THE OLD NEW ZEALAND MAORI.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2462, 21 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE OLD NEW ZEALAND MAORI.

[IIY MA.mu WII.SON-I

MIT HIT. , Wk now fomo to tlm custom of law, | Muru which is i.iic of the moat vexatious to which a European Ciui be subjected, ■ tbonirb fortumitcly for bim, its riirora nre iniich relaxed in it's application as to an ignorant stranger." 'I'lionative, can well ijli.w himself "tii ho robbed, us ho bus only to bidt; his time, and the opportunity occurs for l.im to balance accounts. A man, woman, or family miiy he limrucd for anything <t nothing. Let a man stumbli' suid accidentally ph<-e bis hand ever so lightly on tho head of a chief, tliat mo 4 siii'.rcfl part, of the human framf, mid iiiimcdiiit- l.y a tana mum or plumb-ring puny is organised, and the culprit has to maUo a pretentious defence with spear in bund. The result being nearly always, that the defendant is vauqi'iishel. Allows himself to bo so, for it would be a disgrace to him not, to be plundered, he knows, too, tha f , his own opportunity is coming, and he is satisfied. The greatest excitement in these ways is ou the occasion of the elopement of a damsel with one the young men a cape constantly happening, as when the brothers and other relations are asked to give her awny, ns they often refuse, an elopement is sure to result and then a family tana in urn ensues, and the Lothario has to defend himself with bis spear. We knew one very old pair, Parakaia and Hera (they were baptlized Parakaia and Sarah) of Mauugatautari who in their youth commenced life together by eloping down the Waikato river in a canoe, they were followed and finally caught up a tree a dog having carefully "pointed" them. On returning to the settlement the young man defended himself so manfully, and gave such well directed and serious thrusts, maiiniug two of his opponents, that, they were fain to welcome him brother-in-law. The results of the operation of the law of mum are more often ludicrous than tragical. The famous chief Te Ngakau, secretary to the King—was in our house at Cambridge. Ho made quito free of the house, as was his wont anywhere; for •was he not a groat rangatira ?— Walking into the kitchen, he espied an egg, -which, as he was going to appropriate, the servant seized. This was an affront not to bo tolerated, so he uaid I will rnaru your hen bousQ and cook the eggs in your own saucepan—and away he marched, returning with three eggs, which ho boiled for about ten minutes, not being cook enough to know they only required three minutes. One of the eggs was a fine largo one which he paid he would reserve to the last as a bon-bouche. When he had finished two he commenced at the third, but could not break it. Turning it over several tiroes he exclaimed. " Ha ! he aha tenei ? awe ! kua makuturia ! Ha what ie this ?0 ' dear ! it is bewitched, and throwing it from him, stalked from the place. No wonder the egg to his untutoured mind, seemed of a hardness uncanny. It was a neat egg of porcolain. Another example equally ludicrous ■we take from Manning's book : —I have, ho says, been often myself paid the compliment of being robbed for little accidents occurring in ray family, and have several times also, from a feeling of politeness, robbed my maori friends, though I can't say I was a great gainer by these transactions. I think the greatest haul I ever made was about half a bag of shot, which I thought a famous joke, seeing thatl had sold it tho day before to the owner for full value. A month after this, I was disturbed early in the morning by a voice shouting, get up !—get up—l will kill you this day, you have roasted by grandfather.—Get up, stand up ! I, of course, understood that I had committed some heinous, though involuntary offence, and the " stand up " hinted the immediate probable consequences; so out I turned, spear in hand, and who should I see armed with a bayonet on tho end of a long pole, but my friend, tho erstwhile owner of the bag of shot. He carao at mo with pretended fury—made _ some smart lunger and thrust.", which I parried, and 'ben explained to rao that I had "cooked his grandfather," and that if I did not come down handsome in the way of damages, deeply as he might regret the necessity, his own credit and the law of muru compelled him either to sack my house, or die iu tho attempt I was glad enongb to prevent either event by j paying him two wholo bags of shot, two blankets, divers rish books, and certain figs of tobacco which he demanded. I foiiud that I had really and truly committed the mo-t horrid crime. I had on a journey made a fire at the foot of a tree, in tho top of which the bonus of my friend's grandfather had once been deposited ; but from which they had been removed ten years before : tho tree caught fire and had burned down; and I, therefore, by a convenient sort of figure of speech, had roasted his grandfather." On tho conclusion of many of these combats, the vanquished has to run the gauutlet of a sarcastic badinage; which to him is terribly gallins;; for tho Maori cannot stand being laughol at. To mahi taunu —taunting—is to him, gall and wormwood. Call a Miiiri any thin.? on earth ; liar, thief, rogue, even murderer, but not fool. D> not laugh at him. We have known of cases of suicide from simply being laughed at. One poor young woimii, whose sensibilities were hurtm this way, threw herself off a cliff at Tauranga haihour. Mr John White, in his book Te Ron, relates a case of severe bantering an unsuccessful combatant had to undergo. A youiis chief named Heta had taiu-n to wife a damsel named Araiuia, and her relations, as in duty lumii'l, assembled from all irinters to muru them, while the prinuipil party agrieved, who, too, h.-id been refused by the young worn in must have a tilt with the spe i .

'I he driiiind feared it might bo to the death, though such a termination was neither u.-sual nor according to custom. Heta said to Ara, his spouse, I shall have to face one of them, but do not fear, I shall not be killed." Ara answered, "If they kill you I will die with you. You know the custom, and if some of my relatives meet you they will kill you. Hani will do his utmost to spear you. His is a double re venire. I refused him and you obtained me." Hani was heard to say, " What a great chief must that boy have thought himself. Come, my child, and let me kill you, for my heart will not sleep until I have revenge."

Heta called out, "My spear is in my hand ; I am not a dog to bark and run away." The end of this combat was that the agressor Hani was speared through the arm, when his opponent said, " You can now sit down and pull it out." Hani turned round and walked towards his party, when he said to them, " He is brave and can keep her." Ara now rose and said, "My bird can not not only sing to me, but can cause you to sing and make any faces for the amusement of chili'-en."

One young woman said aloud, " Who can love a man who has two mouths in his arm ?"

Another one answered, "If anyone would listen to him now he could make love to her with threefold power."

"No," answered another, "He has hut one month and that is dumb. But he 11£vm four eves, lie can see a little out

,f two. The otlier two have no pupils, ami are quite blind. ITi; li.ia gone in the diiyk to have a chut with the god of revenge, Hone—the eaves dropper. TAI'L - . Let hi nrxt advert to Hie custom of the tiij.ii, which is ii peculiarly Polynesian institution, t-iii-iiifyiiitr stu-ivl or liiieniiiiiioii, to the paiticular phnise thereof, it ii synonymous with tho word taboo, which, like many otlier words, notalily out , of rocrnfc oriitin, boycott, has liwu inrarponitud iuln our liuiuinge, and which convoy in one shoit w.nl ■< who!- iKiri-rapl, -,> m _. ■iniriir.

T...,v •tx-.'Uiui jjei'.-unajfo. The '"cry embodiment of all that is malicious and unholy. A Thau-

maturge regarded with more fear than iuiv living or than most deceased. Ho mil'ht, well be classed with a ghoul, tho old, old and terrible witch of Ryder {a■ "-jr ii" King Solomon's Mines'' a lag"of t.be most diabolical description. " Than whom a liend mnw fell i" lowhere to be found.' Uunlikc, however, [.ho master of the Castle of Indolence in Thompson-the Tob.in.ua was anything hut a " most enchanting wizard, for boll, his appearance and character indicates the tieudi-h ciiuiinu: hidden beneath his calm exterior. He was so wary, too, in hi, prognostication,. Hh astuteness wilH so a-toanding that ever, white people were his dupes When an apparent corroboration of all atlgni) occurred " There must be something in it, von know," they would say, with a P.IZ/.M yet, credulous expression. Lho ausfurifS of the Delpluc Grace were not one whit more Mirprising. W hat wondei then that, ignorant, if not simple savages should believe and tremble? Let us observe the Tohunga s ciution in answer to enquiries. Wo quote from \lanuing one of tho two predictions which came under his own observation. Tl.ia instance (he writes) which I witnessed myself was as follows: A captain of a large ship had run away with a Maori girl, or a Maori girl had run away with a ship captain. i should not like to swear, v\ ic i is the proper form of expression and the relations, as happens m mojt countries, thought it incumbent oil them to get into a great taking, and make much noise about tho matter. Off they set to the Tohunsra. I happened to be at his place at the time, and saw and heard all 1 am about to recount. Tho relations did not merelv confine themselves to asking questions,Jthev demanded active asistance. The ship had gone to sea loaded for a lon- voyage. The fugitives had fairly escaped, and what the relations wanted was that the Atua or familiar spirit of the Tohunga should bring the ship back into port, so th it they ini-ht have an opportunity to recover tho lost ornament of the family. I heard the whole. >0 priest hummed and hawed. "He did not, know,' could not say, we should hear what tho boy would say. Ho would do as he liked, could not compel him, and so forth. . , At night all were assembled in the house where the priest usually performed. All was expectation. I saw I was do trop in the opinion of our soothsayer; in fact I had got the name of an inhdel (which I have since taken care to get rid of) and the spirit was unwilling to enter the company of unbelievers. Mr friend and priest hinted to me politely that a nice bed had been made for me in the next house. I thanked him in the _ most approved Maori fashion, but said I was very comfortable where I was, and suiting the action to the word, rolled my cloak about me, and lay down on the rushes with which the floor was coveted. About midnight I heard the spirit salute the guests and they saluting him, and also noticed they hailed him as " relation," and then gravely preferred their request. The response, after a short time, came in the hollow, mysterious, whistling voice. The ships nose I will batter out on the great sea. The rest of the night was spent in conjectuung what could be the meaning of tho words. As for the priest, he said lie could not understand it, that the spirit was a great rogue—a koroke hangareka —but talked generally in the wo-ahall-sce-style. _ Now "hero comes the end of the afrair : About ten days after this in eomes the ship. She bad been battered with a vengence. Sho had been met by a terrible gale, when a couple of miles away from shore awd had a l p, 'K in the bow. The bow in Maori is called the noso — ok/i. The vessel had been in great danger, and had been forced to run for the nearest port—the one she had left. Now after such a coincidence as this I can hardly blame the ignorant natives for beliovinsf in the oracle, for I actually caught myself quoting "Can the devil Bpeak the truth." The other instance Manning gives is oven more coiroborative of oracular astuteness than the ono we have taken, but being less interesting we chose that quoted. . To revert to the Tohunga and their power we must again refer to Old New Zealand. We quote a case of evoking the spirit of the dead. The days of the witch of liudor seem to return. Fortunately it i» not civilization but more than barbarism that conjures. " These priests or Tohunga," Manning writes, " would, and do to this hour, undertake to call up the apirit of any dead person, if paid for the same.

(Concluded.)