eating. The greatest injury one man could inflict on another being' to eat him, it was a natural idea that "to eat anything which had become sacred by contact would be offensive to the person whose sacredness it had acquired ; and — as every New Zealand gentleman, -in former times, was more or less sacred, and his head and back-bone especially so — to carry a basket of food on bis back would have been to render it unlawful for any one but himself to eat of it. So sensitive, indeed, were they on thispoint that the dish of food destined for a person of the sacred class was carried to a little distance from his bouse, and from (he spot where he and his friends usually reclined, and there set, on the ground in order that he might eat his meal by himself, and, as no one else dared to eat of what be left, if- any food remained it was preserved for his future "use in a small safe or roofed box, which formed a conspicuous object stuck on tbfe top of a pole in a particular part .of the court-yard surrounding" the family dwellings.

In conformity with their singular religious belief, although murder rojght, in many cases, he a meritorious act, it was a-heinous crime for a sacred person to leave his comb of his blanket in a cooking bouse, or to suffer another person to use a drinking cup after it had been rendered sacred by touching his lips. For this reason a chicf — unless a Christian — never drinks from a cup, but hold up his two hands close to his lips, in order that water may be poured into them, and thence run into his mouth ; and if he wants a light for his pipe; burning embers must be brought to him for his -pipe is sacred from huving been so often in contact with his mouth, and transmits sacredness to the live coal, so tbat if a particle of sa-

cred cinder were to be replaced on the common fire, it would render that fire sacred, and by consequence no longer serviceable for cooking food. For similar reasons, a slave or other person not sacred would not enter a " wahi tapu." or sacred place, without having first stripped off his clothes, for the clothes having become sacred the instant they entered the precincts of the " wahi tapu," would ever after be useless to him in the ordinary business of his life, since they would be liable to be brought frequently into contact with food intended for the use of the family. In short, the most marked peculiarities in the social habits of this people can be traced to the influece of the same pervading principle, that food which has once touched a snored object becomes itself sacred, and therefore must not be eaten except by the sacred object. For this law was not a mere idle belief, but was enforced by dread of their " atua." The " atua "or spirits of their ancestors who had died — such being, indeed, the only sort of divinities supposed to take an interest in human affairs — were believed to be very jealous of any neglect of the duties enjoined by their religion, and seldom to fair to take speedy vengeance on a delinquent by sending some infant spirit, or a "kahukahu," to enter into his body, there to feed on a vital part till sufficient punislfment or death bad been inflicted. Infant spirits, as has been mentioned, were considered very deadly, because they bad not had time to acquire any attachment to their Jiving relatives : a " kahukahu," representing as it were the mere germ of a human being, was held, in still greater awe, in proof of which the following stanza may be cited : " Ko te kahukahu piri-tara-whare. Kei te wakahehe au i aku tote, "Wai tuhi-rae mo liga tohunga. Nana ka ngau kino, ka mate rawa." It is the " kahukahu " sticking fast in the wall of the Louse. I am making my blood run down, Instead of water to smear the brow of the "tohunga." Should he (the " kahukahu ") gnaw spitefully, it will be certain death. It is somewhat strange that the " atua " was not supposed to seek redress directly from the person who ate the food to which sacredness had been imparted — and who, as one would imagine, should naturally have been looked on as the principal offender — but from his own living relative, whose duty it was to prevent the occurrence of such an indignity. Hence we cease to wonder that a chief should have been moved to anger even to kill a slave, who through carelessness caused him to offend the dreaded spirits, by such an act as that of leaving any article of his dress within the limits of the family cook bouse ; although, while ignorant of tlie peculiarity of the New Zealander's superstitious belief, we must have regarded his doing so as wanton barbarity. From what has been said, it will readily be understood why carrying food on his back was a labour in which a New Zealand gentleman could take no part before he embraced Christianity. Then if, as was often tlie case, be had nof thrown aside all dread of the " atua " of his tribe- -for though a Christian he still believed in the reality of their existence — he had faith that they were but inferior spirits, who had no power to harm a believer in Christ. In relation to the subject under consideration, 5t may be here stated that the " atua " of one tribe are not believed to meddle with the members of another tribe ; and that, when a person was taken prisoner, his connexion with his own tribe was severed, and its '* atna " ceased to care for him. Hence, as a captive had no dread of offending the " atua " of his own or of his adopted tribe by cooking or by carrying food on bis back, every sort of work having to do with cooking was performed by this classof persons, aided by those females of the tribe who were not supposed to be regarded with peculiar interest by the " atua," and were therefore unworthy to be ranked" among the sacred. Slavery was, in New Zealand, a necessary consequence of the superstitious belief of its inhabitants. The captive was, however, in some respects more free than his master ; be entered into conversation with him fearlessly, he fed well, was not expected to overwork himself^ and seldom cared to return to his own tribe — which circumstance in itself is a satisfactory proof of his being generally well treated; and if eventually he obtained a wife from the females of his adopted tribe, his children inherited their mother's position, and became objects of care to the spirits of her ancestors. Any one, therelore, would be led into error, were he to form an idea of the condition of this class of persons from a knowledge of what slavery has been generally, or is now, in other countries.