A "TANGI" IN NEW ZEALAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 391, 24 December 1866, Page 2 (Supplement)

A "TANGI" IN NEW ZEALAND.

Ladies, when making a great merit of offering their tears as a precious gift to man, accompanied or not by other indications of sympathy and emotion as the case may* be, forget to draw attention to the luxury which is to be found in a "good cry," and the readiness with which the charming sex has invariably indulged in its favorite enjoyment in every age, and in all parts of the world. As it was in the days of the Old Testament writers, and of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who all make mention not only of emotion publicly ' expressed, but of professional " howlers," ready to provide tears, signs, groans, and shrieks, wholesale, retail, and for exportation ; so, happily for all of us— (for a woman without sympathy is a garden without flowers) — it is in many parts of the world to this very day. We need not stir out of the enlightened kingdom of Great Britain for instances of professional cryings by the side of tears of a warmer nature ,' and if we take the trouble to survey mankitid " from China to Peru," or from the Lond&i Docks to our antipodes, which will perhaps answer our purpose as well, we shi?H na d that woman relishes her " gooa C1 T # as keenly, and cultivates it just as av Ssl ~ duously in a settlement of savages, wheJ 1 squatting, wrapped in a dirty blanket, over the smoke of a wood fire kindled in a hole in the ground, as in a delicious j boudoir in London or Paris, with eau de cologne and sal volatile ad libitum. When, therefore, one sweet summer's afternoon I rode into a peaceful little village in New Zealand, and found all the female inhabitants engaged in a " Tangi," or weeping concert, preparatory to a grand banquet or ceremony, I need have discovered nothing singular therein, though it seemed at once to carry the spirit back for nearly four thousand years, to the days of the patriarchs, when Jacob " kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept," as he rolled away the stone from the well's mouth to water her flock. The scenery around, and the air, like a bath of liquid gold, with the murmur of the adjacent forest, all fostered a feeling that Time had stood still, aud that we were all patriarchs together, performing an every day observance. A chief, a fine-looking fellow with aquiline features, and the appearance of a ruler of men, who was a personage of rank amongst the northern tribes, haviug just returned from a long absence, was being welcomed on his arrival with the customary "Taugi," indicative of affectionate joy, performed by the ladies of his settlement, while the gentlemen expressed their sentiments by rubbing their noses against his. The ceremony may be described as follows : — Upon the death of a relative or friend, or his serious illness or misfortune, or upon any occasion of rejoicing similar to the one in question, the old women of a tribe assemble for an affectionate "Tangi," or cry together. What a cup of tea is to some ladies, or what a friendly glass of gin is to others in different circumstances^ or what a " good cry" is to all the sex, is the "Tangi" to elderly Maoris of the feminine gender, something to the spirits, a cure for spasms or clearer of the air. One may see on entering a settlement a number of women sitting on the ground in a circle, some with their faces wrapped in a blanket with which they are draped shawl fashion, some carefully exhibiting with ostentatious vanity great circular head-dresses of turkey's feathers or dogs' hair. They appear* to be bowing their brows together at intervals, at the same time raising their hands and dropping them on their laps with gestures of hopelessness, great grief, or weariness. On a nearer approach they are heard to be keeping up a wailing chant of a dreary repetition of three notes in a minor key, sung in chorus. Every now and then, at a particularly affecting part of the impromptu recitation, they will bring all their faces together, and pressing nose to nose, maintain that attitude for nearly ten minutes, while they continue the wailing murmur. One old woman may generally be perceived taking the lead, who is evidently the most experienced <k blubberer," knowing exactly where to bring in the nose business with the greatest effect, and able to k^ep it up longer than anyone else ; she will be making the most tremendous and fearful contortions of the face that can be imagined, as an accompaniment to the act of weeping, if that be not a word suggesting too deep a feeling to be used here. With her head raised, her mouth drawn from ear to ear, and her eyes squeezed up and swollen with tears, she lets out a howl that would discomfort a dog at the full of the moon, only stopping ttin-pointo — in- point of fact "se moucher," in the primitive manner of patriarchial times — wipe hexeyes with her blanket, and expectorate freely and noisly previous to beginning over again with renewed vigor, the whole party seeming to think it a point of honor to produce the most disgusting amount of grimacing ever witnessed out of a nightmare. At another moment one woman perhaps may be siting with her head bent forward and inclined to one side, her eyer. cast down, and her hands clasped over her knees, silently sighing, the very picture of quiet, absorbed, heart-broken misery; while next to her an old lady will be nodding, winking, aud exchanging facetious remarks with a friend for a minute's interval, after, which she will take up her crying with tenfold violence.

The " Tangi" never interferes with business ; any of the party will at any time leave off the work to sell a basket of peaches, or take a turn at peeling and boiling the potatos for her lord's dinner, afterwards rejoin her circle of

friends, and will screw up her features into their former grimace, and continue her performances precisely where she left off. Real grief or feeling of course should he respected and sympathised with, but the "Tangi" is no more real than the polite condolence of the world of London. It is only a ceremony, a required indulgence ia the luxury of sham ; and it can no more he relied upon as an evidence of the warm or affectionate nature of the Maoris than the fir&t funeral met with in London can be accepted as a proof of the ardent tenderness of English undertakers. In fact, a Maori would no more hesitate to knock out the brains of the man with whom he had previously rubbed noses and wept in a " Tangi" than in former times lie would liave felt compunction about serving up a fricassee of his grandmother as a choice dinner for a favored guest. And so, on the present occasion dinner and business being pressing, the i " Tangi'' was not allowed to occupy too I much time. Enough having been done to satisfy the most accomplished and punctilious of formalists, the ostensible cause of the meeting was introduced, the head-dresses laid aside, the countenances of the ladies smoothed and composed into their customary beauty, and decorated each with a short pipe, the sorrow of all the world was assuaged and the tears dried, till they should.be a «,"ain ordered and paid for. — J. J. P., i° -" Once a Week."