MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1939, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

MAORI MEMORY. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) “ ’Tis more blessed to forget than to forgive,” must be my apology, if maybe I repeat my themes in these memories, which are now numbering nearly the 2,000 th. Then also, when one is well over the four score mark in years, Mahara (memory) begins to play tricks, and Wareware (forgetting) is far more easy than Muru (forgiving). Sir Frederick Treves the eminent surgeon says our millions of brain cells are each a photographic film,’ which records and recalls every impression of our lives. Some things, such as names of persons, are so often filmed that their negatives are dimmed by being superimposed. Names are, therefore, more easily forgotten than any other words. Having no photo films developed through reading and writing, the Maori brain cells were clear as crystal; hence his phenomenal memory. Every Rangatira (high born man or woman) could recite their ancestry in correct sequence for 500 years. We don’t remember ours for three generations. Their wonderful memory extends even to some ancient civilisation, of which the very existence is forgotten by the rest of the world. Its proof lies in the name and nature of the planets and the more distant stars with which the Maori is so familiar. Once he hears a name, a word, or a story, it is recorded upon a comparatively clear brain cell, the mental picture being recalled by his subconscious mind at will. The Pakeha brain reads or writes a million impressions to each one heard by the Maori. When resting from our labour, the mind is actively planning the future or reflecting’ upon past or current events through books, or the daily papers. The Maori body and mind rest together, and when not occupied in drawing the smoke from his pipe he sleeps.