TAPU RITES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 866, 9 January 1930, Page 11

TAPU RITES

ULTIMATUM AN AFFRONT TO PROPRIETIES? BURIAL OF TAMASESE Mass worship and ceremonial, inherent in the Polynesian race at the time of important funerals, are frowned on under the ultimatum by the New Zealand Government to the Samoans. A T present, many ■ mourners are conducting ceremonials connected with the burial of the High Chief Tamasese, who died of wounds received in the Apia riot, at the villages of Vaimoso and Lepea. They are required to leave the localities within five days as a safeguard against a congregation of the Mau. The Government’s ultimatum may be regarded as a serious affront to Polynesian burial properties, closely observed throughout Polynesia by the Maoris of New Zealand, the Samoans, the Hawaiians or the Tahitians. It has been the comment of students of the Polynesians that the race finds its utmost spirituality in its reverence of the dead. An indefinable world of spirits is considered, etiquette governs the marshalling of the protecting forces of a Great One’s soul. In New Zealand, one has only to recall the true sorrow of the Maori race at the burial of “Ariki,” Sir James Carroll, to realise what spirituality there is in the Polynesian race. In Samoa, when a High Chief is gravely ill, his relatives and his followers assemble to hear his last statements. His mavaega (last wishes) are noted solemnly. Orators of adequate station address speeches to the High Chief, who is requested to indicate the titles to succeed his regime. HIGHLY TAPU SPACE At the death of a chief, runners bear the news to other villages. The chief’s village itself is enclosed with coconut leaves on the boundaries; the interior is a highly tapu space. The mourning ceremony, lagi—similar to the Maori tangi—lasts many weeks. Embalming, although the Polynesians introduced it to the Pacific hundreds of years ago from their Asiatic associations, is now an unknown art. The Samoans appoint a guard of honour to the body. This procedure is identical with the Maori custom, which received its best instance in July last at the burial at Huntly of Queen Te Marae. Another custom, purely Polynesian, is auala. In this, the male inhabitants of the chief’s village, surround the fale in which the chief lies in state, bearing green foliage. Auala, or homage, is received from the representatives of neighbouring villages. Valuable mats are contributed to the ceremony. In the case of the burial of Tamasese, High Chiefs Tulmaleiliifano, Malietoa and Mataafa would receive the gifts. Strict ceremony attends the bearing of mats to the taupou, chief’s daughter. One mat is borne by one person and, at an important mouring, a long procession in single file takes place. Its members exhibit to the watchers the size and the quality of the mats presented. At the fale where the chief lies in state, his daughter displays the mats to the guard of honour. To preserve tapu, trespassers are not allowed inside the fenced area, under penalty of death. Participants in the ceremony are the only users of the space. Tamasese represented the 34th generation in a direct line from Malamagaga’s, and he was also descended from Tupua Tafa’i-fa, the holder of four kingly titles. Tamasese’s son, Lealofi, has assumed his father’s name.