MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1940, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

COOK’S GIFTS. (Recorded by J.H.S. for the "Times-Age.’’/ When asked what he considered as the greatest benefaction and the worst curse ever bestowed upon the land of his fathers, an old Maori said: “Pigs, potatoes, corn and pumpkins, brought by Captain Cook and made tapu (forbidden) for five years until there were enough for all. were Cook’s blessings for us. Drink and the money to buy it. secretly introduced by greedy traders, ruined our people.” Another of the Captain’s thoughtful acts during his five visits prior to 1777. was to bring domesticated poultry, not forgetting the roosters, which were named "likoko,” iri an attempt to imitate their tangi o to ra (call to the sun). The cackle of the laying hen. which appears to us like an attempt to direct attention away from the nest, the Maori called “whakahihi” (boasting). The wisdom of the priests was also directed to making these birds and their eggs the subject of tapu for several years, resulting in abnormal increase and complete domestication of the birds. Then the Maori dogs and the imported pigs made havoc among the eggs and the fowls, until it dawned upon the Maori people that a tapu which could not control a pouaka (porker) must not be forbidden to men and women who even ate the animals which had contained the tapu eggs. So the eggs became noa (common), and were freely used as ammunition in sham fights among all naked boys and 'girls. 1