MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1939, Page 5

MAORI MEMORIES

"MANA.” (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The most significant and certainly the most sacred word in the Maori language, yet the most difficult to define is “mana.” Virtue, prestige, fortune, authority, influence, sanctity, luck, each under certain conditions, give some idea of the meaning, though not one of them does it exactly. The maria of a priest or tohunga is proved by the truth of his predictions or the success of his incantations; When most of a Maori doctor’s patients got well his mana was great. If most of his patients died, he had to give up business. Mana accompanies power; but is not exactly power itself. Yet if a chief loses his power, his mana goes with it. The continued success of a warrior proves that he has mana; fortune or luck are too weak to express its meaning. Defeat would shake the confidence of the one who possessed mana, as of those who believed in him, and thus destroy it. Three failures would mark its departure, but before leaving him, some supernatural movement would occur and his death would follow; just as happened prior to the tragic departure of Caesar, Antonins and Brutus. Many an old Maori toa (brave) was thought to be just as important ih his world, as any Greek or Roman hero of old in his. A. fortress often attacked but never taken acquired a niaha of high repute and. becafhe a pepeha (boast), a war cry of encouragement, or defiance, like the slogan of the ancient Highlanders. Even a lame pig which cut capers and squeaked before heavy rain came was believed by the whole tribe to have inherited the mana of a' true prophet. “Be brave, that you may acquire mana, and live” was the last words of an old phief.