MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

A MIND READER. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) To sit beside an old Maori man or woman for a few hundred miles journey on a train, provided you can vary the broken English with a few sentences of real Maori as a surprise, will open the heart and the mind of your companion. Not only do they become friendly and communicative, but they seem to anticipate one's questions, and answer them unasked. I am convinced that there is a power of mental telepathy or thought-reading by these strange people, of which we know nothing and usually ascribe to the trickery of a conjuror. “No Tauranga Koe?” (You are from Tauranga) was the immediate reply of one old Maori on the train to my first words “Ko whea koe?” (Where are you going). We were then leaving Marton by the night express. Not a moment of sleep or the desire for it came to either of us in the interesting six hours of darkness before we passed Hamilton. He knew by some strange instinct every part of the historic country through which we' were passing. Every one of the other 26 passengers was sound asleep, nearly ail snored. “Aha he puku tahuri he ngongoro" (They snore because they over eat) he remarked quietly. Anticipating every unasked question he spoke at intervals —“Yes, she died four seasons ago. Our three boys are dead. I’m not lonely. I confer with them through the long winter nights. Yes, I must be over 75. but we count our ages by each one’s vigour and alert mind. Quite so (still answering my unspoken question) I was a victim to your cursed rum; but my wife’s last words gave me the power to resist. I do not even drink wine in the church now."