MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1938, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

TAPU AND NOA. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The title “Ariki” extends to the heads of families or tribes, both male and female. They form the tangible connecting link between the living persons and the Wairua (spirit of the dead) which was more real to them than we can understand, simply because of its sincerity. To remove the Tapu or sacred nature of a house or plot of land which from the increase of population had become inconveniently near to dwellings, food was the medium. To eat or touch food at a sacred place made it Npa (common) . Every man, woman and child assembled in a huge circle around the sacred spot on which a great earthen Umu (oven) had been excavated. From this 70 spiritually protected women removed an immense store of kumera (sweet potatoes), and handed one to each and every person, to be eaten on the spot, thus completing the removal of the Tapu, and making it fit for dwelling. The same sentiment of Tapu survives in every civilised nation in regard to the premises of an abandoned church or an apcient burial place. Only a quarter of a century ago a great comm.otion was raised near the rapidly growing city of Sydney when an abandoned chapel was placarded by land agents “For Sale,” in large letters. In many instances Maori ceremonial Karakia closely resembled a prayer; in others they were an invocation to the. spirits of ancestors, in the order of their departure to the Maori underworld, where they were more realistically alive than our angels in the immensity of space beyond the stars.